Wellerman Tutorial

The minute I saw the clip of Nathan Evans doing 'Wellerman,'  I knew I needed it. With the rhythm beat out on the back of his guitar and simple tune, i felt it would be perfect for beginner uke players.

So my idea was, get the kids to do the beat on percussion instrument of choice. For strummers, it's hard to do the minor chords for beginners on uke. But they can do the chorus.  It will sound fine using C, G and F major in the chorus if guitar supports with minor chords. So strummers would wait for the chorus and then come in.

 

The Wellerman is a long folksong/working song with many verses. So i picked 4 verses. The pattern in the audio files is 2 X verses, 1 x chorus, 2X verses, 2x chorus.

 

It's done here to guitar chords. Use any stringed, lute family instrument, with its own fingering for  corresponding chord name.

 

Also i didnt select these chords so that they would jive with  Nathan on Tiktok. I workd backwards from simple uke chords at chorus for beginners, and kept is simple, no capos or complicated chords in verses.

Here are links to audio files (remember to turn volume down on online player before hitting play)-

Wellerman picking only (play along with this if you are chording):

 

My picking is a bit choppy. But pretend you are accompanying someone who's had 1 too many in a pub. I also found doing single strums helped with being able to hear and wait for the picking line.

 

Wellerman pick & strum (to hear what they sound like together)

 

Here's a lyric sheet with notes on chording:

 

 

 

 

Here are the notes for the tune jotted down pretty roughly. It's a working song, so improvising goes with the territory.

With these pics, if they aren't readable, take a screen cap and enlarge it in Preview or your own photo viewer program.

I have a couple of devices to make chord playing easier for new players until they get up to speed. Or for folks with arthritis, muscular challenge, who just want to be able to play along. Pics below.

1. Chord Buddy (only give 3 chords)

 

 

2. Chord changer. From Troubador Music.  Gives option for more chords.

 

 

So there you go. A song anyone can learn this summer.