With this week’s easy “Singin’ in the Rain” ukulele tutorial, let’s learn an iconic song that’s also the title of a popular 1952 film. As with previous video tutorials, it includes ukulele chords and lyrics. Additionally, Jenny does a more extensive melody tab tutorial on this video. For beginners, learning to play a song on the ukulele is best when there are lesser number of chords. “Singin’ in the Rain” ukulele tutorial requires only four chords.

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Singin’ in the Rain Ukulele Tutorial

The four chords we need for “Singin’ in the Rain” ukulele tutorial are: C, Am, C#dim, G7. Despite the long and seemingly difficult name of the third chord (C#dim), it’s just an open two-finger chord.

We’ll follow a D-DU-D-DU (D-down, U-up) strumming pattern. Jenny also adds some chunking that you might want to try to spice up the strumming. Check the video to see how Jenny does the chunking using the heel of her hand.  Also, Jenny plays a melody tab on the middle of the song during the instrumental part. Plus, she gives some expanded lesson on how to play the tab at the end of video so be sure to watch until the end to check that out.

​Singin’ in the Rain – Song History

Although “Singin’ in the Rain” is mostly associated with the 1952 film of the same title, the song was actually published more than two decades earlier. American lyricist and producer Arthur Freed, inspired by a man dancing while drenched in a downpour of rain, wrote the song in the 1920’s. In 1929, Freed included the song as part of a musical film called “The Hollywood Revue of 1929”. Ignacio Herb Brown collaborated with Freed and composed the music for the song. Cliff Edwards, a popular musician and actor in the 1920’s who is also known as Ukulele Ike, performed “Singin’ in the Rain” for this musical. Other notable artists also performed the song in the 1930’s and 1940’s such as Annette Hanshaw, Jimmy Durante and Judy Garland.

The popularity of the song “Singin’ in the Rain” reached new heights the following decade. In the 1950’s, Freed, who by then was a producer at MGM, wanted to create a musical featuring his songs, in particular “Singin’ in the Rain.” The end result is the movie named after the song which starred Gene Kelly. In probably the most memorable scene of the film, Kelly happily sings and dances to the tune of “Singin’ in the Rain” while literally drenched from the pouring rain. The unfortunate Kelly was sick and running a fever while filming the scene. And the rest they say is history. The American Film Institute voted “Singin’ in the Rain” number 3 in their “100 Years… 100 Songs” list. The list ranked the top 100 songs in American cinema of the 20^th century.

Our new video “It’s a Small World” ukulele tutorial is truly a great song for ukulele beginners.

First of all, it’s easy to learn. You’ll need only four simple chords and all-down strums. Jenny does show another strumming pattern and a more difficult fingerpicking option if you’re up for the challenge. Otherwise, play with all-down strums and it’s still going to be great.

Secondly, “It’s a Small World” is a very popular tune just about everywhere. It’s the theme song for a Disneyland ride attraction of the same name. The dark attraction features hundreds of doll characters wearing costumes from different countries. And these characters are all singing along to “It’s a Small World”.  With five Disney parks showcasing the attraction in three continents, it’s no wonder the song has been played more than 50 million times.

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IT’S A SMALL WORLD UKULELE TUTORIAL – CHORDS AND STRUMMING PATTERN

As previously noted, you’ll need only four chords for “It’s a Small World” ukulele tutorial. The ukulele chords are C, G7, F and Dm.

Jenny uses a D-DU-D-DU (D-down, U-up) strumming pattern for the verses.

For the chorus, Jenny does fingerpicking using the thumb, index and middle finger.

If you’re just beginning to learn the song, you can use all down strums throughout. Once you’ve got the hang of that, try the other strum pattern or fingerpicking.

So here’s the “It’s a Small World” ukulele tutorial before we proceed to some song history below.

IT’S A SMALL WORLD – SONG HISTORY

The idea of Disney’s “It’s a Small World” attraction began in 1960. Robert Moses, a New York City public official known as the “master builder,” requested Walt Disney to contribute to the 1964 New York World Fair. One of Disney’s contributions, in partnership with Pepsi Cola, was an attraction for the UNICEF pavilion. Disney initially called the attraction “Children of the World”. He planned to have the doll characters sing the different national anthems around the world. However, this caused some clashing sounds so he decided to use only one song instead. He asked the Sherman Brothers to compose a new song that conveyed the theme of the attraction. He also wanted the song to appeal to different countries and “be able to be translated into many languages.”

Robert and Richard Sherman went to work and came up with the song “It’s a Small World”. Disney liked the song. However, he did ask the brothers to change the original ballad version to a more up-tempo one.

The song’s message of peace and tolerance fit so well with the attraction’s theme that  Disney renamed the attraction to “It’s a Small World!”