Round 2 at the urban dictionary

So earlier this year, I lost my chance to take credit for introducing a word or phrase into the American lexicon. I don't begrudge (American Hero) Ken Tremendous over at FJM, since he was after all the man who popularized the phrase, but did the guy who wrote this urban dictionary entry really need to throw in that Ken Tremendous noticed it first? It was ME, DAMMITIT IT WASM EMEE!!!!! (under the pseudonym "Lazarus")

Anyhoo, now that I've pathetically taken credit for something nobody cares about and moved on, I am going to push for my own, uncontested new word in the urban dictionary. As I hinted a few posts ago, I bring to this world:

"chorder", meaning "chord order". Please click and rate that word UP! (or down, whatever)

Will it spread across the "blogosphere" as fast and furiously as it would if Ken Tremendous had introduced it to his millions of loyal, borderline obsessive readers (like myself)? I, for one, am going to guess "yes". But only time will tell.

How to play More Than This by the 10000 Maniacs

Who in the fuck doesn't love the 10,000 Maniacs? (sorry for the swearing, I can't stop quoting that guy from off-camera on Trailer Park Boys)

Until I learn how to play "What's the Matter Here?" or "Like the Weather", I have to represent them here somehow. So my first entry for them is More Than This, which isn't actually their song originally but they do the version I know best.

The lyrics and chords page I used can be found here.

Here's my tutorial on the basic way to play it on the uke:



0:00 - Boring, Long-winded Intro
0:38 - Tuning
1:07 - Chords
2:09 - Chord Order (The "Chorder", if you will. Currently under review at urbandictionary.com)
2:48 - Strumming pattern (not quite right) and chord timing review
4:48 - Demonstration of first verse (voice added for timing purposes ONLY!)

I am not pleased with my strumming pattern for this song yet, so I am actually a bit disappointed that it's going to be my entry into the Play It Forward Ukulele contest from Julie over at Ukulelereview.com. Oh well, maybe if I do another tutorial before that 4/1 deadline (10 days?) I'll have a better chance to win that sweet FLEA ukulele.

Anyway the song at hand has five chords: C#, C#7, F#, G#m, and B. Most of the lyrics are sung over the looping 4 of
F#
B
G#m
C#

By tuning the ukulele up one note on each string (or putting a capo on the first fret), you can play those chords in the more standard C, C7, F, Gm, and A# positions.

The strumming pattern I came up with is similar (EXACTLY similar) to the one I did for the Arcade Fire song last month, which is that each loop consists of 8 beats (where each beat is a strum up or down):
1) down
2) miss
3) down
4) up
5) miss
6) up
7) down
8) up
(switch chords and repeat)

I might just have that rhythm stuck in my head, which is why I'm not happy with this video overall. If anyone has a better suggestion of how to strum this song, I'd love to hear it (and I don't mean that sarcastically... I'd really love to hear it).