home: Jazz Chords for Baritone Ukulele
Led Zeppelin just won its defense against the copyright infringement law suit filed by the heirs of Spirit’s guitarist and songwriter Randy California. The claim was that Stairway to Heaven copied its main riff from Spirit’s song, Taurus.
The chord changes and sequences are all on the four treble strings of the guitar and therefore perfect for playing and understanding on the Baritone Ukulele.
Both riffs are based on Am with a descending bass line on the D string. The chord changes are similar to those illustrated in the Jazz Chords for Baritone Ukulele chapter on 7th chords. Seventh Chords.
In that book it’s shown how single fret changes down from a root create a sequence of differing sevenths chords.
Both Stairway to Heaven and Taurus do exactly that using the D string of an Am chord played at the fifth fret.
Taurus
Here are the first four chords for Taurus. Play them. Sound familiar?
Taurus then takes those chords one more fret down to:
And finishes with some single notes in D and Am. It’s nice.
Stairway to Heaven
Stairway to Heaven does indeed use those opening chords, and bass line, but it has a rising melody line on top of the chords so they play like this:
Play them and notice the difference.
Then the descending bass continues but into a D and FMaj7, resolving into G and Am (using the middle strings).
It’s better than nice. 🙂
Other Resources
Here’s a brief comparison and the tablature for playing the first four bars of each. Taurus vs. Stairway to Heaven.
And here is the full tab for playing Stairway to Heaven on a baritone ukulele. Stairway to Heaven.
