Thursday 17th August 2023 is National Massachusetts Day. As we are part of the Ukulele Union of Boston, let’s celebrate songs about our state in 3 Chord Thursday. There are songs about Boston, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, New England … see this blog post. Wear something that has “Boston,” “Harvard,” or anything else that’s in Massachusetts on it.
Warm-up & Lesson: how to memorize the chords in Charlie on the MTA, which we will take turns to sing at the end of the line up today. We’ll explore different keys to choose the best one for your voice, and sign up in the Zoom Chat to get into the tag line-up.
If you have ever visited Massachusetts, you would have heard the famous Boston accent, gone to a sports game, swam in Thoreau’s Walden Pond, and crossed Charles River that divides Boston and Cambridge and visited Harvard University. If you’re lucky, you might have gone to a concert at Tanglewood. The three letter code for Boston Logan Airport is BOS.
The Line Up
- Me and Paul Revere (by Steve Martin) in G [3] – Paul (GA) (play along video)
- Massachusetts written by Arlo Guthrie (1976) in G [5+] – Janice (MA) (1 page PDF)
- Old Cape Cod in A [11] – Ali (CA) (1-page PDF)
- Charlie on the MTA [3] – for tagging at end of the session (blog post) (3-page in G)(1-page in C)
- Aloha ‘Oe to the play along video below to pay our respects to Maui
Song Suggestions (& requested in bold)
- Charlie on the MTA – Kingston Trio – Click on the Image below to open a close-up of the lyrics to this 3-chord song. We will be “tagging” this song (each volunteer does a verse).
- Dogtown – Harry Chapin
- I’m Shipping Up to Boston – Dropkick Murphys
- Massachusetts – Bee Gees
- Old Cape Cod – Patti Page
- Please Come to Boston
- Sweet Caroline – Neil Diamond (2-page PDF)
There are many three chord songs but 3 Chord Thursday is not limited to 3 chords!! We always start with a warm up at 3 pm EDT followed by two poses for a group photo with our sunglasses and ukuleles. Then we announce our line-up. If there’s no request beforehand, we take impromptu requests and line them up. We aim to end an hour later at 4 pm EDT.
Don’t forget your sunglasses!
- Register in Zoom for the Zoom link.
- Request a song to perform in advance to get in the line-up.
- Sign up for the FREE Ukulele Enthusiast e-Blast
