h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hello,
just wondering if anyone knew the chords or knew where I could get accurate ukulele chords for the song Good Company by Queen. I've searched and searched the net but can't find anything. Tried to work it out myself with rubbish results! I'm a guitar player so I'm not used to the GCEA tuning.
Help!
thanks
Kaz.

If you know the names of the chords for the guitar (or agree with any of the many online tablature versions) then I expect I'd be able to translate that to the ukulele. I don't know the particular song but I do know transcribing and arranging.

Alternatively, get hold of the DVD of 'The Making of "Night at the Opera"', in which Brian May demonstrates the ukulele part!

I know! I saw it when it was on telly and totally forgot to video it!

I found a guitar version of the song here:
http://www.azchords.com/q/queen-tabs-3164/goodcompany-tabs-155944.html

but no idea how to transpose it for the uke cos I don't know where to find chord roots-4th or 3rd string?

Can you not afford that DVD plan then? On the face of it, that seems to be absolutely the best option rather than having a transcription to guitar and back again (rather like that Two Ronnies sketch of the multi-translated Bye Bye Blackbird song!).

Anyhow, chords aren't necessarily going to have the root note at the bottom. 1st inversions and even 2nd inversions are quite common, quite apart from other exceptional cases. That's the sort of thing which is best known through familiarity with the actual piece but might be guessable through context. Meanwhile, is there a reason to stick to the same pitch, eg are you singing and playing along to an existing recording, or would you normally go for the easiest related set of chords?

... and answer came there none.

OK Going with your GCEA tuning, which I'm going to assume is traditionally "re-entrant" (in having the G pitched an octave higher than expected for other instruments such that it slots between the E and the A), you have a basic C6 chord in root position, ignoring strumming considerations, which you can simplistically fret upwards to anything else within reason or modify in other ways. Whereas, the guitar's top 4 strings would typically be a non-re-entrant G6 chord.

For that starting/intro B-chord (as specified by the site) to be accurate on the guitar, you would either have to be bar-fretting on the ukulele at 11 (ie one note below a whole octave up (and non-re-entrant too) and then add a finger on the penultimate string (E) at 14 to get a repeat F#, or instead only have a partial bar at 11 and have the top string fingered at 9 (2 lower). A more likely ukulele B-chord would be bar-fretted at ll with just the top string (A) fingered at 14 for a top B.

There are other ways of merely achieving a B-chord though. And only someone listening to the music could know whether the chord actually rises throughout (as per the guitar version) or contains an initial drop (as per typical ukulele). That's something I can't determine from here.

... once more into the silence:

Taking the strings of the ukulele in the strumming order GCEA, these are the simplest fret positions for the chords listed for the piece
( http://digilander.libero.it/francesqueen/SPARTITI/Good%20Company2%20%20C.html )

A# (A# Cx E#) = 3 2 1 1 (1st) + 7 5 6 5 (2nd) + 10 10 10 13 (root)
B (B D# F#) = 4 3 2 2 (1st) + 8 6 7 6 (2nd) + 11 11 11 14 (root)
Bm (B D F#) = 4 2 2 2 (1st) {+ 7 6 7 9 (2nd)} + (11) 11 10 9 (root)
C# (C# E# G#) = 1 1 1 4 (root) + 6 5 4 4 (1st) + 10 8 9 8 (2nd)
C#7 (""" + B) = 1 1 1 2 (root) + 4 5 4 4 (1st) {+ 10 11 9 11}
D7 (D F# A C) = 2 2 2 3 (root) + 5 6 5 5 (1st)
D#7 (D# Fx A# C#) = { 0 1 3 1 } + 3 3 3 4 (root) + 6 7 6 6 (1st)
D#7(VIII) " = 3 3 3 4
F# (F# A# C#) = 3 1 2 1 (2nd) + 6 6 6 9 (root) + 11 10 9 9 (1st)
F#7 (""" + E) = { 3 4 2 4 } + 6 6 6 7 (root) + 9 10 9 9 (1st)
F#dim (F# A C D#) = 2 3 2 3 + 5 6 5 6 + 8 9 8 9 + 11 12 11 12
G#m (G# B D#) = {(1) 3 4 2 (2nd)} + (8) 8 7 6 (root) + 13 11 11 11 (1st)

Hello Sef. There's no need to be rude! I have been a bit busy with other things.
Would appreiciate it if you'd slow down a bit though! written music and the technical bits of stuff that go with it aren't really my forte it has to be said. I'll have a look at the stuff you've posted and see how it sounds. I'm sure its fine though. You sound like you know what you're doing, which is more than can be said for me!

oddly I looked at that digilander site and couldn't find uke tabs on it for Good company:you must be lucky!

I wasn't being rude. I was wondering how far to continue in the absence of feedback though, ie precisely because I might be going down a route which was surplus to requirements or incomprehensible to you. But I thought I'd better post what I had so far anyway before I forgot about it!

Oh. I see. Sorry. I'll give the chord shapes a go and see what happens. Thanks for your help.