Somewhere Over the Rainbow

When someone asks what instrument I am carrying and I tell them that it is a ukulele, they immediately smile and say, “Ah, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, right?” The history of the song goes back to 1939, when the world first heard this lovely piece as a song in the classic film The Wizard of Oz under the title “Over the Rainbow”. You might say that its second golden age came thanks to the famous ukulele arrangement associated with Israel Kamakawiwo'ole—may he rest in peace. Fewer people know his name, but his extraordinary physique made a strong impression, so people often refer to him by his nickname “IZ”. At 188 cm tall he weighed 343 kg, which eventually contributed to respiratory failure and his death at the young age of 38. I am certain he could otherwise have brought joy with much more music not only to the ukulele community but to the whole world. Try it yourself: search Google for “over the rainbow” and the IZ videos and images will appear among the first results. That is hardly surprising, since at the time of writing this post the official video has reached 1.5 billion views.

You can see the song's chords by clicking here . It is actually not terribly difficult: alongside C, G and F we add Em and Fm, and that is essentially it .

Next I would like to show you both the chord accompaniment for the verse and my fingerstyle version, so I hope beginners and advanced players alike will find useful information and tips for arranging Somewhere Over the Rainbow. Enjoy the fairly long tutorial video—it ended up a little over 21 minutes—and at the very bottom there is a separate video containing only the fingerstyle arrangement. And I also wish all the women who read the blog a very, very happy International Women's Day .