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Tune-Yards – FIYA

November 7, 2013, 10:00 am
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Tune-Yards – FIYA (Tab)

I started a new hobby blog today about African guitar music. There’s not a whole lot of crossover between ukuleles and African music but the one obvious link is Tune-Yards. Merrill Garbus cropped up on a couple of tracks on the recent Red Hot + Fela album including the standout track Lady with ?uestlove, Angelique Kidjo and others.

So today I’ve written up one of her African-influenced tracks FIYA.

The tab shows the riffs used in each section of the song (not the whole tabs).

The Tuning

The tuning on this one is weird. I think it’s baritone tuning (on a tenor ukulele) with a high-d string. But that high-d is tuned half a step to Db. So it’s dbGBE.

Standard Tuning Version

In case you don’t fancy making the effort for that tuning here’s a version in standard tuning that more or less works out:


Tune-Yards – FIYA (Standard Tuning)

Here’s how that intro sounds:


Intro Riff

The bridge:


Bridge Riff

And the chorus:


Chorus Riff

Links

Buy it on iTunes
tune-yards.com
Tune-Yards: Africa in Your Earbuds
Hatari tab
Powa tab

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I Am The Doctor (Doctor Who) (Tab)

November 21, 2013, 10:00 am
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Murray Gold – I Am The Doctor (Tab)

Following on from Charlie McDonnell’s Big Bang 2 with the tune from Doctor Who it was based on: Murray Gold’s I Am The Doctor. The theme for Matt Smith’s Doctor.

I also jammed a reference to the main Doctor Who Theme in at the end.

7/8 Time

The main theme is in rather tricky 7/8 time. When counting it I went with “1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4″. But once I’d got the hang of playing it I dropped the count and just went with the swing of it.

Trickiest Bit

The high, screechy violin bit in bars 5-8. You can simplify this a couple of ways. You can drop the note on the A-string 8th fret at the end of the bar and just stick with the 10th fret. Or you could play a simpler version without the screeches. Either repeat the first four bars or play bars 17-20.

Links

Buy the original on iTunes
More Trock tabs and chords.
More theme tune tabs and chords.

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80′s Medley (Tab)

December 5, 2013, 10:00 am
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80s Medley (Tab)

I was inspired by Action Bronson’s Contemporary Man from his latest mixtape to create a 80s medley of my own. And it’s a good opportunity to show how I intended the riffs posts to be used. And it means there’s plenty of scope to add your favourites to the medley.

The first four songs are the same as Contemporary Man: Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer, Phil Collins’ Sussudio, John Mellencamp’s Jack and Diane, Phil again with Another Day in Paradise. Then a couple of my favourites I’ve done before in the riffs series: Harold Faltermeyer’s Axel F and Jump by Van Halen.

More 80′s tabs and chords here.

Buy the Originals

Sledgehammert
Sussudio
Jack and Diane
Another Day In Paradise
Axel F
Jump

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Wilfried Welti Free eBook: Musikalisches Naschwerk für Solo Ukulele

December 23, 2013, 8:11 am
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Wilfried Welti – Musikalisches Naschwerk für Solo Ukulele (PDF)

Hot off the press! Here’s a new, free tab book from Wilfried Welti (one of my favourite ukulele arrangers).

As the name would suggest, it’s a mixture of delights including folk, traditional and classical tunes. I’ve only just got my hands on it myself but the tunes look like they’ve been very simply and thoughtfully arranged. The full list of tabs is:

1 – An der Saale hellem Strande
2 – Bald gras’ ich am Neckar
3 – Nehmt Abschied, Brüder
4 – Der Frühling hat sich eingestellt
5 – Drunten im Unterland
6 – Bunt sind schon die Wälder
7 – Als wir jüngst in Regensburg waren
8 – Hab mein Wage vollgelade
9 – Santa Lucia
10 – Row, Row, Row Your Boat
11 – Und in dem Schneegebirge
12 – Guter Mond, du gehst so stille
13 – Au clair de la lune
14 – Der Mond ist aufgegangen

Here’s what Wilfried has to say:

I want to thank everybody for their kind feedback. I’m very happy for constructive criticism and suggestions too. While I obviously won’t be able to make my arrangements perfect for everybody, I’m always willing to learn and improve.

And I hope this e-book will be helpful for many ukulele players who are looking for some nice and easy practice pieces.

Humble as always! These tabs are a fantastic Christmas present!

Download it here (PDF Link)

Links

Visit Wilfried’s site
Get his other ebooks
His YouTube channel

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David Beckingham – Cincinnati Flow Rag (Tab)

January 30, 2014, 10:00 am
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Pete Seeger – We Shall Overcome (Instrumental Tab)

February 13, 2014, 10:00 am
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We Shall Overcome (Instrumental Tab)

I couldn’t let Pete Seeger week pass without writing up this song in some form. In the spirit of the song I’ve kept the arrangement super simple. I go through the verse three times. Getting more strident each time.

First Time Through

I’m just playing the melody. Picking it out with my thumb.

Second Time Through

Harmonising the melody. I’m picking this with my thumb on the lower string and index finger on the higher string.

Third Time Through

Playing the melody back with the chords. I’m just using my thumb here. Strumming up to the melody note.

Links

The Pete Seeger version on iTunes
More Pete Seeger songs

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Gustavo Santaolalla – The Last of Us Theme (Tab)

February 27, 2014, 10:00 am
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Gustavo Santaolalla – The Last of Us (Tab)

Gustavo Santaolalla is my absolute favourite film composer. He first came to prominence with the south-of-Texas films Amores Perros and The Motorcycle Diaries. Then went on to win Academy Awards for Brokeback Mountain and Babel.

No doubt part of the reason I love his music is his extensive use of a ronroco (a large version of, the ukulele’s cousin, the charango). It’s that instrument he used for the theme tune to his first game soundtrack The Last of Us. And it’s an incredibly beautiful tune. Here’s a fascinating video of him discussing his work on it with a short clip of him playing it live.

Because the ronroco uses reentrant tuning, the tune transfers nicely to the ukulele.

Performance Notes

All the way through I’m using thumb and two finger picking. The thumb plays the g- and C-strings, the index finger plays the E and the middle finger plays the A.

When you’re playing this try to always emphasises the melody. In the first section (bars 1 to 11) that’s every note on the g-string. So pluck more forcefully with your thumb.

Then it switches to the A-string in bars 12 to 24. So in that section pick more strongly with your middle finger.

The section in bars 27 to 34 is a little different. There isn’t a strong melody here. But do give a little more emphasis to the notes on the A-string on the third and fourth beats of each bar.

Also, try to vary the dynamics as you play. Having louder and softer sections through the piece.

Links

Buy the original on iTunes
TheLastOfUs.playstation.com
More game theme tabs

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Herman Vandecauter – Aire (Tab)

March 13, 2014, 4:41 am
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aire tab ukulele

http://ukulelehunt.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/aire-duval-ukub.mp3
Herman Vandecuater – Aire (MP3)

If you’ve been following along with the UkeTube you’ll be familiar with Herman Vandecauter’s consummate classical ukulele playing. He was kind enough to let me put up one of his handwritten tabs for Francois Duval’s Aire.

The piece is fairly straightforward but if you want to play it as well as Herman does you’ll need to work hard on getting the tone and feel of the piece right.


Herman Vandecauter – Aire (Tab)

Links

Visit Herman’s site UkuleleBelgium.be
Subscribe to Herman on YouTube

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Spinal Tab – Stonehenge (Instrumental Tab)

March 27, 2014, 11:00 am
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Spinal Tap – Stonehenge (Mandolin Solo)(Tab)

I could pretend I wrote this post Spinal Tap 30th Anniversary. But I actually wrote it to brag that I got 10 out of 10 in The Guardian’s Spinal Tap quiz. Bow down before me. I am your new god.

For this arrangement I’ve taken the intro and outro of the song and made a mandolin solo sandwich. Mandolins are built for speed so I had to slow it down a fair amount to play it. And even still I didn’t play it as smoothly as I’d like.

The intro and outro is mostly octaves picked with thumb and middle finger. If your uke only has 12 frets you can just play the lower half of the octaves and it should work out okay.

The picking for mandolin section is a complete mess! Where I can I’m using running man picking (alternately picking the same string with index and middle fingers). But mostly I’m using whatever finger gets there first. Which would explain why I’m not playing it smoothly.

Links

Buy it on iTunes
Sex Farm tab
This is Spinal Tape

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Mr Moustafa from Grand Budapest Hotel (Tab)

April 10, 2014, 10:00 am
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Alexandre Desplat – Mr Moustafa (Tab)

I got a request from Justin saying that Alexandre Desplat’s music from the new Wes Anderson movie Grand Budapest Hotel would be perfect for ukeing. And he was absolutely right. As soon as I heard this tune I knew it would suit a campanella-style ukulele arrangement.

And it turned out to be even easier than I expected. Without even changing the key the whole first section of the verses mostly could be played on the open strings.

Trickiest Bit

As with most campanella arrangements the trickiest bit is memorising the string plucking order. If there’s a quicker way to learn it than playing through slowly over and over again I don’t know what it is.

Flicking the Bean

In the bridge section I’m trying to recreate the mandolin tremolo strumming. Tremolo strumming is a bit more tricky on the uke though. So I used a technique I refer to as “flicking the bean”.

It involves turning your strumming hand palm upwards and wiggling your middle fingers across the strings like this:

Links

Buy it on iTunes
GrandBudapestHotel.com
More movie theme tabs

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David Beckingham – Let Us Get Together

April 24, 2014, 10:00 am
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Pulp – Do You Remember the First Time (Riffs Tab)

May 8, 2014, 10:00 am
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Pulp – Do You Remember the First Time (Tab)

The original version is tuned a bit sharp (my guess is the sped up the recording a touch). So if you’re trying to play along with the original it’s going to sound a bit off. But it should sound right with this live version. Plus Richard Hawley is playing guitar in this version so it’s automatically marvellous.

Here’s how my uked version sounds:

http://ukulelehunt.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/FirstTime.mp3
MP3

Intro/Verse

FirstTime

There are two main riffs. This verse riff is the easiest. All the picking is done with the index finger on the E-string and the thumb on the g-string.

Chorus

FirstTime 2

The chorus riff is much more involved and required a bit of rearrangement to make it fit on the uke. For the picking I use my thumb to pick the string nearest my face in that bar. Then employ my index and middle fingers as they’re needed.

Links

Buy it on iTunes
PulpPeople.com
More Pulp tabs and chords

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Jackson C Frank – Blues Run the Game (Tab)

May 22, 2014, 10:00 am
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Blues Run the Game (Tab)

Blues Run the Game is the up there with World Turned Upside Down as the best modern folk song. Both those songs are widely covered and not best known for the original versions (a defining characteristic of a great folk song).

Blues Run the Game was written by Jackson C Frank but has been more heard in its many cover versions by the likes of Simon & Garfunkel, Nick Drake, John Renbourn, Sandy Denny, Eddi Reader John Mayer and Laura Marling.

But my favourite is Bert Jansch’s version. And that was the strongest influence on my ukulele version of the picking.

The first thing to say about my take is that it uses the capo on the fifth fret. Usually I wouldn’t capo that high up but it was the only way I could get it onto the ukulele and keep it in the same key as Jansch’s version.

The second thing is the alternate picking. The thumb alternates between the g and C strings thumb and two finger style.

Links

Buy the Jackson C Frank version
Buy the Bert Jansch version

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Acoustic Intros (Tab)

June 5, 2014, 10:00 am
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Since the last Acoustic Intros post I’ve been itching to do another one. And I realised that I’ve notched up five requests that (just about – I’m looking at you Bonnie Bear) fit that description.

They vary in difficulty but they all make use of fingerpicking. Usual rules apply: I try to do them in same key as the original but it’s not guaranteed; if you request the rest of the song I will scream the point isn’t to play the whole song but have a bit of fun, inject a bit of familiarity like this or to incorporate into a medley like this.

Nick Drake – Day Is Done

DayIsDoneUke

http://ukulelehunt.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/DayIsDone.mp3
Intro

One of Nick Drake’s best songs (although I would probably say that about 60% of his music). This tab is in the same key as the original but I have had to simplify things a fair amount to get it to work.

The picking is all thumb and two finger style. That does mean playing two notes in a row with the thumb on different strings. I usually try to avoid that but I think it’s the best way to handle it here.

Buy it on iTunes

Elvis – In the Ghetto

InTheGhetto

http://ukulelehunt.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/InTheGhetto.mp3
Intro

Buy it on iTunes

Thumb and two finger picking here as well.

Trickiest bit here is the middle of bar 2 (and the repeats of that move). When you slide from the 5th fret to the 6th have your index finger barred across the E and A strings ready for the rest of the bar.

Bon Iver – Holocene

Holocene

http://ukulelehunt.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/HoloceneIntro.mp3
MP3

This is the only one in this post that isn’t in the original key. To play along with the record slap a capo on the 6th fret.

Buy it on iTunes

Corinne Bailey Rae – Put Your Records On

PutYourRecordsOn

http://ukulelehunt.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/PutYourRecordsOn.mp3
Intro

All chords for this intro. You could use strums for this but it’s more effective with one finger per string picking like the original.

The trickiest bit is bars 2-3 and 5-6. Here’s an easier way of playing it that loses very little in the sound.

For the x’s in the tab I’m bringing my hand down on the strings so they click against the fretboard. Here’s a video of that technique. The first half shows creating the click with just the thumb. Then using the whole hand (trickier but produces a more forceful click).

Buy it on iTunes

Royal Teeth – Hold Me

HoldMe

Hey look, A ukulele riff! Royal Teeth make really effective use of a uke in the riff. Straight forward thumb and two finger picking here too.

Buy it on iTunes

Links

More Acoustic Riffs

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Bonus Tabs and Chords

July 16, 2014, 10:00 am
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It seems I just can’t stop myself tabbing. Despite being on a blog break the last few weeks, I put up a few time-sensitive tabs and chords in other places. Here’s a catch-up on them:

O’Neill – Nun Song (From Orange is the New Black)(Chords)


O’Neill- Nun Song (Chords)

As I mentioned yesterday I loved the second series of Orange is the New Black (even if it was the straw that broke that camel’s back and made me sick of John “sick fuck” Green being everywhere.)

Of course my favourite part was O’Neill’s anti-nun banjolele song. So I had to put up the chords. And, delightfully, I got a shout out from the man himself.

Joel Marsh Garland on Twitter
Orange is the New Black on Netflix

Bottom Theme: The Mar-Keys – Last Night (Tab)


Mar-Keys – Last Night (Tab)

For anyone annoyed by my toilet humour and swearing in blog posts, you can lay the blame squarely at the feet of Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson. I was obsessed with Bottom and The Dangerous Brothers in my younger days. I’ve even snuck in the occasional reference on the blog.

So after the death of Rik Mayall I had to do my own little tribute.

The Mar-Keys version on iTunes
Watch Bottom on Netflix UK

Eux Autres – World Cup Fever (Chords)

Eux Autres – World Cup Fever (Chords)

It might be four years until this song is relevant again but it’s a top notch song all the year round.

Eux Autres – World Cup Fever (Solo Tab)

Buy it on Bandcamp

Brett Domino – Sexy When You Do That (Bassoon Riff)

After all those emails begging me to transpose a riff from bassoon to ukulele I’ve finally caved in.

BrettDomino

Buy it on Bandcamp

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Led Zeppelin – The Rain Song (Tab)

July 17, 2014, 10:00 am
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Led Zeppelin – Rain Song (Tab)

I just love Zeppelin so this song has been on my to-do pile for a long time. It had stayed there because I was a bit intimidated by how much there is going on. But once I got stuck into it the tune transferred to the ukulele surprisingly smoothly. I didn’t even have to change the key and I think I crammed the most important parts in.

My version is shortened but most of the important sections are in there once.

My favourite technique in the tune is the long, drawn out up strums. I’m doing a slow up strum with my index finger there. Definitely worth incorporating into your playing arsenal.

Trickiest Bit

I found sliding down the 3323 chord really tricky. You can simplify out without losing anything much by muting the g-string and just sliding down the G7 chord shape i.e. from x323 to x212.

Links

Buy it on iTunes
More Led Zep tabs

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Lana Del Rey – Shades of Cool (Instrumental Tab)

July 31, 2014, 10:00 am
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David Beckingham – Stardust (Tab)

August 14, 2014, 10:00 am
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Pharrell Williams – Happy (Instrumental Tab)

August 28, 2014, 10:00 am
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Pharrell Williams – Happy (Tab)

To counteract yesterday’s gloomfest I decided to do a version of the most cheerful song of the summer. Plus I was feeling like a room without a roof so this is the smiliest I have looked in any video ever.

Technique Notes

For the most part I’m playing the verses and the middle picking and the chorus with strums.

In the chorus I’m using a triplet technique (although I’m not actually playing triplets) by strumming down with my index finger, then flicking my index finger up, then my middle finger up. But that’s very much optional. You can strum it however seems appropriate to you.

In the middle section I’m recreating the soul-claps by playing muted notes on the g-string.

Variations

In the tab I’ve just indicated to repeat the verse twice. Which you can certainly get away with. For my version I’ve done a few variations in the timing. The only big difference is the “No offence to you…” bit. There I play this:

Happy2

Making it Easier

This one is a bit tricky. So a couple of pointers for making it easier.

You can drop the harmony in the riff and just play it like this:

EasyRiff

The muted notes in the middle section are very tricky. So you can just drop those in that section and play it with just the sparse melody.

Links

Buy the original on iTunes
Ukulele chords for Happy

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The Swamp Whistler from Rayman Legends (Tab)

September 11, 2014, 10:00 am
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