Jul/22/07
9comments

Baby Elephant Walk Duet

Baby Elephant Walk Duet (Tab)

Baby Elephant Walk Duet (MIDI)

I know it’s starting to look like I’m tabbing the score to the entire 18 series of the Simpsons, but it’s only a coincidence. This tune was written by Henry Mancini for the film Hatari! to depict the lumbering and unsteady movements of large, unwieldy animal – so perhaps fitting that it was used to accompany Homer dancing.

In this arrangement, one uke takes the background riff. This is a fairly standard 12 bar blues pattern – if you slowed it down and gave it some swing it could be a Muddy Waters song. However, the spritely melody (played by the other ukulele) takes the tune a long way outside blues territory.

A quick word about the repeat signs for those of you unfamiliar with them. Play up to bar 16 where you’ll see a double line with two dots. These indicate that you should go back to the earlier set of double bars (or, if there weren’t any, to the beginning). Then play from there straight through the bar lines and on to where it says D.S. al coda – indicating to go back to the squiggle (bar 5) up to where it says Da coda. From there you jump straight to the mod-style target at bar 32 for the classic ‘and many moooooo-re‘ ending.

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9 Comments

  1. FranSpain July 22nd, 2007 3:36 pm

    I have to study a lot!!!! hehehehehe Good work!!!

  2. Nipper July 22nd, 2007 5:21 pm

    Brook Adams has a great version of this.

    http://www.brookadams.com/jumping-flea/ukeAudio.html

    In fact he has a lot of great tunes!

    BSY
    Nipper

  3. Woodshed July 22nd, 2007 6:22 pm

    Fran: Study hard, I’ve got a solo version in the pipeline and it’ll be even harder.

    Nipper: Agreed. I was listening to his version of Randy Newman’s Louisiana 1927 the other day – very appropriate at the moment.

  4. Joe January 19th, 2008 8:38 pm

    brilliant!

    thanks

  5. winfried March 17th, 2008 9:50 pm

    I love this song! Even though there are no singers in it.

  6. Woodshed March 18th, 2008 8:29 pm

    Me too :D

  7. Dorthy January 8th, 2009 10:38 pm

    This is great. I have a group of 24 kids I am teaching ukulele. They currently range from ages 4-17. I don’t charge them and I loan them an ukulele. Some started when they were 3. We have been in existance since September 2007. I think my some of my kids can do this. Wish there was also a midi for each part that way they could practice with it and then with the combined parts midi. They have not done two part ukulele yet but that is one of my goals this year. Looking for simple duets that would be appealing to kids.

  8. Gayla March 4th, 2013 4:42 pm

    Hi, love this and want to try it! When I downloaded the music, I was unable to read it – do I need to download a higher version of something, or subscribe? I see bar lines and the marks that indicate rhythm, but the numbers look like odd marks and dots. Except for 4s, for some reason.

  9. Woodshed March 5th, 2013 8:21 am

    Gayla: Hmm. Seems to be working okay for me. Did you try redownloading it? Is Adobe Reader (or whatever you’re using) up to date?

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