Dam Busters March (Group Tab)

Continuing this week’s Kitty Lux tributes with a live UOGB favourite: The Dam Busters March by Eric Coates. This isn’t a direct tab of their version but is heavily influenced by it.

I’ve divided up the duties in the piece so that each ukulele part has a different skill level. If you’ve got more players in your group you can divide these up further or devise your own complementary parts.

Lead Ukulele

Dam Busters March (Lead Tab)

A load of tricky sections in this part (yet somehow it was the easy section at the end I managed to screw up in the video). The hardest section are the rapid-fire notes and moves up and down the neck in bars 40-44. But all the way through the first half there are bits that might trip you up. Luckily, things are much more stately in the second half.

I’m using fingerpicking to play this part. But it’s arranged in more of a UOGB than my usual style so it’s easier to play with a pick.

If, like me, you have no friends here’s a backing track to play this part along with:

Backing Track (MP3)

Baritone Ukulele

Dam Busters March (Baritone Tab)

The baritone tone is a little easier than the lead part. It’s mainly a simplified version of the lead part played an octave lower. The biggest challenges are the descending runs in bars 13 – 16 and bars 40-44.

Again, I’m playing this with my fingers but it’s arranged so it’s easy to play with a pick too.

Rhythm Ukulele

Dam Busters March (Rhythm Tab)

I’ve kept this part as simple as possible. It’s all played with down-strums and it’s almost all beginner level chords.

There are a couple of slightly unusual sections where I’m just playing the top three strings. I’m playing these by strumming down with my thumb to give them a softer, rounder sound. But you don’t have to do that. And if you want to play all the strings it happens to be the second fret on the g-string that’s missing in every case.

Guitar/Bass

Dam Busters March (Guitar/Bass Tab)

I’m playing this part on guitar but I’ve only used the bottom four strings so you can transfer it directly to bass if you prefer.

Here you’re playing staccato quarter notes almost all the way through. The one challenge is the descending run in bars 13-16.

Links

Buy the UOGB version
More UOGB tabs and chords