They Might Be Giants – Doctor Worm (Tab)
Doctor Worm is my favourite TMBG song. And it has been dusted off to promote their latest live album. It’s a lot of fun to play but has some challenging sections.
Intro: I tried a few different ways to play this horn riff. And three of them crop up in this arrangement.
The version in the intro is by far the trickiest but also the truest to the original. If you’d rather avoid playing it (and that’s the sensible choice), you can replace the first four bars with bars 69-72. Or, if you have the chops of Rabbi Vole, you can make the opposite substitution.
Verse: The verses are much simpler. The third verse is especially simple, as it’s just the melody without chords.
Chorus: The chorus starts with just blasting out the strums with the melody alternating between B and C on the A-string.
The chorus ends with the horn riff transposed to Bb.
Middle: The trickiest section of the whole song. You have to deal with the melody whilst the chords alternate between G and C. I highly recommend slowing this section right down when you’re learning it before attempting it anywhere near full speed.
Bridge: A nice, simple section to recover after the middle.
Solo: A very easy solo too. It starts off mirroring the verse melody then descends from there. The bass has much more room to descend than the uke, so I had to cheat it a little.
Outro: Another variation on the horn riff. This time heading up the neck for the crescendo.
