A massive thanks once again to the generosity of Uke Hunt’s Patreon backers for keeping the site up and running this month. And double thanks go to these legendary patrons of the arts:

And extra thanks to February’s Tenor level backers:

– Arthur Foley
– Brian
– Colleen Petticrew
– Dennis Boutsikaris
– Elizabeth Beardsley
– Ely Fletcher
– Ivo
– Jeff K
– Jon Kenniston
– Kelby Green
– Leia-lee Doran
– Margit Stadlmann
– Mary
– Nevylle Carroll
– Noah
– Pat Weikle
– Pauline LeBlanc
– Robert
– Steven Pituch

If you join Patreon at the Concert level or higher, you’ll get access to all 61 previous exclusive tabs including February’s The Beatles’ While My Guitar Gently Weeps

Joy Division – Love Will Tear Us Apart (Tab)

Don your Joy Division oven gloves for a round of Love Will Tear Us Apart.

Intro/Outro: This section ramps up the tension and anticipation. In the original, the bass plays an A power chord, and the guitar plays an Em chord. Combined, these produce an A9 chord.

This arrangement moves the song down a step. So the G5 and Dm create a G9 chord. The intro chord also includes a 4th (the C note on the A-string) for an extra bit of tension.

Chorus: This section flows so smoothly on ukulele. I love playing it. Which is handy because it makes up most of the song.

Verse: The verse I found less natural to play. The melody here fits more awkwardly against the chords to fit the song’s lyrical theme.

Links

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Uke Hunt Patreon

Ray Charles – Hit the Road Jack (Tab)

Ray Charles’s Hit the Road Jack is tricky to play. Mostly because it’s so quick. I’ve slowed it slightly from the original. But it’s still a challenge.

Intro: This sets up two aspects that run through the whole song. First, the descending pattern of Dm-C-Bb-A7. And second, the liberal use of chnks.

Chorus: This continues the pattern from intro and adds the melody on top. There’s a trip up the neck for the “no more…” part that requires some quick and accurate jumps.

Verse: The melody here is quick and relentless. I’ve included a few bits of campanella playing to fit them all in. This is the section I had the most trouble with.

Solo: I went with a very ukulele-style solo. So it’s almost all chord strumming with a lot of movement all over the neck. Then finishing off with a quick run.

Links

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More 60s tabs and chords
Uke Hunt Patreon

Watch on YouTube

Tracklist
Bobby Alu – Cooler
Bridge City Sinners – Sinner's Saloon
Taimane – Serpentwined
Garam JEON – Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy
Bad Mouse Orchestra – Tiger Rag
Perigean – That’s Enough
PROMISE.  – This Time
Pillow – The Lights of China
Bobby Alu – Far Away

Theodore Shapiro – Severance Theme (Tab)

The Severance Theme minimalist, making it relatively easy to play. It can feel sparse on the ukulele, but it still retains the original’s eerie atmosphere.

A Section: Played with thumb and two finger picking. The one exception is the Abm chord. I pluck that with index and middle fingers to keep the same timbre as the other notes at the start of the bar. But you can stick with thumb and index here if you prefer.

B Section: Switching to one finger per string picking for the B section. This section is trickier but still very manageable. Start by barring at the fifth fret, then gradually move the note on the C-string down a fret each bar. In bar 11, switch to fretting the A-string,5th fret with your pinkie to prepare for the Eb on the C-string, 3rd fret.

For the giltchy outro, I used Cryogen by Glitchmachines. I wouldn’t recommend paying full price for it. I picked it up for £3 in a sale.

Links

Buy the original
More theme tune tabs and chords
Uke Hunt Patreon

Blur – Tender (Tab)

Here’s a tab of a song that featured in Aftersun, my favourite movie of the last few years:
Blur’s Tender.

Intro: Starting off with the trickiest bit. The quick hammer-on to pull-off to slide at the start of bar 3 is a finger-twister.

When this riff repeats at the end of the chorus, there is a slight change in bars 21 and 22 to watch out for.

Verse: Just a G – F – G chord progression and nothing too tricky in the melody.

Chorus: In the second and third choruses, I’ve included the high “fee-ling” part the choir sings (bars 33 and 46). This involves a slide up to the 14th fret. If your uke doesn’t have that many frets (or you just don’t fancy it) you can just repeat the first chorus.

Links

Buy the original
More 90s tabs and chords
Uke Hunt Patreon

A massive thanks once again to the generosity of Uke Hunt’s Patreon backers for keeping the site up and running this month. And double thanks go to these legendary patrons of the arts:

And extra thanks to January’s Tenor level backers:

– Arthur Foley
– Brian
– Colleen Petticrew
– Dennis Boutsikaris
– Elizabeth Beardsley
– Ely Fletcher
– Ivo
– Jeff K
– Jon Kenniston
– Kelby Green
– Leia-lee Doran
– Margit Stadlmann
– Mary
– Moses Kamai
– Noah
– Pat Weikle
– Pauline LeBlanc
– Robert
– Steven Pituch

If you join Patreon at the Concert level or higher, you’ll get access to all previous exclusive tabs including January’s: Walk This Way by Aerosmith.

Buena Vista Social Club – Chan Chan (Tab)

Chan Chan was originally written by Compay Segundo. But it’s the Buena Vista Social Club version that is best known. And it’s that one I worked from.

Intro: The intro sets up the chord progression that’s used (adding a 6 or 7 here and there) all the way through the song: Dm-F-Gm-A. The rest of the song is in 4 bar sections, but the intro has 6 bars. Which makes the start of the verse come in at an odd place.

Verses: For the melody sections, you’re playing the same chords at the fifth fret. And that’s interspersed with two bars from the intro.

Chorus: A very similar melody to the verse, but this time played twice through and with a four bar section of the intro.

Links

Buy the Buena Vista Social Club version
More 80s tabs and chords
Uke Hunt Patreon

Monty Python – Always Look on the Bright Side of Life (Tabs)

Diving into 2025 with some wildly unjustifiable optimism in the shape of Always Look on the Bright Side of Life from Monty Python’s Life of Brian.

Intro: Lots of jumping around the neck in the section. But it’s slow and loose, so it’s not too challenging.

Chorus: The tempo ramps up here and we switch to swing time. This bit is my favourite part to play. It has a nice flow to it on ukulele. Lots of use of the g-string in the melody.

Verse: Similar to the intro, but the increased tempo makes it much harder to play. I’ve simplified much of it to make it easier. Particularly bar 19 where I’ve dropped the chords entirely. If you fancy a challenge, you could play this like bar 3.

Outro: There’s a key change here, so you’re playing the chorus in D. It is more difficult to play in this key. So you could play the chorus again in C and no one would notice or care.

I’ve tacked on an “have a banana” outro at the end as a nod to the song’s musical hall style.

Links

Buy the Spamalot version
More 70s tabs and chords
Uke Hunt Patreon

Mele Kalikimaka, Merry Christmas, Chanukah Sameach, Feliz Natal and Happy Holidays! (If that’s what you’re into.)

That’s it from me for another year. I’ll be back at the end of January 2025 for the year of the D7 chord.

If you can’t stand to be without a steady stream of uke, I’ll be posting on Instagram, BlueSky and Patreon. Speaking of which…

Patreon

I’m overwhelmingly grateful to all the people supporting the site on the Uke Hunt Patreon. Without your generosity Uke Hunt would not still be going. And without your suggestions for tabs I’d probably be covering Belgian art rock songs rather than tunes people want to learn. Your munificent patronage of the arts has not been since Renaissance Italy.

And extra thanks to December’s Tenor level backers:

– Arthur Foley
– Brian
– Colleen Petticrew
– Dennis Boutsikaris
– Elizabeth Beardsley
– Ely Fletcher
– Ivo
– Jeff K
– Jon Kenniston
– Kelby Green
– Leia-lee Doran
– Margit Stadlmann
– Mary
– Moses Kamai
– Noah
– Pat Weikle
– Pauline LeBlanc
– Robert
– Steven Pituch

If you join Patreon at the Concert level or higher, you’ll get access to all previous exclusive tabs including December’s: the Back to the Future theme by Alan Silvestri.