There are two new albums from UkeHunt favourites to check out:
– Tyrone and Lesley’s latest Keepers: Spotify|Bandcamp. Plus a companion EP Finders
– Phredd’s new collection of super-catchy kids’ songs The Lost Junkyard Parade: YouTube|Spotify|Apple
Intro: The intro works very nicely on uke. Well worth learning even if you’re not bothered about the rest of the song.
I’m using thumb-and-two-finger picking in this section. And switching to one finger per string in the other sections.
Verse: The verse melody is very similar to the riff. So, to distinguish them, I’m using fretted notes rather than open strings. There are slight variations in the verses. But I don’t think anyone would notice if you played them all the same.
Chorus: This section uses a mixture of strums and picking. With the strums getting more intense each time. The final chorus really ramps up the intensity and is the hardest part to play.
Instrumental: Here, you’re bashing out the verse chords and the riff. There are also some hammer-ons that give it a very Beirut feel.
Intro: A brief, one-bar intro. Make sure you bend the note at the 7th fret before you pick it.
Verse: The verses are built on two chromatically descending lines. Firstly, descending notes on the A-string set against a C chord. Secondly, descending notes on the g-string set against an Am chord.
With the steady pace of the song, there’s nothing too challenging here.
Bridge: Things get a bit more challenging in the bridge. The action shifts up the fretboard and there are a couple of stretches to deal with.
Solo: The trickiest section. And it’s such a great solo, I’d advise against changing it too much.
A massive thanks once again to the generosity of Uke Hunt’s Patreon backers for keeping the site up and running this month.
And extra thanks to February’s Tenor level backers:
– Arthur Foley
– Brian
– Dennis Boutsikaris
– Elizabeth Beardsley
– Ely Fletcher
– Ivo
– Jeff K
– Jon Kenniston
– Kelby Green
– Leia-lee Doran
– Margit Stadlmann
– Mary
– Noah
– Pat Weikle
– Pauline LeBlanc
– Rick Wurster
– Robert
– Steven Pituch
Pearl Jam’s Yellow Ledbetter. startuh out on the B-sahhh but thuh words don’t quite line up now, an’ the song jus’ sorta rolls, on a wizard on a whale, an’ nowah suddenly it’s a fan faverrrrah. Ohahnahha.
This one took a fair bit of knocking around to fit onto uke. There are only three chords in it (C, G and F) but there are many jumps up and down the neck and some stretches to deal with. The intro in particular is fiddly but a lot of fun to play.
Intro/Outro: A Little Wing/Lenny-style intro with plenty of flying up and down the neck. Make sure you include plenty of silences and changes in dynamics to keep things interesting.
Verse: Nothing difficult to play here. Just a few slides and many pull-offs.
Chorus: A little increase in difficulty with a stretch up to the 6th fret in bar 26.
Solo: Some tricky stuff here too. I’ve included elements from the original. But you can adapt it however you feel. I’d recommend sticking fairly close to the C major pentatonic scale. But you can include some C minor pentatonic for a more bluesy feel.
Bridge: This section is very sparse. But it demonstrates how effective just changing the order of the chords can be. It still uses the C, G and F chords but this section has a very different feel.
Bon Jovi’s Livin’ on a Prayer is full of hair-rock bravado, so I wasn’t sure if it’d work on uke. But it has a very strong melody, so I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed playing it.
Intro: I had to change the talk-box riff a fair amount to get it onto uke. This version runs more smoothly than the original. And it doesn’t go on for 45 seconds.
Verse: The verses don’t have anything too challenging. It’s all Am – F – G in open position.
Pre-Chorus: Things build in intensity here but don’t get any more difficult.
The second pre-chorus is cut short. As well as reducing the number of bars, they also cut a beat out of bar 44 (making it a bar of 3/4). This combined with the lack of any preparation in the chords, means the key change really hits you in the face.
Chorus: The first chorus is challenging enough. But changing to C minor for the second chorus makes it even trickier. I originally arranged it to replay the chorus in the original key. And I think that’s a perfectly reasonable way to play it if you want to avoid the added difficulty. Even Jon Bon Jovi seems in two minds about it. But it’s such a moment in the song I decided it’s worth tackling.
Solo: The solo has a few tricky moves too. But, once everything is octave shifted, it plays nicely on the uke. The one thing worth skipping would be the very fast lick in bar 40. It’s very difficult to play (I certainly didn’t get it cleanly in the video) and I think something simpler could be just as effective.
A massive thanks once again to the generosity of Uke Hunt’s Patreon backers for keeping the site up and running this month.
And extra thanks to January’s Tenor level backers:
– Arthur Foley
– Brian
– Dennis Boutsikaris
– Elizabeth Beardsley
– Ely Fletcher
– Ivo
– Jeff K
– Jon Kenniston
– Kelby Green
– Leia-lee Doran
– Margit Stadlmann
– Mary
– Noah
– Pat Weikle
– Pauline LeBlanc
– Rick Wurster
– Robert
– Steven Pituch
