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.

Nat King Cole – The Christmas Song (Tabs)

Just sneaking this one in before the deadline. The song was originally written by Robert Wells and Mel Tormé and first recorded by Nat King Cole. It’s one of the chillest songs in existence to listen to. But not so chill to play. There are many big moves up and down the fretboard to deal with. And plenty of unfamiliar chord shapes.

The intro and solo are of my own devising. So feel free to mess around with those as much as you like.

Links

Buy the original
More Christmas tabs and chords
Uke Hunt Patreon

Band Aid – Do They Know It’s Christmas? (Tab)

Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas? is one of the most lyrically disastrous songs ever written. But since this is an instrumental, we can ignore that.

The chords simple; just F, G and C with a few D minors and A minors thrown in.

The melody gets a little fiddly though. And it wanders all over the fretboard. A couple of bits to look out for are Bono’s legendary “Tonight thank God…” (in bars 38 and 39) and the pinkie stretch to the fifth fret in bar 32. You can make that part easier by using the open E-string instead of holding the third fret.

The other challenge is memorising it all. There are no repeats until the chorus right at the end of the song.

Links

Buy Do They Know It’s Christmas (2024 Mix)
More 80s tabs and chords
Uke Hunt Patreon

The Simpsons – Monorail

Billy Joel – We Didn’t Start the Fire

Kendrick Lamar – Not Like Us

Elton John – Step Into Christmas

Death Grips – I’ve Seen Footage

Lil Wayne – Lollipop

Watch on YouTube

Tracklist
Mika Kane / Ukulenny / RIO – Henehene Kou ‘Aka
The Staves – After School
Jon’s Ukulele – Whiskey Before Breakfast
Vinicius & Joao – Tema pro Ben (Thanks to Aline)
Tyler Donkoh-Halm and Sho Humphries – Fly on the Wall
James Hill – Give My Regards to Broadway
Kim Deal – Summerland
Trixie and the Jumping Fleas – Ghostbusters
Markus Rantanen – Taisto

The Cure – Friday I’m in Love (Tab)

I had to break protocol for this one so I could post The Cure’s Friday I’m in Love on a friday.

Intro: There’s an odd start to the song with the first note coming in on the “and” of 1. If the listener is unfamiliar with the song, it can throw them off.

After the opening lick, it’s into some straight-forward strumming with a few picked notes thrown in.

Verse: The first two verses are simple, with all familiar chord shapes in the first position. The third and fourth verses are a bit more tricky since they incorporate a high note on the A-string, fifth fret.

Chorus: The trickiest part is going from the riff at the end of the verse to G chord with the high D note. If you’re struggling, you can just strum out the A chord in bar 17.

Solo: The solo has a lot of moves up and down the neck. But there’s nothing too fancy to trip you up.

Bridge: This is the hardest section to play. You’re up at the fifth fret and it gets a bit fiddly. That’s one reason I halved its length.

Links

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

The Clash – I Fought the Law (Tab)

I Fought the Law was originally recorded by The Crickets after the death of Buddy Holly. The Bobby Fuller Four had a big hit with it later in the 60s. Then The Clash recorded the definitive version. And it’s The Clash version I based this arrangement on.

Most of this arrangement is very easy. It’s just strumming out basic chords. For the single open-C strings notes the first crop up in bar 11 (where they lyrics say “and the”), I’m strumming all the strings while muting the g-string with my thumb and the E and A-strings with my fingers. If you prefer, you can just play these with fingerpicking the C-string alone. But that does lose a bit of the energy of the song.

Things only get tricky in the solo section. But even then, it’s not exactly a finger-twister.

Links

Buy The Clash version
More 70s tabs and chords
Uke Hunt Patreon