Billy Joel – Piano Man (Tab)

Here’s my take on Billy Joel’s Piano Man.

Intro: The song kicks off with a couple of jazz licks that are completely unrelated to the rest of the song. But do sound cool. It’s fine to drop those if you’re not into it. Or adjust it to your taste.

That leads into the intro proper. I’ve changed this up a bit from the original. And I’ve shortened it since the original is 30 seconds in before the verse starts.

Verse: The verse is nice and straightforward. It’s all contained in the first few frets and uses familiar chord shapes. Be aware that the open g-string at the start åof bar 19 is a melody note, so make sure it stands out.

Pre-Chorus: Switching to strums for the build up to the chorus. I didn’t find a nice way to play the melody and the descending notes at the same time. So I sacrificed the melody and just hinted at it with the hammer-ons on the E-string.

Chorus: Almost identical to the melody in the verse. But it’s beefed up with a bunch of strumming.

Solo: The trickiest part of the song. There are some quick runs that use campanella picking and a bit of quick movement up the neck. There’s room for changing things here. But I wouldn’t move away from the original too much as it has a strong melodic sense to it.

Links

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Charles Mingus – Goodbye Pork Pie Hat (Tab)

I hope you’re not coming here for a detailed harmonic breakdown of Charles Mingus’s Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, because I have no idea what he’s doing most of the time. Which made it a tough song for me to memorise. With all the unfamiliar chords and movements, I found myself constantly having to think ahead, since there weren’t many familiar shapes to fall back on.

Verse: I found the easiest way to play the opening bars is to barre across the first fret from the last note of bar 1 to the Gm in bar 4. Not all the chords need the barre, but it’s a lot easier to keep it there than to take it on and off.

As well as the harmony, there’s plenty of rhythmic jiggery-pokery going on. Most notably, the entire tune is in swing time except for bar 10. Which is played straight.

Solo: In the original, the solo uses a new (slightly simpler) chord progression. For my version, I’ve gone with a simplified take on the original chords. And I’ve leaned into the songs bluesiness with a bunch of bends and slides.

There’s loads of room here to bring in your own ideas. My take draws heavily on the melody. But you can go way off piste if you’re feeling brave.

Links

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Foo Fighters – Everlong

Bob Marley – Is This Love

Kendrick Lamar – reincarnated

Darude – Sandstorm

If you don’t care about playing in the original key, you can not bother tuning down the C-string and just move everything on the E- and A-strings up a fret.

The National – Exile Vilify (Portal 2)

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 June’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
– Mary
– Nevylle Carroll
– Noah
– Pat Weikle
– Pauline LeBlanc
– Rick Wurster
– Robert
– Steven Pituch

If you join Patreon at the Concert level or higher, you’ll get access to all 65 previous exclusive tabs including June’s Nickelback’s How You Remind Me

The Beach Boys – Wouldn’t It Be Nice (Tab)

How else could I pay tribute to Brian Wilson than with one of the greatest songs of all time: Wouldn’t It Be Nice. The song weaves through multiple keys and spans a wide vocal range, so I’ve done some shifting to bring it all within the range of the uke.

Intro: Kicking off in the key of B with a nifty riff that is a bit of a finger-twister but fun to play. This section ends with a D chord setting things up for the key change to G in the verse. If you’re going to change keys in a song, playing the V chord of the key you’re changing to is the smoothest way to do it.

Chorus: The happiest section of the song where you’re mostly rocking out open chords. As long as you keep things bright and percussive, you can’t go far wrong here.

Verse: Moving to the key of E minor (the relative minor of G) for the more melancholy verse. This section contains my favourite chord in the song (the juicy F9 in bar 14) and favourite note (the D on “staaaaaayyyy” at the start of bar 16).

Bridge: Shifting to the key of E major. This time, it’s more abrupt, without a chord to smooth the transition. This is the trickiest part of the arrangement. Lots of barre chords and use of the g-string in the melody.

Outro: A nice, simple jam of an ending. No need to even change the chord. It’s just G all the way through.

Links

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The Doors – Riders on the Storm (Tab)

Here’s one for everyone who is into The Doors: Riders on the Storm.

Intro: The intro has hardest part of the whole song: the long legato line in bar 7. I’ve cut it much shorter than the original, but it’s still a challenge. Particularly since it needs to be played smoothly as it’s intended to evoke rain.

Verse: Nothing much to worry about here. I’ve included the little twangy guitar riff in the first and third verses (e.g. bar 13). You can mix and match that with the straight chords in the second verse however you like.

Solo: This is loosely based on the original guitar solo. Feel free to come up with your own version. But I recommend using lots of hammer-ons and pull-offs with a few bluesy bends to keep the feel of the original.

Links

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Watch on YouTube

Tracklist
Craig Robertson – Staten Island Slide
Elisabeth Pfeiffer – Nebelklang I
Ukulele Corner – Anitra’s Dance
Strings Of Brian – Elephant in the Room
Desirée Dawson – Que Sera
Ellie Dixon – Dopamine
Hal Brolund – CC Rider
Jon’s Ukulele – Nina’s Jig
RIO & Daisuke Teshima – Nuages

Gary Portnoy – Where Everybody Knows Your Name (Tab)

Here’s my take on Cheers theme in tribute to George Wendt. I thought I’d done this one years ago (with it being one of the best theme tunes of all time) but it seems not.

The tune starts out simple enough. Next, things get jazzy in bars 7-9. Then it’s right to the top of the neck for the chorus. Things get decidedly fiddly up there. I did try out shifting the whole section down an octave. It works but it didn’t have the same joyful hit it has in the original.

Links

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Pearl Jam – Better Man (Tab)

I don’t think I’ve ever anticipated an album more than I did Pearl Jam’s Vitalogy. At the time, I was disappointed it wasn’t as exciting as Ten and Vs. But in hindsight, it’s clear they were transitioning into being a band that would be around for decades. And that’s reflected in Better Man, which wasn’t even released as a single but has become one of their most enduring and popular songs.

This one is pretty straightforward. Even the riff and the verse are almost identical. But I have shifted a couple of notes from the g-string to the A-string to create a bit of contrast.

The first half of the song is all fingerpicking. After bar 44, there’s a lot more strumming going on. And it’s after that change that the biggest challenge of the song crops up: the transition from C to D at the end of bar 46. I found it tricky to barre across the second fret and hit the E-string, 3rd fret.

Links

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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 May’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
– Mary
– Nevylle Carroll
– Noah
– Pat Weikle
– Pauline LeBlanc
– Rick Wurster
– Robert
– Steven Pituch

If you join Patreon at the Concert level or higher, you’ll get access to all 64 previous exclusive tabs including May’s Otis Redding’s version of Try a Little Tenderness: