Holy Cribbins! Now that’s a comeback song. I managed to see through the floods of tears long enough to write up some chords.
As well as being incredible, it’s sparse (in the first half at least) which makes it ideal for ukuleling. Strap on a capo at the first fret and the chords are dead easy. The only chord that isn’t entirely beginner friendly is Bm. If you haven’t got your barre chords down here’s an alternative chord you can use in this case.
Suggested Strumming
Because the song is so sparse you can do just one down strum per chord most of the way through (or even all the way through if you like). If you want something more full for the chorus try this:
Note that you’re changing chords slightly before the second half of the bar. Here’s how it sounds:
I don’t like to break with regular scheduled posting, but I had to take today to flick on the klystron HV, turn the variable autotransformer up 130 and blast this one out.
Back to the Future (Alan Silvestri): Alan Silvestri wrote the score to all the BttF movies but he was clearly channeling John Williams for the epic theme music.
Mr Sandman (The Chordettes): This one is already a bit of ukulele standard thanks to the opening lick being perfectly suited to re-entrant tuning.
Power of Love (Huey Lewis & the News): The first bit of this is just switching between different inversions of F and C. It shows how effective just changing up inversions can be.
Doubleback (ZZ Top & Alan Silvestri): The only part of the medley that doesn’t crop up in the Part I. It’s the tune from the ZZ Top bit in Part III. It’s supposed to be the ZZ Top song of the same name although any resemblance is lost on me.
Johnny B Goode (Chuck Berry. You know, Marvin’s cousin.): The climax of local rhythmic ceremonial ritual the Fish Under the Sea Dance and this medley.
Herman Vandecauter was kind enough to send me tab for his version of Franz Schubert’s Die Forelle (The Trout). It’s a great distillation of the tune and he’s made it work exceptionally well on uke.
I liked it so much I did my own recording of his version. In mine I used one finger per string picking. My version is quicker than Herman’s (because that’s what appealed to me) and more sloppy (because I’m a worse player).
Here’s Herman’s version:
You might notice a couple of thick black lines on the tab. I added those to remind myself which section I’m supposed to be repeating.
My usual advice about strumming patterns is to not worry too much about it and try a few to see what suits you. But some songs have strumming patterns so perfect they become its central feature. The good news is that you can’t copyright a strumming pattern (if you could Metallica would have done it by now). So you’re free to pinch these and use them as you wish. You certainly wouldn’t be the first.
Here’s my choice of the most iconic strums ever. If you’ve got one I missed leave it in the comments.
The videos here all show the strum played slowly at first (on a Bb chord) then up to speed (with chord changes where they’re useful). Some of the strums are complex so they’re shown using slash notation. You can learn more about that here and learn everything you need to about strums in my ebook How to Play Ukulele Strums.
Strum-Diddley-Umptious
Officially the greatest strumming pattern in history (according to the person who decides these things: me).
No nonsense and in your face. It’s the Meg White of strumming patterns.
Proclaiming Strum
d – d – d – d u
d u d – d – d –
If ever a strumming pattern had a Scottish accent it’s the one that kicks off I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) by The Proclaimers. It’s amazing that a simple two bar pattern can be so associated with one song.
Unlike Micucci’s later work, the song has some tricky chord moves. The hardest part is the quick Gm7 – Am7 – Bmaj7 move in the verses. If you’re having trouble with that you can skip the Gm7 – Am7 bit and play the easier 3210 version of Bmaj7.
Suggested Strumming
You can use this strum through most of the song:
d – d – d u d u
Chorus: Main strum once per chord.
Verse: One strum each on the passing chords (Gm7 – Am7 and Bb – C). Then the main strum twice on everything else. Here’s how that sounds:
Last Chorus: There are some passing chords here too e.g. Dm – C on “won’t get you too far” and “You say”.
Not So Twiddly Bit
Rich Girl has a classic one note solo. You just slide up to the F and you’re done for notes. To play it I use the strum blocking method for the attack it gives. But you could also use a pick for this part.
This year’s Uke Hunt t-shirt sale has already hit the minimum order level. So they’ll now definitely be printed once the pre-order period has finished on 18th October. You can buy from the US or from the UK.
The Dave Brubeck Quartet’s Take Five (written by the group’s saxophonist Paul Desmond) is an absolute instrumental classic. That’s why I started working on it in the early days of Uke Hunt (the 27th February 2008 according to the date on the file). Since then it’s been occasionally dragged out of the pile of half finished tabs but I haven’t had a version I was happy with until now. I hope it was worth the wait!
The song takes its name from its 5/4 time signature (i.e. there are five beats in a bar rather than the more common 3 or 4). You probably haven’t played in 5/4 time before but it’s not that hard to get the hang of. I find counting out the bars 1, 2, 3, 1, 2 gives you a good feel for the groove of the piece and you can drop the counting once you’re in the swing of it.
