Doug Wood must be spinning in his grave. If he’s dead. Or he’s alive but enjoys hanging out in his grave. There’s very little information about him on the net. I assume he’s the same person as Douglas Wood who made “spacey folk electro-horror” soundtracks like this and this at the same time.
The tune doesn’t fit all that neatly onto the uke. I did have to do a fair bit of octave shifting. The most obvious one being mid-lick at the start of bar 7.
The Quizeum is BBC4’s traveling museum panel show and my new favourite quiz. How could you not love a high-brow quiz show not afraid to use the phrase, “You’ve got a face full of dicks”?
It also has a pleasant, bouncy theme tune that works well on uke.
Klovn is Denmark’s version of Curb Your Enthusiasm. As far as I can tell. I stumbled across it during an international tour of Netflixes. There were no English subtitles so I couldn’t make out much of the show (judging by the comments I got on the video, all Danish Uke Hunt readers hate it). But I really loved the theme tune.
In a rarity for me, the arrangement uses low-G tuning. The picking hand is a bit tricky in this one. I’m playing alternating bass notes with the thumb (on the G-, C- and E-strings) and melody notes with the index and middle fingers.
The Brain Scoop is one of my favourite YouTube channels. It’s the channel of Emily Graslie who was working in a tiny museum in Missoula when Vlogbrother Hank Green featured her in a video and talked her into starting a YouTube channel. Now she works in the massive Field Museum making videos on everything they do from slicing open animals, to expiditions, to searching through their collections (including their ukulele). I highly recommend checking it out.
It also has a catchy theme tune (by general Nerdfighteria producer Michael Aranda) that I had to do a uke version of. I’m very excited that it got the Brain Scoop and Hank Green seal of approval.
It’s Theme Tune Week on Uke Hunt this week. And I’m starting out with Steven Universe. The show is packed with great ukeable tunes thanks to show creator and ukulelist Rebecca Sugar. If you’re an SU fan and a uker I highly recommend following her Tumblr where she often posts ukulele demos of the songs and occasionally chords.
The plan was the right up the theme tune but I like the songs so much I ended up doing a bunch.
The Steven Strum
This chnky strum – henceforth known as the Steven strum – is clearly Steven’s favourite strum. It crops up all the time:
I was going to refer to this as the longer version of the theme tune but since this version showed up at Comic Con it’s now the medium sized version.
This version is a different – more uke friendly key – than the theme version. To play along with the version used as the theme tune put a capo on the second fret.
Suggested Strumming
Start with one strum per chord. Then use the Steven strum once per chord in the verse and twice per chord in the chorus.
Again start of with one down-strum per chord before moving on to the Steven strum once per chord in the verses. In the middle section play the strum twice on the B7 then one down strum on the Em and G then once on the Cmaj7 (a chord that crops up a fair bit in Steven Universe and Adventure Time songs).
Nice and easy up until the Ab in the middle section. If you want to avoid that you can play the middle section the way she does in the demo version: Bb F C Bb Cmaj7.
On the Run
On the Run (Chords)
Strumming
You can use a modified Steven strum replacing the chnk with a down-strum:
d – d u – u d –
Once per chord in the verses and twice per chord in the middle. In the outro twice on Am and once on everything else.
Steven and the Crystal Gems
Steven and the Crystal Gems (Chords)
The two chords at the end are played way up the neck (as indicated by the fret numbers at the top right). If your uke doesn’t have a 13th fret you can just play the chords in their more familiar positions Bbmaj7 – 3210 and Bb = 3211.
Suggested Strumming
Verse: Steven strum once per chord. All except the last chord then do the Steven strum twice.
Bridge: Steven strum twice per chord.
Chorus: Steven strum once per chord. Except the Eb – F change on “alternate” do d – d u once each there. And just one down-strum on the last two chords.
Serious Song
Serious Song (Chords)
I was very worried about the wellbeing of his ukulele in this episode.
I’m using a fairly strange way of playing the F and G chords. Barreing the g, C and E strings with my middle finger and muting the A-string. If you prefer you can play the usual open versions of all the chords. If you doing that you might want to switch the B for a G7 and change chords normally rather than sliding.
Suggested Strumming
Intro: d u d u d u d u
Verse: The Steven strum once per chord.
Last line: d u d u once for Cm and G7. Then d u on the C, down on the B then slide the shape up one fret to make it the C chord.
Whoever put together Apple Music’s UkeBox – The Ukulele Today playlist has been paying attention. The short list includes James Hill, Tune-Yards, Magnetic Fields, Beirut, Mr B, Garfunkel and Oates, Sophie Madeleine, Shiny and the Spoon, Victoria Vox and other Uke Hunt favorites. The only misstep is the incongruous inclusion of Arlo Guthrie’s version of Ukulele Lady.
