Very sad news this week that Marko van der Horst of The Uke Box and the Jumping Flea Circus has died at the age of 45. My thoughts are with Shelley and Marko’s family.
I got a request for this one and went with it because the whole thing is done with chords. That means you don’t have to be able to read tab to play this one. I’ve included all the chord charts you need above the tab.
Feel free to vary the strumming in the piece. That happens in the original and in my version.
If you’re looking for someone to inspire your ukulele playing you couldn’t do much better than Kimo Hussey. He’s about the smoothest and classiest ukulelist around.
Lucky for us he’s also a great teacher and he’s put up a series of masterclasses on his YouTube channel. I find them incredibly inspiring and highly recommend you give them a watch. To start you off here’s a selection of my favourites.
– “We’ve become very accustomed to hearing and playing music on the ‘ukulele that goes relatively fast. But the degree to which we play the ukulele slow opens up some wonderful horizons in what we can hear the ‘ukulele do.”
– “One of the things about the right hand that we can utilise in terms of musical interpretation – the way we express songs – is how we use tempo and dynamic.”
TL;DW:
– “The degree to which you try and improve the quality of your music is the degree to which you create a balance between the left and the right hand.”
– “The right hand controls five things that are extremely important: melody, harmony, rhythm, dynamic, tempo.”
– “One of the wonderful things about ‘ukulele is that it can play anything. This little instrument is so smart it can play any song that’s ever been written.”
– Tobias: “With the ‘ukulele you can have so many layers. You can have the rhythm, the chord and the melody at the same time.”
TL;DW:
– “I think it’s most important for you to learn 36 chords: 12 major chords, 12 minor chords and 12 7th chords.”
– You don’t have to memorise them all but you have to know how to derive them if you need them.
I’ve tried to capture all the nuances of the arrangement. Which has resulted in 26 chords. Equaling So Long and Thanks for All the Fish as song with most chords. So I’ve also written up a simplified version.
Simplified Version
I’ll See You in My Dreams (Simplified Chords)
26 chords is a lot to get your head around in one go. So I’d recommend having a play through this version first so you know what’s going on. Then you can introduce elements from the full version as you see fit.
For this version I’ve also simplified the F – F6 – Fmaj7 move to F – Dm – Am to make it easier to play.
Twiddly Bits
There’s a few little ukulele licks in the song. Here’s the line that leads into the solo:
The solo itself uses notes mainly picked from the chords. With this to end it off:
For the most part I’m playing the verses and the middle picking and the chorus with strums.
In the chorus I’m using a triplet technique (although I’m not actually playing triplets) by strumming down with my index finger, then flicking my index finger up, then my middle finger up. But that’s very much optional. You can strum it however seems appropriate to you.
In the middle section I’m recreating the soul-claps by playing muted notes on the g-string.
Variations
In the tab I’ve just indicated to repeat the verse twice. Which you can certainly get away with. For my version I’ve done a few variations in the timing. The only big difference is the “No offence to you…” bit. There I play this:
Making it Easier
This one is a bit tricky. So a couple of pointers for making it easier.
You can drop the harmony in the riff and just play it like this:
The muted notes in the middle section are very tricky. So you can just drop those in that section and play it with just the sparse melody.
A while back I got a comment by Michael asked me for suggestions of songs in a minor key. Which struck me as an excellent idea of a post because I’m always looking for an excuse to stick it to the ‘it’s impossible to play the ukulele without smiling’ brigade.
If you’ve got a favourite minor key song to play leave it in the comments.
So here are lists of tabs and chords in a minor key (or at least minor enough to be glum):
