I thought I’d join with this week’s face sitting protests and put up the chords to this Monty Python protest song. The song is based on Gracie Fields’s Sing As We Go with some lyrical adaptation by Eric Idle.
Suggested Strumming
The main strum I use for this is just:
d – d u
I use that everywhere except in the descending intro/outro line. There I just done one downstrum per chord. Here’s how it sounds together:
Bruce Miller – Frasier Theme (Tossed Salads and Scrambled Eggs) (Tab)
I don’t know how many times I’ve heard this tune. Several hundred I expect. But not once did it occur to me that there might be a reason he’s going on about tossed salads and scrambled eggs. Frasier writer, Ken Levine asked the tune’s composer Bruce Miller who explained, “these were things that were “mixed up” like Frasier Crane’s patients”.
And it’s not just the patients. The theme is a mixed up, mouse painting, moon howling kinda song. For a tune that only lasts 36 seconds this really packs in a lot of different notes. My advice is to throw yourself into it an not worry much about any mistakes.
You can pick up all three for the price of 2 by buying the whole Christmas Trilogy at once. And you can get an extra $2 off if you use this code in the shopping cart: theothertinytim
Tripping Lily’s ukulele cover of Mindy Smith’s Santa Will Find You has been the video to kick off every Christmas UkeTube since 2009. The song has the perfect mix of melancholy and jazziness for a Christmas song. And Tripping Lily played it so well. So it’s well past time I wrote it up.
Suggested Strumming
Two main strums will get you through this. Both of them just down strums.
For the more sparse parts you can just do two down strums per bar.
For the other parts you can do six down strums with the fourth being emphasised. Like this:
d d d D d d
In the verse and intro: Once each on E and Emaj7. Twice on everything else.
In the chorus: The first two lines the same as the verse. The last two strum the pattern once for each chord.
To give you an idea of the tabs in the Christmas Ukulele III ebook, here’s an arrangement in the same styles and with a similar difficulty.
The Little Drummer Boy is (supposed to be) based on an old Czech folk melody. But it only became well known when rearranged and given lyrics in the 1950s for the Harry Simeone Chorale version.
Full Arrangement
Little Drummer Boy (Tab)
This arrangement is designed to be played solo. It can all be played with your thumb on your picking hand. When you play more than one string just strum your thumb down until you hit the last note in the chord.
The notes in brackets here are backing notes. They’re not part of the melody so play them softly.
Melody Arrangement
Little Drummer Boy (Melody Tab)
This version is even simpler. It splits up the chords and the melody into different parts. So you can play this version with a friend or with this MP3. It’s stereo split so you can play along with either the chords or the melody.
It’s the third and final ebook of the Christmas Ukulele Trilogy. I promise not to make any shitty prequels.
Ten more Christmas tunes arranged as easily as possible so you’ll be able to play them if you’re called on to provide a festive performance at any point.
They’re all arranged without any fancy finger work. The picking hand can all be done with the thumb. (The exception is Christmas Time Will Soon Be Over which has a simple arrangement and a more difficult one). They’re intended for high-g tuning.
– Super-simple melody arrangements of all those tunes. Only one note at a time. These include tab, standard notation and lyrics.
– MP3s of the melody arrangements. Stereo split so you can play along with either the melody or the chords.
– A PDF with performance notes and tips on playing all versions of the tunes.
Quick warning: if you’re using iPad/iPhone/Android you can’t download everying directly to your gadget. But there is a link to download the main body of the book (with the performance notes and the full arrangements) directly to you device.
What They Sound Like
Full Arrangement Videos
Melody Versions
Here’s what the melody-only versions sound like. The melody tab also has chord names so you can be accompanied by a friend. Or if, like me, you’re a badass loner you can play along with these mp3s. They’re split so the left hand side has the chords and the right has the melody.
