Ryan Gosling – Smoking Gun Bleeding Knives (Tab)
Hey girl, the Breaking Bad tab I put up earlier was really short so I made you another one.
This is the ukulele bit in Blue Valentine (and on the DVD menu) that isn’t You Always Hurt the One You Love.
Dave Porter – Breaking Bad Theme (Slide Tab)
I’ve been bitching about modern theme tunes for a long time. They all have atmospheric, doom-laden theme tunes you can’t even remember let alone hum in the shower. And the Breaking Bad theme is no exception. But the series is great so I wanted to do a version anyway. And I’m sure the inevitable Badger spin-off will have a great theme tune.
I started off playing this without the slide – which you can do if you don’t play slide – but it didn’t sound quite right. There’s a lot more pointers in my How to Play Slide Ukulele ebook but the main thing is to mute the strings behind the slide so you don’t get any nasty overtones. Other than that, you don’t have to be too careful with your technique. There’s a fair bit of slide noise in the original which just adds to the atmosphere.
If you’ve been following the blog closely you’ll certainly know Wilfried Welti. I’ve been posting his videos since 2007 and put up his two free tab books: Solo Ukulele für Einsteiger and Weihnachten mit der Ukulele.
If you were impressed by his arrangements you’ll want to get hold of the three ebooks he’s just released. He was kind enough to send me copies of them and they’re excellent. Wilfried has been working on these for years (I know because I’ve been talking to him about them for that long) and it really shows. The arrangements are as clean and meticulous as his playing.
He’s selling them way too cheap so I recommend you grab them before he comes to his senses. Here’s a quick overview of each one. But if you don’t want to faff about go here and add everything to your cart.
Pussy Riot – Putin Lights Up the Fires (Chords)
I always think the best protest songs are the ones by the people directly affected by the issue. And Pussy Riot’s latest adds weight to that by being the best song by political prisoners since Mzwakhe Mbuli’s Triple B.
I’ve included phonetic lyrics cribbed from this site which also has the English translation.
In better news, West Papuan campaigner and ukulelist Benny Wenda‘s INTERPOL red notice has been lifted after it was recognised as being politically motivated.
Suggested Strumming
For a simple – and suitably punky – strum, in the intro and verses just this once for the A and G#:
d u d u d u d u
Then on the F# keep the same pattern but mute the strings (by releasing the pressure on the chord) so you’re playing this:
d u x x d u x x
Or you can do this little twiddle similar to the guitar part:
Together those sound like this:
In the chorus it’s two down strums for the C, one each for the B and A. Then back to the pattern for F#.
Twiddly Bits
And here’s a uke version of the solo.
Visit FreePussyRiot.org
UPDATE: Here’s Melbourne Ukulele Kollective playing Pussy Riot’s Punk Prayer.
David’s Lyre – Heartbeat (Chords)
Love this tune. The whole album is great. You can get it on Bandcamp on a ‘pay what you like’ basis.
First order of business: tune down a whole step to F Bb D G. Here are the tuning notes:
The strumming starts off dead easy. It’s just down strums. I like to play it with my thumb just to give you a bigger contrast with the loud bits. After that it gets a lot more complicated. My best advice is to go with the flow. Otherwise you can watch his pared down performance and follow that.
Twiddly Bits
On the second pair of Fmaj7-F6 in each line he does this little twiddle:
I haven’t been paying as much attention as usual so this week’s video roundup is a bit shorter than usual. If you’ve seen any videos I should know about leave them in the comments.
But among the videos I did find is one by the ever excellent Wilfried Welti. He’s just released three new e-books from Wilfried Welti. More on those when I’ve had the chance to check them out.
If you’re just watching the playlist, don’t miss Where Are All The Buffalo? on Vimeo.
NOTE: I usually can’t stand Formby parody covers of modern songs but this one is pretty great.
Beck is releasing his next album Song Reader only as sheet music, “and, when necessary, ukelele notation.”
Other books: The Bad Girls & Mean Women Songbook. Ode to uke – a ukulele novelty book (from the guy behind Ukulele Porn). The first book I’ve seen specifically for 6-string ukulele.
Release: The Love Leighs’ All Your Talk of Love
Videos: Garfunkel and Oates’s webseries on HBOGo (check your ukuleles for golden tickets). The inevitable ‘bunch of people on one ukulele covering Gotye’ video. Short film with Eddie Vedder: Ukulele Songs (just make sure his ukeing doesn’t make you, “puke on some chick.”).
On Uker Tabs: Marchetti’s Fascination
Pictures: Kauai Music and Sound’s logo looks familiar (Thanks to Rayan). Funny hats. Fixing Ohta San’s ukulele.
After the last hip hop riffs post people seemed keen for a follow up. And I’m more than happy to oblige with five six more.
Same riffs rules as always: it’s not the whole song and not necessarily in the original key.
Kanye West – Touch the Sky
A significantly slowed down sample of Curtis Mayfield’s Move On Up. The track was produced by Just Blaze and you can see him jamming on this song with, unexpectedly, John Mayer.
I’ve changed the key of this one to make it more ukeable. Here it is in the original key.
P.S. They censored “skeeted” in the video?
Beastie Boys – Sure Shot
My fingers kept tripping up over this one so I simplified it by removing the lead in note at the end of the second bar. If you’ve got mad skills you can play it like this:
Public Enemy – Public Enemy No. 1
Okay, so this is an intro more than a riff but it warrants inclusion by being great. It’s based on a 12-bar blues riff which is something you don’t hear a lot of in hip hop.
It’s in B so I’ve moved everything up a fret for the uke version.
BONUS: Killer Mike – Big Beast
I didn’t originally plan on including this one but I had to for three reasons:
– It borrows from the Public Enemy No 1 intro.
– I love Killer Mike.
– The video is completely insane.
Like Public Enemy No 1, it’s in B but I’ve moved it up a fret for the uke version.
Jay Z – Dirt Off Your Shoulders
I included Jay Z twice in the last hip hop post and again in this one. I’m sure this fact will be bragged about in the next song he does about how awesome Jay Z is.
Eminem – The Real Slim Shady
Keep the notes on this one really short by releasing pressure on the strings right after you play them. I’d recommend barring the third fret with your index finger all the way through.
More Hip Hop
Hip Hop Riffs Part 1
Mr B – Chap Hop History
Jay Z – Death of Autotune
Biz Markie – Just a Friend
Outkast – Hey Ya
You might, and should, know Mark Kailana Nelson from his essential book Fingerstyle Solos for Ukulele.
His latest book is a collection of blues, rag and hokum tunes from Mark’s album of the same name.
He was kind enough to send me a copy and here’s what I thought of it.
What You Get
Tab and standard notation for all the songs the Juke’n the Uke album and six others.
All but three of the tunes are for low-G ukulele. Each has a short description with hints on playing and fingering (there’s no fingering in the notation itself).
Short Lessons
Introduction to reading tab, blues scale, bottleneck slide, chord inversions for major, minor, 7 and minor 7 chords, transposing.
What you don’t get: A CD.
The Good Stuff
Adaptability
Learn the patterns in this book and you’ll probably be able to cobble together a version of any number of blues and hokum tunes.
There’s a fair amount of blues licks stuff out there. Which is useful. But not so much stuff that will set you up to play full songs. Juke’n the Uke fits there very nicely.
Because so many blues and hokum songs follow a similar pattern the ideas you pick up in the book (and there are plenty) are going to apply across a huge range of songs.
Videos
There are a few video lessons of tracks from the book on Mark’s YouTube channel. All done in a friendly and accessible way and perfect for people who like to learn by video.
Level of Difficulty
The book definitely isn’t for beginners. You have to be fairly confident with fingerpicking before you tackle it. But if you are then there’s a very good range of difficultly. Some stuff you’ll be able to pick up after a couple of runs and some stuff you’ll have to practice hard to get.
Slide Songs
Four of the songs in the book use a bottleneck slide (the type you put your finger through and play with your ukulele upright). They make for a nice bit of variety and something fun to try out.
The Not So Good Stuff
Low-G
All but three of the tabs are for low-G ukulele. The back of the book says they are, “Playable on any ‘ukulele (low G preferred).” Which, I suppose, is true but that doesn’t necessarily mean they sound good.
Here’s a snippet from the first low-G tune Richland Woman Blues played on low-G:
And here it is on high-G:
The dissonance between the A and the Bb creates a nice bit of tension in the low-G version (where the notes are nearly an octave apart) but earache in the high-G version (where they’re right next to each other). This sort of thing crops up a number of times in the arrangements. And there’s the fact that sometimes the alternating thumb line doesn’t sound right with the high-G.
So I’d say the book is really only for low-G fans. That’s a deal killer for me.
Gets a Bit Samey
Because many songs in this genre are very alike, a lot of the tabs in the book are quite similar. I counted eight in the key of F. Most of the arrangements involved alternating thumb patterns on the G and C strings with additional notes on the E and A strings.
No CD
I was actually going to put this in the “good stuff” section. I hate CDs! And you can listen to the whole album on Spotify and on Rdio. And he has videos for most of the tabs that aren’t on the album. But these ways are restrictive and I think people might feel a bit short changed not to get a CD.
Tune Order
The books are arranged in terms of difficultly. Which makes sense. But I had wanted to play along with the album. But I was using a PDF of the book. It wouldn’t be as much of a pain to find what you’re looking for if you’re using the real book.
Conclusion
Mark’s books are always well put together and full of ideas. But I wouldn’t recommend everyone dashes out and buys Juke’n the Uke like I would Fingerstyle Solos for ‘Ukulele.
The tunes are arranged for an album first and a tab book second. So it’s not ideal for learning purposes. If it’s an area of music you’re interested in I’d definitely recommend checking out Mark’s album and then grabbing the tab book if you want to play it.
Sophie Madeleine – Bei Mir Bist du Schon (Chords)
I have a bone to pick with the end of this song: it really annoys me when a song that’s been in a minor key switches to major right at the end. You never hear a major song turning minor right at the end (watch the comments fill up with examples). It’s the worst sort of discrimination in the world by far.
Nevertheless, it’s an excellent song and picked up a fair few requests when I posted the uke version by Sophie Madeleine and Pearl with the Beard.
It’s worth keeping your index finger barred on the third fret to make for easier chord changes. But that does make it tough on the left hand because you’re barring for the whole song. So if it starts feeling sore while you’re practicing take a break.
Suggested Strumming
For the longer strums you can use old faithful:
d – d u – u d –
And for the short ones just two down strums:
d – d –
The tricky bit comes at the end of the choruses. On the C7 do old faithful then two down strums. One down strum each for Db7 and C7. Two down strums each for Fm and Db7. Then back to old faithful for C7.
On the Fm at “things that you do to me” she plays crochet triplets. But old faithful will work fine there if you’re not comfortable with those yet.
