Theodore Shapiro – Severance Theme (Tab)
The Severance Theme minimalist, making it relatively easy to play. It can feel sparse on the ukulele, but it still retains the original’s eerie atmosphere.
A Section: Played with thumb and two finger picking. The one exception is the Abm chord. I pluck that with index and middle fingers to keep the same timbre as the other notes at the start of the bar. But you can stick with thumb and index here if you prefer.
B Section: Switching to one finger per string picking for the B section. This section is trickier but still very manageable. Start by barring at the fifth fret, then gradually move the note on the C-string down a fret each bar. In bar 11, switch to fretting the A-string,5th fret with your pinkie to prepare for the Eb on the C-string, 3rd fret.
For the giltchy outro, I used Cryogen by Glitchmachines. I wouldn’t recommend paying full price for it. I picked it up for £3 in a sale.
Links
Buy the original
More theme tune tabs and chords
Uke Hunt Patreon
Blur – Tender (Tab)
Here’s a tab of a song that featured in Aftersun, my favourite movie of the last few years:
Blur’s Tender.
Intro: Starting off with the trickiest bit. The quick hammer-on to pull-off to slide at the start of bar 3 is a finger-twister.
When this riff repeats at the end of the chorus, there is a slight change in bars 21 and 22 to watch out for.
Verse: Just a G – F – G chord progression and nothing too tricky in the melody.
Chorus: In the second and third choruses, I’ve included the high “fee-ling” part the choir sings (bars 33 and 46). This involves a slide up to the 14th fret. If your uke doesn’t have that many frets (or you just don’t fancy it) you can just repeat the first chorus.
Links
A massive thanks once again to the generosity of Uke Hunt’s Patreon backers for keeping the site up and running this month. And double thanks go to these legendary patrons of the arts:
And extra thanks to January’s Tenor level backers:
– Arthur Foley
– Brian
– Colleen Petticrew
– Dennis Boutsikaris
– Elizabeth Beardsley
– Ely Fletcher
– Ivo
– Jeff K
– Jon Kenniston
– Kelby Green
– Leia-lee Doran
– Margit Stadlmann
– Mary
– Moses Kamai
– Noah
– Pat Weikle
– Pauline LeBlanc
– Robert
– Steven Pituch
If you join Patreon at the Concert level or higher, you’ll get access to all previous exclusive tabs including January’s: Walk This Way by Aerosmith.
Buena Vista Social Club – Chan Chan (Tab)
Chan Chan was originally written by Compay Segundo. But it’s the Buena Vista Social Club version that is best known. And it’s that one I worked from.
Intro: The intro sets up the chord progression that’s used (adding a 6 or 7 here and there) all the way through the song: Dm-F-Gm-A. The rest of the song is in 4 bar sections, but the intro has 6 bars. Which makes the start of the verse come in at an odd place.
Verses: For the melody sections, you’re playing the same chords at the fifth fret. And that’s interspersed with two bars from the intro.
Chorus: A very similar melody to the verse, but this time played twice through and with a four bar section of the intro.
Links
Buy the Buena Vista Social Club version
More 80s tabs and chords
Uke Hunt Patreon
Monty Python – Always Look on the Bright Side of Life (Tabs)
Diving into 2025 with some wildly unjustifiable optimism in the shape of Always Look on the Bright Side of Life from Monty Python’s Life of Brian.
Intro: Lots of jumping around the neck in the section. But it’s slow and loose, so it’s not too challenging.
Chorus: The tempo ramps up here and we switch to swing time. This bit is my favourite part to play. It has a nice flow to it on ukulele. Lots of use of the g-string in the melody.
Verse: Similar to the intro, but the increased tempo makes it much harder to play. I’ve simplified much of it to make it easier. Particularly bar 19 where I’ve dropped the chords entirely. If you fancy a challenge, you could play this like bar 3.
Outro: There’s a key change here, so you’re playing the chorus in D. It is more difficult to play in this key. So you could play the chorus again in C and no one would notice or care.
I’ve tacked on an “have a banana” outro at the end as a nod to the song’s musical hall style.
Links
Buy the Spamalot version
More 70s tabs and chords
Uke Hunt Patreon
Mele Kalikimaka, Merry Christmas, Chanukah Sameach, Feliz Natal and Happy Holidays! (If that’s what you’re into.)
That’s it from me for another year. I’ll be back at the end of January 2025 for the year of the D7 chord.
If you can’t stand to be without a steady stream of uke, I’ll be posting on Instagram, BlueSky and Patreon. Speaking of which…
Patreon
I’m overwhelmingly grateful to all the people supporting the site on the Uke Hunt Patreon. Without your generosity Uke Hunt would not still be going. And without your suggestions for tabs I’d probably be covering Belgian art rock songs rather than tunes people want to learn. Your munificent patronage of the arts has not been since Renaissance Italy.
And extra thanks to December’s Tenor level backers:
– Arthur Foley
– Brian
– Colleen Petticrew
– Dennis Boutsikaris
– Elizabeth Beardsley
– Ely Fletcher
– Ivo
– Jeff K
– Jon Kenniston
– Kelby Green
– Leia-lee Doran
– Margit Stadlmann
– Mary
– Moses Kamai
– Noah
– Pat Weikle
– Pauline LeBlanc
– Robert
– Steven Pituch
If you join Patreon at the Concert level or higher, you’ll get access to all previous exclusive tabs including December’s: the Back to the Future theme by Alan Silvestri.
Nat King Cole – The Christmas Song (Tabs)
Just sneaking this one in before the deadline. The song was originally written by Robert Wells and Mel Tormé and first recorded by Nat King Cole. It’s one of the chillest songs in existence to listen to. But not so chill to play. There are many big moves up and down the fretboard to deal with. And plenty of unfamiliar chord shapes.
The intro and solo are of my own devising. So feel free to mess around with those as much as you like.
Links
Buy the original
More Christmas tabs and chords
Uke Hunt Patreon
Band Aid – Do They Know It’s Christmas? (Tab)
Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas? is one of the most lyrically disastrous songs ever written. But since this is an instrumental, we can ignore that.
The chords simple; just F, G and C with a few D minors and A minors thrown in.
The melody gets a little fiddly though. And it wanders all over the fretboard. A couple of bits to look out for are Bono’s legendary “Tonight thank God…” (in bars 38 and 39) and the pinkie stretch to the fifth fret in bar 32. You can make that part easier by using the open E-string instead of holding the third fret.
The other challenge is memorising it all. There are no repeats until the chorus right at the end of the song.
Links
Buy Do They Know It’s Christmas (2024 Mix)
More 80s tabs and chords
Uke Hunt Patreon
The Simpsons – Monorail
Billy Joel – We Didn’t Start the Fire
Kendrick Lamar – Not Like Us
Elton John – Step Into Christmas
Death Grips – I’ve Seen Footage
Lil Wayne – Lollipop
