Amy Winehouse – You Know I’m No Good (Tab)

This arrangement of Amy Winehouse’s You Know I’m No Good. The chords are simple but effective. The move from Gm to Cm6 (a Cm chord with an open A-string) to D has such a melancholic and resigned feel to it.

Nothing goes above the fourth fret (and even that is only in the solo), so there’s not much movement to deal with.

The only challenging technique is the use of grace notes. A grace note is a quick note you play just before the main note. For example, in bar 8 you play the open A-string then immediately hammer-on at the first fret. This gives the melody more of human touch.

When grace notes happen inside a chord, they’re written before the chord in the tab, but you play them as part of the chord itself. For example, in bar 2 you play 021X, then immediately hammer-on the third fret of the E-string.

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Don McLean – American Pie (Tab)

Here’s my take on Don McLean’s American Pie.

Inevitably, I’ve trimmed this one down from its 8 1/2 minute runtime. This arrangement includes the opening slow verse, then speeds up for the first chorus, then speeds up again for the second verse and chorus.

There’s nothing too tricky to play until the second half of the second verse. As well as the increased tempo, there’s a lot of jumping up and down the neck to handle.

But the hardest part for me was memorising the verses. The chorus has a very catchy melody and a clear chord structure. But the verses are meandering and wordy. The chord progression never settles into a pattern. And even changes slightly between the two verses.

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Watch on YouTube

Tracklist
Mon Rovîa – Rust
Bobby Alu – Sunsets (With You)
Neal Chin & Conrad Cayman – These Foolish Things
Pillow – Desperado, Malagueña & Innuendo Medley
Martina DaSilva & Josh Turner feat. Brandi Disterheft – We Three
Amanda Shires – Tourniquet
Uklectic Fred – Mississippi Blues
Jenny Preece – Run, Jump, Throw! 1 (from Super Mario Odyssey)
The Backyard Revival Duo – The Quiet Life
Ruthie Craft – Nineteen

A massive thanks once again to the generosity of Uke Hunt’s Patreon backers for keeping the site up and running this month.

And extra thanks to August’s Tenor level backers:

– Arthur Foley
– Brian
– Dennis Boutsikaris
– Elizabeth Beardsley
– Ely Fletcher
– Ivo
– Jeff K
– Jon Kenniston
– Kelby Green
– Leia-lee Doran
– Mary
– Nevylle Carroll
– Noah
– Pat Weikle
– Pauline LeBlanc
– Rick Wurster
– Robert
– Steven Pituch

If you join Patreon at the Concert level or higher, you’ll get access to all 67 previous exclusive tabs including August’s Black Sabbath’s Changes:

Eagle-Eye Cherry – Save Tonight (Tab)

I hadn’t thought about Eagle-Eye Cherry’s Save Tonight since the Cretaceous period until it was requested on Patreon. But the chorus is still buried in the back of my brain.

Intro: Just strumming out the chords with a few hammer-ons. Don’t feel you have to slavishly follow the tab here. So long as you keep the feel of the original

Verse: A few challenges here. There’s a lot of movement up to the fifth fret and back, some quick chord changes and some pull-offs to deal with.

Chorus: The chorus is much easier to get in a groove with. Be sure to keep the strums on the second and fourth beats of each bar percussive. I’m almost moving into the range of them being chnks.

Solo: I kept the solo short and strummy. If you want to stretch out, you can double the number of bars (to make it the same length as the original) and introduce your own ideas.

Links

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They Might Be Giants – Doctor Worm (Tab)

Doctor Worm is my favourite TMBG song. And it has been dusted off to promote their latest live album. It’s a lot of fun to play but has some challenging sections.

Intro: I tried a few different ways to play this horn riff. And three of them crop up in this arrangement.

The version in the intro is by far the trickiest but also the truest to the original. If you’d rather avoid playing it (and that’s the sensible choice), you can replace the first four bars with bars 69-72. Or, if you have the chops of Rabbi Vole, you can make the opposite substitution.

Verse: The verses are much simpler. The third verse is especially simple, as it’s just the melody without chords.

Chorus: The chorus starts with just blasting out the strums with the melody alternating between B and C on the A-string.

The chorus ends with the horn riff transposed to Bb.

Middle: The trickiest section of the whole song. You have to deal with the melody whilst the chords alternate between G and C. I highly recommend slowing this section right down when you’re learning it before attempting it anywhere near full speed.

Bridge: A nice, simple section to recover after the middle.

Solo: A very easy solo too. It starts off mirroring the verse melody then descends from there. The bass has much more room to descend than the uke, so I had to cheat it a little.

Outro: Another variation on the horn riff. This time heading up the neck for the crescendo.

Links

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Nirvana – In Bloom (Tabs)

Nirvana’s In Bloom is a nice, easy one. It’s almost all strumming. There’s just a bit of fingerpicking in the first half of the verses. The rest is just blasting out chords with a few extra notes here and there.

The only challenging part is the second half of bar 2 (repeated in bar 30). There’s a quick walk-up on the g-string that’s played with all down strums. If you’re finding that too hard, you can switch to just strumming out the Bb chord.

Links

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R.E.M. – Find the River (Tab)

Here’s my take on a track from R.E.M.’s massive Automatic for the People: Find the River.

Intro: Easing into the song with a very straightforward four bars. Then into some tricky fast picking in the next four bars. Be sure to play the G chord in bars 5 and 7 by barreing the second fret. That’ll make for a smooth transition up the neck for the Gm7.

Verse: The verse is fairly simple. It’s all first position chords and almost all strummed.

Chorus: The chorus is more challenging as it moves up and down the neck. Although it’s still just strumming. The trickiest part comes in the second half of bars 19 and 21. If you’re finding that tricky, Here’s an alternative version that’s easier to play. Although it does require a quicker move down to the G chord.

Links

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Ozzy Osbourne – Crazy Train

Radiohead – Jigsaw Falling Into Place

Red Hot Chili Peppers – Scar Tissue

Lisa Loeb – Stay (I Missed You

Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend (Intro Sting)

A massive thanks once again to the generosity of Uke Hunt’s Patreon backers for keeping the site up and running this month.

And extra thanks to July’s Tenor level backers:

– Arthur Foley
– Brian
– Dennis Boutsikaris
– Elizabeth Beardsley
– Ely Fletcher
– Ivo
– Jeff K
– Jon Kenniston
– Kelby Green
– Leia-lee Doran
– Mary
– Nevylle Carroll
– Noah
– Pat Weikle
– Pauline LeBlanc
– Rick Wurster
– Robert
– Steven Pituch

If you join Patreon at the Concert level or higher, you’ll get access to all 66 previous exclusive tabs including July’s Teddy Swims’ mega-hit Lose Control: