Black Books Theme

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Despite sounding a whole lot like Tom Waits, the Black Books theme was written by Jonathan Whitehead who provided outrageous and contagious music for much of Channel 4’s comedy output of that era. You can listen to Chris Morris’s tribute to him here.

Curb Your Enthusiasm Theme

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Learn this one for the meme value.

Conan O’Brien – Artie Kendall the Singing Ghost

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One for the ladies from Conan’s Hitler-loving, Irish hating ghost crooner.

Justin Hawkins Rides Again

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Lead singer of The Darkness, Justin Hawkins’s YouTube channel is well worth a follow. Loads of insider insights into the music industry, touring and the rock and roll lifestyle.

The Earliest Show Social Wall Theme

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Funny or Die’s The Earliest Show starring Ben Schwarz and Lauren Lapkus has to be one of the most under-appreciated series on YouTube. And, for realism, it features some music that is both intensely annoying and an earworm.

Bob Marley & the Wailers – One Love (Tab)

One Love first came out in a ska version in 1965. But my arrangement is based on the later, more laid-back and more famous reggae version. You might have noticed that good-time island vibes and togetherness are not my métier. So I’m sure you can improve on my version.

I love the mix of textures on this track. Particularly the sharp guitar stabs, the rinky-dink piano and Marley’s smooth vocals. I’ve tried to include those in this arrangement as much as I can.

Links

Buy the original
More reggae tabs and chords
Uke Hunt Patreon

Watch on YouTube

Tracklist
Jim Boggia – Growing Up
Uheuhene – Home Kapaka
Mike Haysom – James Bond Theme
Miracle King, G Herbo – My Dawg
4stringboy – Rain
EmiSunshine and Reed Elliotte – You Ain’t Woman Enough
Maia Mayeshiro – Vienna
Winchester 7 & the Runners – Riding High Again
We Will Rock Uke – The Adults Are Talking

Nico – These Days (Tabs)

These Days has been covered many times by acts including Elliott Smith and St Vincent. Even Miley did an excellent version. Drake, not so much.

But the song was written by Jackson Browne and first released by Nico. This arrangement is based on Nico’s version rather the more laid-back Jackson Browne version version. I couldn’t resist playing the Cotton picking guitar of the Nico version (played by Browne himself) on the ukulele. Which is a pain in the arse.

Intro: Setting up the cotton picking pattern along with the thumb alternating between the g- and C-strings, the index finger picking the E-string and the middle A.

Except in bars 1 and 3 you start on the g-string and in the others you’re starting on the C-string. I’ve done to complete the descending line on the g-string. That run goes C-B-A-G in the first bar and needs the F on the C-string to finish it off.

Verse: Some more switching of the pattern in this section. This time it’s because some of the melody notes go low enough to fall on the C-string e.g. the final C note in bar 6 and the C-string, second fret in bar 8.

There’s a break from the alternating picking when you switch to one-finger-per-string picking in bar 12. That continues until you ease back into the alternating style in bar 16.

Solo: My take on the solo is a bit more in the Jackson Browne style. Particularly with the country bend in bar 26. I’ve also taken a hint from the descending bass-line and used a descending line harmonised with thirds in bars 24 and 34. The rest is plucking the chords with a few references to the melody thrown in.

Of course, you’re allowed and encourage to do whatever you fancy in this section and make it your own.

Links

Buy the Nico version
More 60s tabs and chords
Uke Hunt Patreon

Uke Hunt turned 15 years old a few months ago. Meaning it’s lasted 14 years longer than I expected. According to WebMD a 15 year olds may, “Get taller and more muscular.” Which is something to look forward to.

A massive shoutout to everyone who has generously supported the site via Patreon over the last year. Not only are they the reason the site is still up and running, they’ve also suggested almost all the tabs I’ve done (and 100% of the popular ones).

Here’s a round-up of my favourite tabs and the goings-on of the last year.

May 2021

– Ukuleles had the largest percentage increase in sales of sales of any instrument during the pandemic.

In tabs: Phil Collins’s In the Air Tonight, Cat Stevens’ Morning Has Broken, U2’s With or Without You and, if you’re feeling fancy, Schumann’s Vanitas Vanitatum Mit Humor

Patreon tab: Alicia Keys – If I Ain’t Got You

June 2021

In tabs: A very folk/country month with Bob Dylan, Iris Dement and Ryan Adams and some TV stuff with Parks and Rec and Taskmaster.

Patreon tab: Jose Gonzalez – Heartbeats

July 20201

– The Big Chord Quiz 7
– Sam and Fred Kamaka got Congressional Medals and Biden nominates Jake Shimabukuro.
– Best videos of the year so far.

In tabs: R.E.M. – Losing My Religion, Travis – Why Does It Always Rain on Me?, Beyonce – Halo and a medley of Louis Armstrong’s What a Wonderful World and Sam Cooke’s Wonderful World

Patreon tab: Pink Floyd – Comfortably Numb

August 2021

– Seven Movies About Music You Haven’t Seen.

In tabs: The Beatles – Till There Was You,
Portishead – Glory Box, Sufjan Stevens – Casimir Pulaski Day and Guns N’ Roses – Patience

Patreon tab: Nina Simone – I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free

September 2021

– SpaceX launch a ukulele into orbit.

In tabs: A David Lynch double bill with In Heaven from Eraserhead and Roy Orbison’s Crying (from Mulholland Drive). Plus David Bowie – Space Oddity and Frank and Nancy Sinatra – Something Stupid.

Patreon tab: Eric Clapton – Tears in Heaven

October 2021

In tabs: For the spooky season: Zombie by The Cranberries and The Buffy the Vampire Slayer Theme. And a Dolly double bill of Jolene and I Will Always Love You.

Patreon tab: The Smashing Pumpkins – Tonight, Tonight

November 2021

In tabs: Red Hot Chili Peppers – I Could Have Lied Somewhere from West Side Story and Childish Gambino – Redbone.

Patreon tab: Cavatina from The Deer Hunter

December 2021

– My ukulele favourites of 2021.

In tabs: Cyndi Lauper – Time After Time, Bruce Springsteen – I’m On Fire and The Temptations – My Girl

Patreon tab: The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl – Fairytale of New York

January 2022

In tabs: Thank You for Being a Friend (Golden Girls Theme), The La’s – There She Goes and The Fray – How to Save a Life.

Patreon tab: Commodores – Easy

February 2022

Patreon tab: Pearl Jam – Jeremy

March 2022

In tabs: A very 90s month with Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit, Blind Melon – No Rain, Marcy Playground – Sex and Candy and some Britpop riffs.

Patreon tab: Nina Simone – I Put a Spell on You

April 2022

– Luthier, Rick Turner passed away.

In tabs: Foo Fighters – My Hero, David Bowie – The Man Who Sold the World and The Monkees – Daydream Believer.

Patreon tab: Toto- Africa

R.E.M. – Man on the Moon (Tab)

I tabbed R.E.M.’s Losing My Religion a while back. So high time I did a song from their follow-up Automatic for the People: Man on the Moon

Intro: Plenty of room to play around with ideas in the intro. I’m just picking out notes from a few chord inversions.

Verse: Just two chords (C and D), a stately pace and a contained melody.

Pre-Chorus: A classic pre-chorus, building up the energy into the chorus. So it starts at the same level as the verse, builds complexity and moves up the neck in bars 26 and 27. Then switches from picking to strumming in bar 28.

Chorus: The trickiest part of the song with chord changes coming thick and fast.

Solo: Another place you can introduce your own ideas. Mine is a similar idea to the intro with notes coming mostly from the chords. I’m also doing plenty of sliding around to emulate the slide guitar in the original.

This arrangement goes straight from the solo in the chorus. So I’ve taken a hint from the pre-chorus and ending the solo with a move up the neck and then some strumming.

Links

Buy the original
Losing My Religion tabs
Uke Hunt Patreon

Joe Hisaishi – Summer (Tab)

Joe Hisaishi is a prolific film composer (I only realised while researching this post that he scored a movie I watched while working on this piece). But he’s best known for his scores for the Studio Ghibli films and for Takeshi Kitano. Summer comes from one of Kitano’s gentler movies: Kikujiro.

This arrangement starts with some palm muted arpeggios before moving into the main melody. In this section, I’ve used the open g-string as a melody note in a number of places. You can replace any of these with E-string, 3rd fret if you prefer.

The arrangement goes full campanella mode in bar 18. Playing one note on each string means you don’t have to move your left hand at all for this quick section. Once you’ve got the picking pattern under your fingers it’s very easy.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the rising bass line here to fit with the higher pattern. So I’ve divided them up. So you play the pattern in G, then the lower bass part in bars 20-21, the high pattern in C in bars 22-23 and the bass pattern in C in bars 24-25.

After a reprise of the A section, the outro closes out with some notes up the neck. Which I manage to flub in bar 39. So play what’s written rather than my screw-up. I manage it second time around in bar 41 if you want to hear how it’s supposed to sound.

Links

Buy the original
More Movie Theme Tabs
Uke Hunt Patreon

Choan Gálvez – Brevity for Anita (Tab)

Today we have a guest post from Choan Gálvez with a piece from his latest book. Here are his notes:

‘Brevities‘ is a collection of short solo pieces for baritone ukulele aimed at the intermediate fingerpicker. In this set Choan Gálvez profits from the extended range, the sustain, and the resonance that this instrument and its tuning provide.

Styles go from renaissance inspiration to Brazilian choro, melancholic waltzes to exciting ragtime.

All the pieces are written for G6 linear tuning and presented in notation and tablature format. Don’t you own a baritone uke? Not an issue: everything is also playable on your low G instrument. Follow the tab!

‘Brevities‘ is available in print and digital editions from The Ukulele Bookshop.

Keane – Somewhere Only We Know (Tab)

Here’s my take on Keane’s mega-hit Somewhere Only We Know.

Intro: All down-strums here to give an authentic dad-rock feel.

Verse and Pre-Chorus: Switching to fingerpicking using a one-finger-per-string set up.

Chorus: Adding some strums here on the Em chord and picking more heavily than before. You can beef it up even further by strumming all the way through the final chorus but you’ll lose definition in the melody.

Solo: A quick and easy solo. It’s one I made up myself so you’re welcome to change it however you like.

Links

Buy the original
More 2000s tabs
Uke Hunt Patreon

Rick Turner, luthier and maker of the Compass Rose uke, has passed away. You can read fellow luthier Beau Hannam’s obituary for him here. And you can watch him playing some Django on one of his own ukes here.

– The Ukulele 2022 playlist is taking shape. With tracks from hip youngsters with a laissez faire attitude to capitalisation mxmtoon and BoyWithUke to classical pieces written by Philip Glass and Davide Tammaro.
– Jack White has taken to sharing the stage with a life-size sculpture of a guy playing the ukulele.

Window Shopping
– Kala Release their “April 1st Exclusives”
– Flight Aqua A10QM and Flight Pathfinder solid body electric.
– Southern Ukulele Store run down some very handsome Kanile’a ukes.
– Grateful Dead uke with an insane price tag.

Patreon

A massive thanks to all Uke Hunt’s Patreon backers for keeping the site up and running. And double thanks go to these legendary patrons of the arts:

– Arthur Foley
– Colleen Petticrew
– Dan
– Elizabeth Beardsley
– Fi Keane
– Jameson Gagnepain
– Jeff K
– Kelby Green
– Kie77
– Leia-lee Doran
– Lisa Johnson
– Monika Kolodziejczyk
– Moses Kamai
– Nevylle Carroll
– Nick Parsons
– Olga deSanctis
– Pat Weikle
– Pauline LeBlanc
– Robert
– T S
– Thorsten Neff

If you join Patreon at the Concert level or higher, you’ll get access to all previous exclusive tabs including April’s: Toto’s Africa.