Joni Mitchell – Both Sides Now (Tab)

This has to be one of the most beautiful melodies of all time. Which makes for a perfect transition to the uke. The arrangement is based on the sublime acoustic version rather than the not so great later version.

Like many of Mitchell’s songs, the guitar part in Both Sides Now is a strummed open tuning with a few notes added on. That style doesn’t translate well to the uke. So I’ve taken it as licence to do whatever I like with the chords.

There’s nothing too challenging in the arrangement, so there’s plenty of room for interpretation. Be sure to play around with dynamics and timing to keep things interesting.

I came up with an intro/outro of my own so I encourage you to do likewise.

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Radiohead – Fake Plastic Trees (Tab)

A song from the more ukeable end of Radiohead’s career (although Dani Joy does a great There, There).

The arrangement is pretty straightforward. The trickiest part is the signature Jonny Greenwood ascending line in bars 24-25. Make sure you play the first verse nice and softly so you can create a juxtaposition with the second verse by blasting it out.

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Tracklist
SeattleUke – Over The Top
Shinyribs – Bitch Better Have My Money Thanks to Phredd.
Keston Cobblers Club – Mrs Dixon
Bridge City Sinners – Pick Your Poison
Brittni Paiva – Easy On Me
Herman Vandecauter – Cacharera y Danza
Evan J De Silva – Volare
Diane Nalini Quartet – Agua de Beber
Nandy Sisters – Ai Giri Nandini

The Cranberries – Linger (Tab)

Following up the Zombie tab with another of The Cranberries’ most loved songs.

The intro has a fingerpicking figure switching between Cmaj7 and G that reminds me of Tonight, Tonight. After that, the original has a jarring fade into the main body of the song. I’ve smoothed that out so it’s closer to the acoustic version.

The other part to look out for comes in the bridge. Because the melody goes below the C on the uke, I’ve had to shift the melody in bars 35 and 36. The transition back down in bar 37 needs to be played confidently to get away with it.

Links

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Pearl Jam – Jeremy

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System of a Down – Spiders

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Lil Nas X – Industry Baby

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Flake Ad Theme

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Silk Sonic – Fly As Me

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Grange Hill Theme

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No Doubt – Don’t Speak (Tab)

Here’s my take on the No Doubt mega-hit Don’t Speak. The second best song Gwen Stefani has been involved with. I wasn’t sure if this one would work on uke, but I like how mournful it sounds on the instrument.

The chords in the verse are a little unusual. The first time around the Dm chord lasts one bar. The second time, it lasts half a bar and all the chords are moved half a bar earlier with an extra half a bar of Dm in bar 9.

The pre-chorus introduces some strums to build up to the chorus. The chord progression in the chorus is great. Particularly moving between D and Cm.

There’s a key change to Eb in the bridge. Which makes it tricky to play.

Next is the solo, which also has a few tricky bits. Most notably the trip up the neck in bar 31.

After that is a minimal version of the verse and a chorus with a slight variation at the end.

Links

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Uke Hunt Patreon

I started the Uke Hunt Patreon a couple of years ago and the support of Patreons has made a massive difference for the site. A huge thank you to all the backers It’s been a difficult couple of years for everyone and I deeply appreciate you choosing to support the site and keep the whole thing going. I couldn’t have done 2021 without that help.

As a bonus for backers, all Patreons get tabs as soon as the video goes up. And there’s a monthly tab request thread with most tabs now being requests from Patreon. There are also more rewards for higher tiers.

Patreon Only Tabs

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Concert level backers ($5 per month) and up also get access to a month free tab. These tabs tend towards the more challenging in terms of skill level.

When you sign up, you’ll get access to all the previous Patreon-only tabs. Including these from last year:

Commodores – Easy
The Pogues – Fairytale of New York
Cavatina from The Deer Hunter
The Smashing Pumpkins – Tonight, Tonight
Eric Clapton – Tears in Heaven
Nina Simone – I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free
Pink Floyd – Comfortably Numb
Jose Gonzalez – Heartbeats
Alicia Keys – If I Ain’t Got You
The Stranglers – Golden Brown
George Gershwin – Rhapsody in Blue
Extreme – More Than Words

Thanks!

Finally, Tenor level backers ($10 per month and up) get their names immortalised as Medician-level patrons of the arts along with these exceptional folks:

– Arthur Foley
– Colleen Petticrew
– Dan
– Elizabeth Beardsley
– Fi Keane
– Jeff K
– Kelby Green
– Kie77
– Leia-lee Doran
– Lindsey Gagnon
– Lisa Johnson
– Nick Parsons
– Olga deSanctis
– Pat Weikle
– Pauline LeBlanc
– Robert
– Thorsten Neff

The La’s – There She Goes (Tab)

Here’s a tab for The La’s’s massive (and only) hit There She Goes. Despite their one-hit-wonder status, they were massively influential and were the template for the Britpop fad that kicked off a few years later.

This arrangement kicks off with the riff moved up to the key of C. That makes things much easier because you can use the open g-string as the pivot note. Things get a little trickier in bar 5 when the chords come in. If you’re struggling with that, you can keep playing the single note version and no one will care.

You can make the chorus easier with some forward-thinking fretting. If you fret the C chord at the start of bars 11 and 13 with your middle finger, you’ll be able to transition into the G chord much more smoothly. And at the start of bars 15 and 17, fret a Dm chord like you usually would and play the E-string third fret with your pinkie.

Next it’s back to the riff with a short solo section. Then the song shifts to A minor in the bridge but keeps the same melody. From there, the arrangement switches to mostly strumming as it builds towards the end.

Links

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Andrew Gold – Thank You for Being a Friend (Tab)

Here’s my take on the Golden Girls theme in tribute to Betty White.

It’s a short and sweet tune with some nice chord moves. The only tricky part comes in the final few bars. Here you’re playing octaves on the C and A-strings while muting the E-string with the underside of your index finger. If you don’t fancy that, you can just play the notes on the C-string and ignore the rest.

Links

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The Fray – How to Save a Life (Tabs)

I’m back slightly later than planned thanks to slipping on some ice like a moron and fucking my back up good and proper. But I’m recovered and back in action with this tab of The Fray’s massive 2005 hit.

The chorus for this one is insanely catchy. And the benefit of playing an instrumental version is that you don’t have to wonder why he rhymes a word with itself so many times in this song.

This one is fingerpicked all the way through. I’m using one-finger-per-string picking all the way through. But you can switch to alternate picking for some of the rapid notes.

The chorus is nice and straight-forward and the solo is very basic. The only part I had trouble with was the verses. The melody shifts slightly all the time. Which made it hard for me to keep track of. But it is nice and compact and doesn’t require anything fancy.

Links

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