Portishead – Glory Box (Tab)

Today’s tab is the 90s trip-hop classic Portishead’s Glory Box.

The song is built around a sample of Ike’s Rap by Isaac Hayes (the same sample used in Tricky’s Hell is Round the Corner). So the whole song is on an Em chord (Ebm in the original) with descending bass notes on the C-string of E, D, C#, C.

By far the hardest part of the arrangement is the artificial harmonics in bars 21-22 (“A thousand flowers could bloom”) played at the same time as the bass notes. If, like me, you struggle with that bit, you can ignore the harmonics all together and just play it as written.

The solo starts off like the original but I go off on my own from there. I suggest you do the same. I’m using notes from the melody plus a Bb (A-string, 1st fret) that lends some gritty dissonance to the solo.

Links

Buy the original
More 90s tabs and chords
Uke Hunt Patreon

The Beatles/Meredith Wilson – Till There Was You (Tab)

Till There Was You was originally recorded by Meredith Wilson. But, of course, is much better known by The Beatles’ cover.

This arrangement is heavily based on The Beatles’ version but is closer to the tempo of the original. I’ve taken a few liberties including adding my own intro and solo. Feel free to do the same for your version.

I recommend one finger per string picking for everything but the solo. I just used whatever falls under my fingers in that section.

There are a few fancy chords in the arrangement. Including my favourite chord: C7(#5). C7 is already an unsettled chord and adding that #5 creates even more tension that is released when you move back to the F chord.

Links

Buy the Beatles version
More Beatles tabs and chords
Uke Hunt Patreon

Watch on YouTube

Tracklist
Kawehi – Hawai’i ’78
Vinícius Vivas – Eureka
Los Panchos – Perfidia
Ukulele Death Squad – The Publican
Jenifer Cabrera – Another Brick in the Wall
The Pixies – Tall Paul Thanks to @ukeist
Bill and the Belles – Meatloaf Mama
Cammy Enaharo – My Boo
Art Levine – Ask Me Now

Sufjan Stevens – Casimir Pulaski Day (Tab)

Here’s my take on, part-time uker and full time Belieber, Sufjan Stevens’s heartbreaking Casimir Pulaski Day. I also love Mikaela Davis’s harp cover, so a bit of that has snuck into the arrangement too.

The song gets much of its power from being blunt and straightforward. So I’ve kept the arrangement stark and tried to play it directly without too much emotion.

The picking is mostly thumb on the g- and C-strings and the index and middle on E and A respectively. The big exception is the rapid notes on the C-string at the end of each stanza e.g. bars 9 and 17. For those, I recommend using alternate picking as it’s too quick to comfortably play with your thumb.

The other big exception is the trumpet solo, where I switch to strumming to give things a lift.

Links

Buy the original
Tab for Sufjan’s Death with Dignity
Uke Hunt Patreon

Black Pumas – Colors

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Gorillaz – Feel Good Inc

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Jimi Hendrix – Fire

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Luniz – I Got 5 On It

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Not in the original key.

Fleetwood Mac – Oh Well

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Not in the original key.

Rusted Root – Send Me On My Way

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Guns N’ Roses – Patience (Tab)

While not quite in the league of November Rain, Guns N’ Roses’ acoustic lighter-swayer Patience is still a bit of an epic. So for this arrangement I’ve trimmed down the intro and outro and skipped the repeat of the verse and chorus.

The intro follows Axl’s whistling for the first four bars before playing the first solo section. Just a bit of bending to deal with here.

The main solo section starts in bar 28 with some sliding around. My favourite part is the lick in bar 32-33. I wasn’t sure if this bit was going to work on uke, but it ends up fitting neatly.

Things switch up in bar 39 for the outro with some loose strumming and a fun sliding solo section.

I found the melody in the outro (from bar 47 on) tricky to arrange. Usually, you’d have a G note over the G chord somewhere. But the melody sticks with the F# (E-string second fret) and A notes from the D chord. That makes it hard to pull out the chord changes in this section clearly. But if you keep the chord changes clear in your head you should navigate it okay.

Links

Buy the original
My tabs of Sweet Child O Mine and November Rain are both on the Uke Hunt Patreon for concert level backers and up.

Sam and Fred Kamaka have received Congressional gold medals. (Via Ukulelia.)

James Hill has launched a ukulele clothing brand. So far, no oversized Hawaiian shirts or Formby false teeth.

The fantastic Paula Fuga has a new album out including features from Jack Johnson and Ben Harper: Rain on Sunday. I backed this on Kickstarter way back in 2014 and it’s been well worth the wait.

You can hear Paula along with Willie Nelson, The Staves and many more ukulele music released this year on the Ukulele Hunt 2021 Spotify Playlist.

Window Shopping
– Kanile’a’s stunning 2021 Platinum.
– The nutso Blueberry guitharpulele.
– Patent for a ukulele small enough to fit on a ring.

Patreon

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

– Arthur Foley
– Colleen Petticrew
– Dan
– Elizabeth Beardsley
– Fiona Keane
– Katherine Penney
– Kie77
– Leia-lee Doran
– Lisa Johnson
– Mr Daniel Barclay
– Nick Parsons
– Olga deSanctis
– Pat Weikle
– Paulina Banach-Mazur
– Pauline LeBlanc
– Thorsten Neff

If you sign up at the Concert level or higher you’ll get access to all the past Patreon-only tabs including July’s tab: Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb.

Travis – Why Does It Always Rain on Me? (Tab)

It’s always fascinating to see how bands deal with the death of musical fads and Travis are a prime example of it. Their debut album Good Feeling was full of Oasis-y rockers about good times and picking up girls. Which would have flown off the shelves if it had been released in the Britpop era rather than in 1997, the year Radiohead killed off the genre with OK Computer. After the lukewarm success of the album, they shamelessly reworked themselves into a Radiofriendlyhead sounding band on The Man Who (even slagging off Wonderwall on the first verse of the album) and had a breakthrough Why Does It Always Rain On Me?. Setting the scene for Coldplay who released their debut a year later.

The chords for this one are very easy. The only challenge is some rapid picking (which you’ll need to do some alternate picking) and pull-offs.

Links

Buy the original
More 90s tabs and chords
Uke Hunt Patreon

Time for the Uke Hunt Annual Chord Quiz. Test your chord knowledge, theory knowledge and musical ear. The method is as low-tech as ever.

– Grab a pen and paper.
– Answer the questions (using a ukulele to help you is entirely allowed and encouraged).
– Check the answers here (no peeking).

If you’re reading by email or feed reader you may need to click through to the post to see everything.

Chord Diagrams

Name the chord from the chord diagram (the chords are either major or 7, nothing more complicated than that).

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Chord Flavour: Diagrams

All these are E chords but are they E, Em, E7, Em7, or Emaj7?

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Chord Flavour: Listening

All these are F chords but are they F, Fm, F7, Fm7 or Fmaj7?

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

Chord Makeup

Each of these triads of notes makes up a minor chord (e.g. the notes of an A minor chord are A, C and E). Which one? (The notes are listed in alphabetical order starting at C to make it harder.)

16. E, G, B

17. D, G, Bb

18. D, F, A

19. C, E, A

20. C, Eb, G

Chord Progression

Match the MP3 to the chord sequence:

a) G – C – D – C – G
b) G – Em – C – D – G
c) G – C7 – D7 – C7 – G
d) G – E7 – A7 – D7 – G
e) G – Bm – C – D7 – G

21.

22.

23.

24.

25.

Go here to check your answers

Links

Big Chord Quiz 1
Big Chord Quiz 2
Big Chord Quiz 3
Big Chord Quiz 4
Big Chord Quiz 5
Big Chord Quiz 6
More ukulele quizzes

R.E.M. – Losing My Religion (Tab)

The opening riff for REM’s Losing My Religion is a blast to play and fits nicely on the uke. I particularly like the riff on the G chord leading into the verse which I play campanella style.

At first, I was playing the chords with strums. But I switched to fingerpicking for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it makes the chords sharper and more mandolin-like. Secondly, it means you can keep the chords very short (by immediately stopping the strings ringing with your picking fingers) making the sound punchier. Even so, strumming is a perfectly legitimate way to go and lends the tune a different feel.

Things get a lot more miserable once Stipe turns up. I mostly play the verses and choruses with one finger per string picking. You can be fairly loose with these sections and don’t need to play everything note for note.

My second favourite part is the riff right at the end. It’s ultra simple but very effective. Well worth learning even if you don’t bother with the rest of the song as it’ll fit in many situations.

Links

Buy the original
More 90s tabs and chords
Uke Hunt Patreon