Weezer – Island in the Sun (Tab)

In a shocking turn of events, it’s raining in England. So here’s Weezer’s Island in the Sun for some sunny vibes.

Intro: Just strumming out the chords. Be sure to make the “hip hip” bits stand out.

Verse and Chorus: Other than a slide up to the fifth fret in bars 5 and 9, this is all stays in the first position. It does get a little fiddly in places.

Bridge: Very straightforward. You can just bash this section out.

Solo: The solo in the original just follows the verse melody. For my version, I’ve beefed up the melody with a few harmonies. You could just play this section like the verses. Or you could go your own way entirely.

Links

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Metro Boomin – BBL Drizzy

The Beaches – Blame Brett

Fontaines D.C. – Favourite

Bowling for Soup – Girl All the Bad Guys Want

Beastie Boys – Remote Control

Bag Raiders – Shooting Stars

Francois Hardy – Tous Les Garcons Et Les Filles

English Teacher – The World’s Biggest Paving Slab

A massive thanks again to the massive 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 July’s Tenor level backers:

– Arthur Foley
– BigHempin
– Colleen Petticrew
– Dennis Boutsikaris
– Elizabeth Beardsley
– Ely Fletcher
– Ivo
– Jeff K
– Jon Kenniston
– Kelby Green
– Leia-lee Doran
– Mary
– Moses Kamai
– Noah
– Pat Weikle
– Pauline LeBlanc
– Robert
– Ryan Grubbs
– Tina Knight

If you join Patreon at the Concert level or higher, you’ll get access to all previous exclusive tabs including July’s: The Chain by Fleetwood Mac.

Howlin’ Wolf – Smokestack Lightning (Tab)

Howlin’ Wolf’s Smokestack Lightning is inspired by a train. So, the number one priority is keeping a propulsive rhythm up.

Intro: Starting off with the riff, which is fun to play. Well worth learning, even if you’re not bothered about the rest.

The intro is a bit off-kilter. You’d expect the riff to repeat twice or four times. Instead, it repeats three times.

Verse: The verses combine the melody with little bits of the riff. I’ve tried to distinguish them by having the riff played in the open position (e.g. bar 9) and the melody played up the neck.

Solo: I’ve kept this simple to match the vibe of the original harmonica solo. But you can always fancy it up if you feel like it.

Links

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Uke Hunt Patreon

Lead Belly/Nirvana – In the Pines (Tabs)

In the Pines is a traditional song but the most famous versions are by Lead Belly and Nirvana. I mostly worked from the Nirvana version for this arrangement and I’ve kept it very simple.

The arrangement kicks off with a short intro. There’s lots more you can do here if you’re in the mood.

The first verse is very simple fingerpicking. The melody is all played on the C-string with just the open E and A-strings for backing. There are a couple of exceptions. In bars 7 and 15, I add a bit of dissonance with the E-string, 6th fret. And in bar 17 the open A-string is part of the melody.

The second verse stays with the fingerpicking but adds chords. The the third verse switches to strums. After that, it’s a re-run of the first verse.

Links

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Uke Hunt Patreon

Oh Shenandoah (Tab)

Loads of people have covered Oh Shenandoah, but the Tom Waits and Keith Richards version is the one I’m most familiar with.

I’ve arranged it three different ways. In order of easiest to trickiest. I’d recommend using this version as a springboard for your own. You can mix and match sections and add your own ideas.

Intro: Just a short intro to establish the harmony.

Verse 1: A very simple way of playing it. There are a few grace notes and an Fmaj7 chord in bar 6. But that’s as fancy as it gets.

Verse 2: This verse harmonises the melody. It’s starts using thirds. Then switches to using a pedal at the end of bar 15 (around the open g-string and A-string, 7th fret). Then, bars 16-17 switch to sixths. After that, it goes back to using thirds.

Verse 3: This one throws around all sorts of curlicues and filigree. There’s a lot of jumping up and down the fretboard and rapid hammer-ons and pull-offs. By far the hardest section, but still not too bad. You can add more frills here if you like. Or pare it back and make it more tasteful.

Links

More folk tabs and chords
Uke Hunt Patreon

Watch on YouTube

Tracklist
Max De Bernardi & Veronica Sbergia – Blue Skies
Jon’s Ukulele – The Nine Maidens
Ornery Broad – Woman of Constant Sorrow Thanks to Colin.
The Wallfisch Quartet – Desert Wind
Twenty One Pilots – Paladin Strait
Krakow Street Band – Hold On Thanks to Colin.
SeattleUke – A Firefighters Lament
Akea808 – Chim Chim Cheree
Taimane – Beethoven, System of a Down, Led & ACDC Medley – New Version

The Flaming Lips – Do You Realize?? (Tab)

There’s nothing too difficult to play in Do You Realize?? . But it is constantly shifting. There are slight changes in chord progressions, melodies and time signatures. Not much is a direct repeat. I found keeping track of everything a bit taxing on the noggin.

Intro: I’ve tabbed the emphasised strums (the little arrows above the tab) for the first two bars. But the same pattern continues.

Verse: This is a good example of what I was talking about. It feels like the chord progression should repeat in the first verse. But it’s slightly different every time. Although the two verse fragments later in the song are direct repeats.

Chorus: Two entirely different choruses. The first has a lot of strums and is in G. The second is more delicate and is in Em.

Break: A brief key change to Bb before heading back to G.

Links

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Yusuf/Cat Stevens – The Wind (Tab)

The Wind comes across as a gentle little ditty. But there are some fiendish time signature changes in the chorus to deal with. This version is slowed down to about 90% of the original which makes it easier to handle.

Intro: A very simple start using one-finger-per-string picking. Which is used here and in the verses.

That’s followed by the main guitar riff. You could play this all in the first position. But I moved it up the neck to differentiate it from the melody.

Verse: Nothing much to deal with here. Just alternating between the guitar riff and the melody.

Chorus: Here’s where the trouble starts. There are bars of 5/4 and 2/4 thrown in along with irregularly spaced chord changes. The second chorus has an additional bar of 5/4 as well.

I found it hard to keep track of. My approach was to break it down. I started by counting out the bars. When I had that down, I tried playing just the chords. Then adding the melody part in starting at a very slow tempo.

Links

Buy the original
More 70s tabs and chords
Uke Hunt Patreon

A massive thanks again to the massive 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 June’s Tenor level backers:

– Arthur Foley
– BigHempin
– Colleen Petticrew
– Dennis Boutsikaris
– Elizabeth Beardsley
– Ely Fletcher
– Ivo
– Jeff K
– Jon Kenniston
– Kelby Green
– Leia-lee Doran
– Mary
– Moses Kamai
– Noah
– Pat Weikle
– Pauline LeBlanc
– Robert
– Ryan Grubbs
– Tina Knight

If you join Patreon at the Concert level or higher, you’ll get access to all previous exclusive tabs including June’s: The Who’s My Generation