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.

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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

Blur – The Universal (Tab)

Here’s a tab of Blur's The Universal. Real horrorshow.

Intro: Thumb and two finger picking for the intro. PARKLIFE

Verse: Switching to one finger per string picking in the verse (with a few strummed chord stabs thrown in). PARKLIFE

Chorus: And full on strumming for the chorus. The action moves high up the neck in this section and it gets fiddly. PARKLIFE

Solo: Still high up but not as frantic. I found the phrasing here a little difficult to get the hang of. PARKLIFE

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Aphex Twin – Avril 14th (Tab)

If I’m going to tab an Aphex Twin song, there’s only one choice: Avril 14th. Which was interpolated by Kanye West on Blame Game.

A Section: By far the hardest part of the song is the artificial harmonics that start in bar 5. In these bits, I’m picking the C-string with my thumb and playing artificial harmonics on the other strings.

Take a look at 4stringboy if you want to see artificial harmonics done right. If you’re as bad at them as me, you can just skip the harmonics part and play the standard and it’ll sound fine.

B Section: AKA the section that goes on twice as long as it should. Just a jump up to the 7th fret to deal with here.

C Section: The easiest section of the song. A bit of campanella picking while holding down a single chord shape.

D Section: This is the oddest section of the piece. It’s simplified from the original. But it bounces all over the fretboard.

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Watch on YouTube

Tracklist
Ukulele Death Squad – Hands Tied
The Bookshop Band – Eve In Your Garden
Peter Moss & George Elmes – Bye Bye Blues
Tiana Jennings – Palehua
Peyton Kanehiwa – Ka Uluwehi O Ke Kai
kmodo – stuff we did
Gerald Ross – I Only Have Eyes For You
Natasha Ghosh – Espresso
Jenifer Cabrera – Gente humilde

The Newton Brothers – X-Men ’97 Theme (Tab)

Here’s a quick tab for the theme to the revival of the X-Men animated series. Which just so happens to be identical to the original, retaining cheesy metal widdle-fest that was the style at the time.

First thing to do is tune your g-string down to F. This is needed to play the sweep across the strings in bars 8 and 9

The tune starts out easy with some palm muted notes on the C-string picked with the thumb. From then on, there are plenty of challenges. There’s some fast picking and notes all the way up the fretboard. That’s followed by a whole bunch of triplets in bars 13 to 15.

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Macy Gray – I Try (Tab)

Thanks to Lin for suggesting Macy Gray’s I Try for a tabbing. She’s remembered as a one hit wonder, but Macy Gray had a few great songs.

Verse: The first verse is nice and simple, with everything in the first position. Just a few sus chords among us. And the open g-string gets a lot of use in the melody.

The second verse is more tricky, with a couple of trips up the neck.

Pre-Chorus: Just a big jump up to the seventh fret to deal with the first time around. Again, the second time around, things get tricky and you’re playing way up the neck.

Chorus: I love the campanella run in bar 16. It’s a little fiddly to play, but I think it’s worth the effort.

Outro: This section might not be worth the effort! The key change in this song is so iconic I couldn’t leave it out. But it makes the song much more difficult to play. I wouldn’t blame if you just played the chorus in the original key here instead.

Links

Buy the original
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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 May’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
– Margit Stadlmann
– Mary
– Moses Kamai
– 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 May’s: Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here.

Taylor Swift – august (Tab)

Taylor Swift seems to be ubiquitous these days. And there’s no getting away from her here, I’m afraid. Here’s my take on a track from her album Folklore (giving you plenty of time to practice before it becomes relevant): August

Verse: These are nice and simple. Standard chords in the first position.

Chorus: There aren’t many songs that get more gentle in the chorus. But it’s very effective here. This section is slightly more difficult. It moves up the neck for a bit of campanella action and there’s some swift picking required.

The second chorus starts with an A minor chord rather than a C. If you prefer, you can just stick with C since that’s what she did on the Long Pond version.

Bridge: The song changes character here and it gets much trickier to play. The melody is less structured than in the verse and chorus, with a bunch of words crammed in.

Outro: I tried to mimic the way the song drops out for the first bar of this section the second time it crops up. Then blasting in with full on strumming.

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Jawbreaker – Boxcar (Tab)

I was very sad to hear of the death of Steve Albini recently. I’ve covered a bunch of songs he worked on in the past including Where Is My Mind?, All Apologies and Heart Shaped Box.

For this tribute, I went with Jawbreaker’s response to sell-out accusations: Boxcar.

The arrangement is just blasting out chords with a few picked notes here and there. The only thing that makes it tricky is the speed. I found the G-Am change in the chorus particularly tricky to get the hang of.

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