John Lennon – Happy Xmas (War is Over)(Tab)

John Lennon & Yoko Ono – Happy Xmas (War is Over)(Tabs)

This is my favourite of the post-Beatle Christmas songs. Easily beating out Ding Dong, Ding Dong and Wonderful Christmastime (which has the worst guitar solo ever committed to vinyl).

My favourite aspect of War is Over is the usual way it uses key changes. Most commonly, you find key changes near the end of the song e.g. in Penny Lane. But here there’s a key change before the first chorus (in this arrangement change from F in the first verse to Bb in the second). But this wasn’t the first time Lennon pulled off an early key change. If I Fell starts in Db before switching to D for the first verse.

Links

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Christmas tabs and chords
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UkeTube: Abe Lagrimas Jr, Arya Dhayal

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Tracklist
Abe Lagrimas Jr. – Jitterbug Waltz
Adrien Janiak – Aux Lacs d'Ambin
Arya Dhayal – King of My Kind
The Prettiots – Sunday
Vinícius Vivas – Eureka
Johnny Nash and Arthur Godfrey – Swing Low Sweet Chariot Via @ukeist
Xiao Case ft. Feng E – Pride and Joy
Donald Bousted – Il ne fe trouve en amytie

Friday Links: Warren Buffett, Adam Savage, Cassette Player Ukulele

The Black Friday sale on my tab ebooks is running. With up to 70% off until 2nd December.
– Tyrone & Lesley are crowdfunding their new record Have No Words.
Lil Rev is doing ukulele Zoom lessons. Next up on Monday is 1950s Chicago blues style playing.
Warren Buffett tells Goldman Sachs, “I can just say that, as my number of ukeleles has gone up, my net worth has gone up.”
Adam Savage builds a ukulele kit (The missing audio at the start is on his end, not yours).
Making a cassette player ukulele.
Northampton pub-goers band together to replace stolen antique ukulele
Poppy-themed ukulele raises funds for Royal British Legion
Auction of a ukulele signed by Jake Shimabukuro, John Cruz and Jack Johnson to raise money for Guitars in the Classroom.

Patreon

A massive thanks to Uke Hunt’s Patreon backers for keeping the site up and running. And double thanks go to November’s Tenor backers:

– Alina Morosanu.
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– Nick Parsons
– Olga deSanctis.
– Pat Weikle.
– Pauline LeBlanc.
– Sandi Clement.
– Thorsten Neff.
– Trevor Mccravy.

Joni Mitchell – A Case of You (Tabs)

Joni Mitchell – A Case of You (Tab)

A tab to celebrate the recent release of long-lost demos of a young Joni Mitchell apparently playing ukulele.

I think this is the first time I’ve transferred a song from dulcimer to ukulele. And it works nicely. I just transposed the original down half a step and it fitted perfectly.

What didn’t transfer so easily were the vocal lines. The vocals tumble out of her unpredictably. Which matches the meaning of the song perfectly, but is a pain in the arse to play. So I’ve taken a few liberties and played the song as it felt right to me. I recommend you do the same rather than sticking rigidly to the original or the tab.

In the repeat of bars 35 and 36, I did a little run up the neck. Rather than write the whole thing out again, I’ve included tab for just those bars at the end.

Links

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Goo Goo Dolls – Iris (Tab)

Goo Goo Dolls – Iris (Tab)

I was inspired to knock this one up after hearing Phoebe Bridgers’ recent cover. Which partly explains why it’s in the same key as that version (i.e. F).

It’s a very simple arrangement. It’s all played in the first position. The picking is one-finger-per-string everywhere but the solo section (which is strummed). The one weirdness is the change in the time signature from 4/4 in the intro and solo to 6/8 in the rest of the song.

The only tricky bit is the fast picking in the intro. If you don’t want to tackle that, you can just strum it so it’s the same as the solo.

Links

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UkeTube: BS Roberts, Vivian Kim

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Tracklist
B.S Roberts – Fairytale
Vivian Kim – Sibelius Etude op.76 No.2
Aline Kelly – My Favorite Things
Jack Tracy – A Change is Gonna Come
Harry Jans And Harold Whalen – Soft Shoe Routine From 1929 Via @ukeist
Laura Anglade and Virginia MacDonald – Weaver Of Dreams
Ukulele Nick – Moonlight in Vermont
Vinícius Vivas – Everybody Loves Saturday Night

Damien Rice – The Blower’s Daughter (Tab)

Damien Rice – The Blower’s Daughter (Tab)

While I was tabbing the Frankie Valli track the line, “Can’t take my eyes off you,” kept reminding me of this track. And it’s not the only familiar part of this song. The bridge is a dead-ringer for No Surprises.

The arrangement uses a mixture of picking and strumming. As a rule of thumb, if it’s just one note it’s picked. And if it’s more than one, it’s strummed. Don’t worry about hitting exactly the same strings as are tabbed. As long as you’re holding down the right chord it’ll sound good.

The original is in the key of E. So I’ve moved it up into the more uke-friendly key of G. Plus there’s a key change in the bridge to A. Which carries though into the final chorus making it two frets higher than the earlier choruses.

Having dragged my keyboard out of its dank cave earlier this week, I threw a bit of cello on this track. The arrangement works fine without it though.

Links

Buy the song
More folk tabs and chords
Uke Hunt Patreon

Christmas Tabs and Chords 2020

If you’re looking to entertain over the festive season, it’s time to start polishing up your holiday tunes and learning a few new ones. Here’s a rundown of everything Christmassy and seasonal on the site.

Christmas eBooks

I’ve written 3 collections of easy Christmas tabs: How to Play Christmas Ukulele, Christmas Ukulele 2 and Christmas Ukulele 3.

You can pick up all three for the price of 2 by buying the whole Christmas Trilogy at once.

Chords

12 Days of Christmas
2000 Miles – The Pretenders
A Christmas Duel – The Hives and Cyndi Lauper
All I Want for Christmas Is You – Mariah Carey
Chiron Beta Prime – Jonathan Coulton
Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) – Darlene Love
Christmas for Cowboys – John Denver/Ballard C Boyd
Christmas in July – Jonathan Coulton and John Roderick
Cold Outside – Julia Nunes & Wade Johnson
Fairytale of New York – The Pogues
Fuck Christmas – Eric Idle
Give the Jew Girl Toys – Sarah Silverman
I Wish it Was Christmas Today – SNL/Julian Casablancas
It’s Cliched to be Cynical At Christmas – Half Man Half Biscuit
iPod X-mas – Hello Saferide
Let It Snow
Lumberjack Christmas/Christmases Past – Sufjan Stevens
Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want To Fight) – The Ramones
Merry Xmas Everybody – Slade
No Christmas – Zee Avi
Present Face – Garfunkel and Oates
Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree
Run, Run Rudolph – Chuck Berry
Santa Baby
Santa Will Find You – Mindy Smith/Tripping Lily
Silver Bells – She & Him
Somewhere Only We Know – Keane/Lily Allen
Space Christmas – Allo Darlin
Suddenly it’s Christmas – Loudon Wainwright III
The Christmas Song – Weezer
The Christmas Song Song – Rocky and Balls
White Christmas
White Winter Hymnal – Fleet Foxes
Winter Wonderland
Year End Letter – Garfunkel and Oates
You’re a Mean One Mr Grinch

Tabs

All I Want for Christmas is You – Mariah Carey
Away in a Manger
Carol of the Bells
Christmastime Is Here (from Charlie Brown)
German Christmas Carols
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (Instrumental)
Jingle Bell Rock
Jingle Bells
Little Drummer Boy
Mele Kalikimaka
Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence – David Bowie
O Christmas Tree (Single Note Version)
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
Santa Baby
Silent Night (Harmonics Version)
Silent Night (Single Note Version)
Sleigh Ride – U900 / The Ventures
Various – Wilfried Welti’s Musikalisches Naschwerk für Solo Ukulele
We Three Kings
White Christmas
Winter Wonderland

Ray Charles – Georgia On My Mind (Tab)

Ray Charles – Georgia On My Mind (Tab)

I hastily put together this version of the Hoagy Carmichael classic last week while it was still relevant. But it turns out this song is going to be relevant for a while yet.

My version is heavily based on Ray Charles. But I’ve made a few adjustments. For the intro, I played around with the chords and I added on an old-school blues outro.

The picking is a bit haphazard, but it’s mainly melody notes picked with supporting chords strummed. Other than a few moves up and down the neck, there’s nothing particularly tricky and the tune flows beautifully.

Links

Buy the song
More 30s tabs and chords
Uke Hunt Patreon

UkeTube: Norwegian Uke, Inni-K, The Kid LAROI

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Tracklist
Norwegian Uke – Snappin'
Walk off the Earth – Thunderstruck
Inni-K – Sweet Geranium
Edem Soul – Leave All Your Burdens
Markus Rantanen – Valdemar
The Kid LAROI – So Done
Arko Mukhaerjee – Without You
Aabha Hanjura – Hukus Bukus

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