The arrangement is based primarily on the Martha Reeves version. But I do slip in the bass riff from the Bowie/Jagger version which first pops up in bar 4. It helps to break up the long G chord that last the entire verse.
Don’t worry about hitting every note in the tab perfectly. So long as you’re holding the right chord and hitting the melody notes it should work.
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).
Each of these triads of notes makes up a major 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. C, E, G
17. C, F, A
18. D, F, Bb
19. C#, E, A
20. D, F#, A
Chord Progression
Match the MP3 to the chord sequence:
a) A – E7 – A – E7 – A
b) A – E7 – D – E7 – A
c) A – D – A – E7 – A
d) A – F#m – Bm – D – A
e) A – Em – Bm – G – A
I was very snooty about Tiny Tim back in the day. But, now my brain has gone soft in old age, I’ve developed a fondness for him. The more the ukulele world has become populated with people with good hair and nice teeth the more I appreciate him making the ukulele an instrument for weirdos and outcasts.
And there’s lots to love about this song. I particularly enjoy the chromatic rise of the chords in the chorus. I’ve tried to emphasise that in the arrangement. The intro and the solo are almost all notes in the chords plus chromatic notes leading into or out of a chord. I’d encourage to have a play around and insert some of your own ideas in those.
Today’s post was prompted by Douglas and Stephen who requested a bit of slide ukulele. I was trying to think of which song to do when I watched the new Assassin’s Creed trailer that features a cover of Blind Willie Johnson’s Soul of a Man and immediately got to work on it.
Slide playing is noisy at the best of times. I wrote a whole ebook about playing slide, but the number one tip for slide playing is to mute everything you’re not playing. Mute everything behind the slide with your index or middle finger (or, even better, both). And mute any string you don’t want to hear with your picking hand.
It’s mostly standard slide playing. But there is a little trick in bar 4. There, you need to angle the slide so you’re playing the A-string at the 10th fret and the C-string at the 11th. Mercifully, the vibrato there means you’ve got a bit of leeway in hitting the notes.
The third and final tab for Game Day. The Last Dance, the documentary on the Jordan-era Chicago Bulls, had some great 90s music in it. The closing sequence with Pearl Jam’s Present Tense absolutely floored me. But instead of covering any of that, I dusted off my cricket bat RISA ukulele and have a go at this delicious slice of 80s cheese.
The grunt work of the chords is done on guitar (since my IQ drops 30 points every time I play one). That starts with C5 (x355xx) – Abmaj7 (4x55xx) – F5 (x335xx) – C5 with the first chord switching to Cm7 (x3534x) half way through.
I’ve tabbed up the two ukulele riffs and the solo. The first riff is a dead simple one bar riff repeated through the whole thing. The second is a more challenging set of arpeggios. The solo is a blast to play. I kept the half step bend in (A-string 5th fret) but I’ve replaced all the whole step bends with slides.
Part two of Game Day and this time it’s a song from the video game Pyre suggested by patron Xavier. I’m using a capo on the 4th fret to keep it in the same key as the original. But there’s no reason you can’t play it without one if you prefer.
The arrangement has three main sections. It starts with just the melody. I’m using one finger per string picking here but you can pick it in whatever way suits you. The second section adds chord backing to the melody. I would recommend using one finger per string picking here but you could use thumb strumming. The final section has the C-string plucked and a strum with a few little twiddles. I’m using whatever finger comes to hand here so go hog wild.
It’s game day on Uke Hunt. I’m covered music connected to three types of games. Starting with the tabletop hidden-role game One Night Ultimate Werewolf. A game I haven’t played but have spent a lot of time watching charming nerds play while practicing. So inevitably I worked up a version of the song from the game.
As I understand it, the tune uses tracks form the Logic Pro library. So you might recognise elements from elsewhere.
Another bonus week of tabs courtesy of the Uke Hunt patrons. Kicking off with this John Denver classic suggested by Litespeed. It seems many people have it on their minds at the moment. Just in the time I’ve been working on the song covers by Whitney with Waxahatchee and The Petersens have popped up.
The backbone of this arrangement is the old thumb-and-strum. You pluck the g-string with your thumb then strum the other strings (it doesn’t matter exactly which strings you hit, so long as you’re holding down the chord shape). With the high-g, it gives a bit of banjo feel to the song.
From the intro to the end of the second chorus, that pattern crops up everywhere you’re not playing the melody (or that little lick in the intro). In the bridge, it switches to a plain strum of the chord each time it changes. Then there’s a final chorus played in that style. Which means the song starts at the tricky part and gets gradually easier.
A big shoutout to Uke Hunt’s Patreon backers. Thanks to their support, I’ll be doing another bonus week of tabs next week. And double thanks go to April’s Tenor backers:
