This month’s most popular request on Patreon was Joern’s suggestion of Gary Jules’ cover of Mad World by Tears for Fears. Which is understandable in the current situation. But, boy, is it gloomy. I like some dour music but this one is a little too bleak for me.
On the upside, the melody is very easy to play. Other than the little trill at the end of the verse, every note is part of the chord it’s played over. So your fretting hand just has to play the chords. In the verses and the first part of the chorus I’m picking with the thumb on C, index on E and middle on A.
The tricky part is the riff in the intro and at the end of the chorus. Those parts use one finger per string picking and took me a bit of practice to get reliably down. And be sure to play the “maaaaad world” notes with a little extra force to make them stand out.
Ever since Money Heist hit Netflix, I’ve had a steady stream of YouTube commenters telling me I look like Helsinki (played by Darko Peric. There were only two responses I could make to this: get a giant, angry bear tattooed on my body or do a cover of theme tune. So until the tattoo parlours reopen here’s a tab of the theme Cecilia Krull’s My Life Is Going On.
The first half of the arrangement is played with fingerpicking (thumb on C-string, index on E-string and middle on A-string). Then switches to strumming with a few picked notes in between. The wavy lines indicate roll strums (i.e. strumming with every finger on your strumming hand in quick succession).
You might have noticed that I’m a big fan of EatMyUke (aka Stan) and highly recommend watching his fantastic ukulele medley videos. So I’m delighted to have him on Uke Hunt to share tabs (in low-G tuning) for his medley of Final Fantasy VII tunes.
Arranging multiple themes from the Final Fantasy 7 soundtrack is not something I thought I would be doing as I enter my thirties. Who am i kidding? I feel the path of my ukulele playing led to this very moment. As teenagers, my friends and I were hooked on this game. I’m talking, playing it before school, recreating the fight scenes during breaks, followed by refining them during dinner time then back on my Playstation 1 within 5 minutes of arriving home.
What particularly drew me to the game was the soundtrack. The composer Nobuo Uematsu is often regarded as the Beethoven of video game music. His pieces take you right into the game and add so much depth and richness to an already fantastic game. Some of these songs were the soundtrack to my childhood and have embedded into my life.
What with the remake of the original game just being released, it seemed like a perfect time to combine it with my other passion: the ukulele.
It was a total joy to arrange these special pieces on a ukulele, although challenging, they still translated very well to the ukulele. With a bit of practice, all these are playable by a seasoned beginner.
Tabs
Here are a selection of tabs from the arrangement
Tifa’s Theme
A simple picking arrangement that’s all based around an F Major chord. You really want to utilise your little finger for this, especially on the opening chord so you can slide up the 13th fret nice and easily.
Under The Rotting Pizza
Named after the pizza-shaped disc that overlooks the slums in the main city of the game. It’s got a surprising sense of fun considering how bleak the game is that point. It’s based around 2 chords (Em7 & Dm6) which sound delightful on a ukulele. The chords are separated by two riffs that can be a handful to play in terms of speed. Nothing you can’t work towards though.
Cosmo Canyon
Quite possibly my favourite composition from the whole game. The song plays anytime the wolf-like beast Red XIII is involved in the storyline. All we are doing here is picking out the melody. There’s a bit towards the end that requires you to use your thumb as well as your finger, but it’s all very straight forward stuff.
Cid’s Theme
This is one of the more heroic sounding pieces from the game. It accompanies Cid who is a proud man and the pilot of the mighty Highland (the airship that gets you around the game world). We need to use our 1st finger and our thumb for this one. As we are playing octaves of the main melody.
Aeirth’s Theme
Often regarded as one of the main themes from the game, this one just sounds beautiful on the ukulele.
On hearing of the sad news of the death of Little Richard I had to bash out this classic. Refined and precise, it is not. But hopefully it’s got some of the spirit of the original and is closer to Little Richard than it is to Pat Boone.
It’s just three chords all the way through (G, C and D) with some picking of the melody. If you want to add a Little Richard “Woooooo!” in at any point you just add a A-string, 5th fret to the top of the G chord.
Whitcomb had an incredible career. He broke through in the the 60s with the hit You Turn Me On which led to tours with The Kinks and The Stones. He followed that up with a recording of the 1916 song Where Did Robinson Crusoe Go?. This set off a decades-long career of playing music from the 1910s and 20s and releasing books (most notably Ukulele Heroes). His career encompassed playing on Carson and talking to Google about the ukulele. His encyclopaedic knowledge of the era led to him making an album of songs recreating the music played on the Titanic, Music As Heard On The Fateful Voyage, which earning him a Grammy nomination.
Whitcomb recalled a discussion with The Turtles who said, “‘Ian, those songs that you sing are really funny, why don’t you record them?’ So I did… and I’ve been recording that kind of song ever since, and so my career has gone backwards.”
If you’ve noticed more tabs being uploaded here than usual this month, that’s down to the support of Uke Hunt’s Patreon backers. We’ve just tipped over 100 patrons which is fantastic support and I’m very grateful for it. So a big thanks to all the Patrons. And double thanks go to April’s Tenor backers:
If the number of “I bought your ebook 10 years ago and I lost it” emails I’ve got is anything to go by, a whole lot of people are using the lockdown to brush up on their ukulele skills. So I thought I’d gather together some of the tabs I’ve done over the years into collections.
They’re a bit cobbled together. So if something is messed up, send me a message or a tweet. And if you’d like more of these, let me know.
Links to the individual posts are below. Or you can download all of them in one zip file here:
Beeb Themes
1. Dr Who (I Am The Doctor)
2. Match of the Day
3. Neighbours
4. Only Connect
5. Sherlock
6. Snooker
7. Trumpton
Jazz Ukulele
1. Don’t Know Why – Norah Jones
2. I Remember You – Ella Fitzgerald/Bjork
3. Ja-da – Ukulele Ike
4. La Vie en Rose – Edith Piaf
5. Midnight, the Stars and You – Al Bowlly
6. Summertime – George Gershwin
7. Take Five – Dave Brubeck Quartet
Queens of Pop
1. Ariana Grande – thank u next
2. Billie Eilish – when the party’s over
3. Blackpink – Kill This Love
4. Camila Cabello – Havana
5. Charli XCX – Boys
6. Lizzo – Truth Hurts
7. Taylor Swift – Safe and Sound
UK Comedy Themes Tab Collection
1. Father Ted
2. Fawlty Towers
3. Last of the Summer Wine
4. Men Behaving Badly
5. Red Dwarf
6. Steptoe and Son
7. Toast of London
US Comedy Themes
1. Arrested Development
2. Bob’s Burgers
3. BoJack Horseman
4. Frasier
5. King of the Hill
6. The Simpsons – Baby on Board
7. The Office: An American Workplace
