Following up on Brave Sir Robin with another medieval parody. This time from the TV show The Witcher. I haven’t got around to watching the show yet, but Toss a Coin to Your Witcher has been impossible to avoid.
The original is in Am so it transfers neatly to the ukulele in the original key. There’s nothing massively difficult in the tune. But the hardest parts are the jumps up the neck. Particularly the one in bar 16. So I’ve arranged it with open strings in the previous two notes so you move up the neck early in preparation.
When I started Uke Hunt back in 2007, the ukulele scene was tiny and largely consisted of weirdos like myself. My goal in starting the blog was to push myself to improve my own playing and pass everything I’d learned onto others. Since then, the ukulele world has boomed in a way that I didn’t think was possible. But still the biggest thrill for me is seeing someone playing an arrangement I put together.
These days there’s no shortage of people with nice hair and white teeth teaching you how to play a C chord. So in the last few years I – being a bald, yellow-toothed goon – have been focusing on more ambitious projects to help ukers play tunes they’re proud of and give them a sense of accomplishment.
To keep that up, I’ve started a Patreon. As well as the satisfaction of supporting the site, you’ll get ebooks, lessons, previews and exclusive tabs.
I’m massively grateful to everyone who supports me and the site. And I’ve got lots of ideas for the site and the Patreon to make sure that everyone who donates gets good value for money.
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Everyone who joins my Patreon gets downloads of two ebooks: How to Read Ukulele Tab and Ragtime Ukulele.
How to Read Ukulele Tab is a revised, updated and prettified version of my tab reading series of posts. It should cover all the squiggles you’re likely to see in tabs.
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Many of his parodies were understated (Let’s be Natural could have passed for a Beatles outtake). But “understated” is not a word I’d use for Brave Sir Robin which Innes performed in The Holy Grail and wrote with Eric Idle.
I’m using the chords from the source himself and tidying them up a bit and adding the intro from the Spamalot version. I’d suggest playing the B7 the no hassle way (i.e. 4320) which makes a much easier transition from and to Em.
Suggested Strumming Pattern
Really simple strumming. You can play just one strum per chord. Although you want might to do two when a chord lasts a whole bar.
The accompaniment for the song fits very nicely onto uke. My version (at the top of the video) starts with the intro to the Spamalot version, it then moves into very sparse accompaniment before sticking very closely to the melody.
Here’s a tab of the melody. Which did need a bit of adjustment for ukulele. I’d recommend using alternate picking or using a pick as the notes are speedy.
When I got my first ukulele, I was completely clueless. This was in those dark, long forgotten days before the internet had been discovered. I didn’t even realise that the strings weren’t supposed to go thickest to thinnest and restrung it.
But you can save yourself from the social disgrace I experienced. I’ve put together a free mini-ebook covering the basics that every first time uke owner needs to know. Here’s what it contains:
Five Things to Know
Five Chords to Learn
Five Patterns to Strum
Five Songs to Play
Five Websites to Visit
Five Things to Get Free
Five Things to Buy
Five Videos to Watch
Five YouTube Channels to Subscribe to
I couldn’t let the festive season pass without another addition to my jazz odyssey. This time the Christmas classic written by Joan Javits and Philip Springer in 1953 and made popular by Eartha Kitt.
I used the intro and turnarounds to stretch out a bit and throw in some fancy chords and chromatic notes. I would definitely recommend playing around and coming up with your own ideas for those sections.
The fingerpicking is all over the place. So do whatever feels natural to you.
If you’re interested in more Christmas tabs, check out my Christmas ebooks.
Who first released the songs these ukulele orchestras are covering?
11. Calderdale and Huddersfield Ukulele Group
.
12. Bolton Ukulele Group
.
13. Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain
.
14. Ukulele Orchestra jako Brno
.
15. Ukulele Orchestra of India
.
Name the Celeb
Which celebrity is displaying their uke?
16.
a) James Corden
b) Jimmy Fallon
c) Jimmy Kimmel
d) Jimmy Saville
17.
a) David Crosby
b) Steven Sills
c) Graham Nash
d) Neil Young
18.
a) Adam Driver
b) JJ Abrams
c) Oscar Isaac
d) Andy Serkis
19.
a) Dua Lipa
b) Selena Gomez
c) Rebecca Black
d) Hailee Steinfeld
20.
a) Lupita Nyong’o
b) Letitia Wright
c) Angela Bassett
d) Maz Kanata
Name the Lyric
Which songs – oft covered on ukulele – are these lyrics from?
21. So you’re a tough guy / Like it really rough guy / Just can’t get enough guy / Chest always so puffed guy
22. There are places I’ll remember / All my life, though some have changed / Some forever, not for better / Some have gone, and some remain
23. And I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know
24. And let me see what spring is like / On a-Jupiter and Mars / In other words, hold my hand / In other words, baby, kiss me
25. I’m falling / In all the good times I find myself / Longing for change / And in the bad times I fear myself
A dead simple Christmas song that’s easy to bash out any time. Like most Ramones songs, it’s mostly a three chord affair (you can replace the G with G7 if you want to make things even easier). Although they do get dangerously avant-garde in the chorus with a minor chord and a 7 chord.
The only tricky part is the chord-slide in the intro from Bb to C. If you’re not ready for that yet, you can just replace the whole thing with a C chord.
Intro: One down-strum each for the first three chords. One down-strum on the Bb chord, then slide up to C and finish the bar with three down-up strums.
From there, do the main strum on the C and dudu on the F and G. For the final C-F-C-G do two down-strums per chord.
Verse: Like most of the intro, main strum on C, two down-ups each on F and G.
Pre-Chorus: Same again with the end of the intro strum for the C-F-C-G.
Chorus: Main strum once per chord for the first three lines. Then four lots of down-up each on the last line.
Outro: Same as the verse but just one down-strum each for the last three chords.
