I owe all y’all an apology. And not just for using the term, “all y’all.” I thought I had posted this tab months ago until someone let me know I hadn’t.
The Zombies’ Odessey & Oracle (which this song comes from) seems to be criminally overlooked. If you’re into psychedelic 60s pop you absolutely have to check it out.
My favourite aspect of this song is the descending chromic line that runs through the chord progression. It starts with the G on the E-string. Then moves down through Gmaj7 and G7 to the open E-string in C6. Then it moves down to the C-string, third fret before dropping to the C-string, second fret for a D7 chord. Then it skips a fret for the open C note on the final C6.
Uke Hunt turned 12 this month. According to WebMD a 12 year old’s, “brain is able to handle more complex thinking now. This goes hand in hand with his expanding vocabulary. He’s better at putting what he’s feeling into words.” It’s about damn time.
Here’s a round-up of the goings-on of the last year.
– I’ve been trying to improve my jazz playing over the last year. I’ve still got a long way to go. But I’m particularly pleased with how my arrangement of Summertime turned out.
– Paying tribute to the legendary Aretha Franklin with A Natural Woman and I Say A Little Prayer.
More than fifty years after its release and Lesley Gore’s impassioned demand for female self-ownership is still depressingly relevant.
You Don’t Own Me is a masterclass is using music to convey the meaning of the song. The depressed verses are played in a minor key while the forthright choruses switch to major. The song also shifts up half a step three times. Each time making her sound more strident and forceful.
As effective as the key changers are, they do make this song tricky to play. A chunk of the tune is in G#. A key that is uke unfriendly and odd in terms of musical theory. For reasons I might go into at a later date, the Fm chord in the middle should really be referred to as an E#m. I went with Fm though to avoid confusion.
In researching this post, I found out a recent cover of this by Grace managed to stack up a quarter of a billion views without me knowing it existed.
Suggested Strumming
I like to count this tune in 6/8 time as 1, 2, 3, 2, 2, 3.
For the main strum use this three beat long pattern:
d – d u d –
Intro: You can do just six down-strums per bar for four bars. Alternatively, you can pull of from the A-string, 1st fret to the open A-string and follow that with a bar of six down-strums and a bar of four. Which sounds like this:
Verse and Solo: Main strum twice each for the first three chords (G – Cm – D7 in the key of G). Then once each for the next two before returning to the start of the progression. For the final chord, do the main strum four times. Which goes like this:
My version is heavily based on Aline’s version. It’s in the same key and I use the same chords (although often in a different inversion). The melody is largely the same but I do shift the notes around. For example, rather than picking the E-string, 3rd fret in bar 3 I play the open g-string.
From bar 21, I start throwing in a few little runs. I’m just using notes from the F major scale for that. So I highly recommend trying a few things out for yourself and seeing what you can come up with.
As much as I’m a fan of dreary and depressing music, I like pop music to be at least a little joyful. And K-pop has been injecting some much needed fun into pop music recently. And I’m a fan of the way they tend to cram as many styles of music into a single song as possible. So you get little sections like the rock riff in Seventeen’s Clap, Blackpink’s blarring trumpets in Kill This Love, and the jazzy 20’s lick in Momoland’s I’m So Hot that are prime for a ukeing.
If you like these short tabs, you can find lots more on my Instagram.
It’s been very gratifying to see the revival of interest in Queen the Bohemian Rhapsody biopic has produced. Their songs so often have interesting twists and turns, memorable guitar solos and amazing harmonies. Plus Brian May started out on ukulele and picked it up again for Good Company.
Suggested Strumming
Main strum: d – d u d –
Intro: Just one strum per chord to start with. Then you can down-strum on each beat for the build on Bb – C.
Verse and solo: When there are three chords to a line, main strum once each for the first two chords then two on the last chord. Two each on the G7-C. And one each on the last line. Which sounds like this:
The verses do switch up a little. Verse two starts two main strums on the F and one on each of the last line.
Chorus and Outro: One down-strum per beat on the F in the first line. Then switching back to the main strum once per chord until two big down-strums on the F6. Then back to the main strum twice per chord.
Bridge: Here you down-strum on the first four beats of each bar. And switch to down-strumming every beat as the tension builds. For the last line I strum down on the Csus4s and up on the Cs.
Twiddly Bits
Here’s a take on the piano part in the intro also played with a capo at the third fret. It’s a fingerpicked version of the chords with a few bits of filigree.
I love Brian May’s solos. They’re always melodic and interesting. This one uses the Ab major pentatonic most of the way through. It switches to the Ab major scale in bar 8. Then switching the D flat of the major scale for a D natural to move to the Ab lydian mode.
The end of the original solo turns into a bit of a widdle-fest that doesn’t translate well to uke. So for my version I’ve borrowed from the, “someday I’m going be free, lord,” vocal part.
I’m playing this without a capo. But there’s nothing below the third fret so it won’t cause any problems if you’re playing the chords as well.
A highly-entertaining and informative episode of Abe’s Ukulele Show with Christopher Davis-Shannon. And Ukulele is the New Black catches up with Uke Hunt favourites Jim Boggia and Molly Lewis on the JoCo Cruise.
