When I did the meme music post I asked on Instragram if people wanted a full version. Turns out they did and here it is.
The arrangement is shortened by a verse and a chorus (you can just repeat the previous verse and chorus if you want those). I originally included the weird solo but realised it was the worst part of an already pretty bad song and took it out. If you’d like to play here’s how I arranged it:
Today’s post is a guest post from Choan Galvez taken from his 50 Miniature Studies for Ukulele. It’s turning out to be an excellent series of tunes. You can check them all out on his YouTube channel.
Here are Choan’s performance notes.
These are the tabs for Study No. 33 – Medium Rare, Please, featuring alternating thumb strokes, swing, split strums, staccato, ostinato, harmonics, and, wait for it, The Lick.
As usual, I’ve made plenty of annotations that you can profit or dismise –fingering and stroking annotations are well intentioned suggestions.
Swing!
First thing to note is that this piece is performed with a bluesy swing, so rhythmic notation doesn’t exactly match rhythmic performance. Actually, when the beat is divided in two parts, the former part is played longer and slighty more accented than the latter.
I play close to a 2:1 ratio, so two consecutive eighths are played as a triplet quarter note + triplet eighth. Add the syncopation and you’ll get into a notation hell and a reading nightmare if the rhythms were to be precisely notated. Beware: your eyes may bleed and your head explode when trying to decipher the following example (the first two bars from this study):
Wikipedia has a decent section on Swing as rhytmic style with some good examples and a description of various rhythmic swing approximations.
Alt thumb
Then, most of the bass line is performed in alternate thumb/Travis picking style. I’d suggest to review the performance notes for Study No.7 – Fairly Late and learn that one (and even No. 21 – Exciting Rag, if you’re feeling brave) before attempting this new one.
Staccato
In bar 8 you’ll find some staccato double stops. As these are played at a fast pace, the best way to stop the notes ringing is to slightly release the pressure of the fretting finger without abandoning the string.
Split strums
You’ll find an interesting set of strokes in measure 12. A couple of chords (Db7, C7) are played split, two notes at a time. I choose to strum upwards with the index finger, downwards with the thumb, stroking two strings in each movement.
Note that the arrows in the notation follow the order of the strings in the tablature, so a down arrow means an up stroke. Another notation glitch! (Would you prefer upbow/downbow symbols instead of arrows?)
Ostinato
Second section starts with an ostinato melodic figure, repeated over different harmonies. I do love the effect it creates.
But you should actually practice the second voice line. It consists of a steady thumb picking on the beat, although this time the pattern involves as much as three strings.
You’ll win bonus points if you also get to play the crescendo fluently ;)
The Lick
A conscious and shameless usage of The Lick appears on bar 19.
Harmonics
The piece concludes with a touch of harmonics. Let’s ask an expert: Christopher Davis-Shannon explains how to play harmonics on the ukulele. Thank you, Christopher.
Have fun!
I’ve considering writing up this one in the past but have shied away from it because of all the lengthy, meandering sections. But the recent “classroom instruments” version they did with The Roots on Fallon strips the song down to the bare essentials and works really well for ukulele. Although I wish my classroom would have had that sweet Kamaka Captain Kirk is playing.
I’ve written up the chords with a capo on the second fret to make things easy to play. Judging by the chord shapes he’s using, it looks like Townshend is in baritone tuning. But I can only hear Captain Kirk’s uke in the recording.
Intro: You can use one strum per chord. Or use the main strum from the verse for the G-F-C move.
Verse: Start off with this on the G:
d – d – d u d u
Then a chnk and an up strum on F. Followed by a chnk u d – d u on the C.
x u x u d – d u
Then the same strums respectively for the D-Bb-F progression.
Together it goes like this:
Chorus: d – d u on each of the C and Gs. This once each for the F-D:
d – d – d u d u
Followed by one down-strum on each of the C and Csus4 chords. Then returning to the verse strum at the end.
Bridge: This twice for every chord before returning to the verse strum for the A-G-D progression:
d – d – d u d u
Outro: Mix up the verse strum with some giant windmill strums.
The intro from the classroom version is very simplified from the original (which meanders all over the place). I’m picking this one thumb and two finger style.
This lick crops up in the original version over the D-F section of the chorus. It doesn’t crop up in the classroom version but I thought it was too good to ignore it. So I gave it a quick ukeifying.
Buy it on Amazon
The Who – Blue, Red and Grey (Chords)
The Who: Chord Riffs
Tracklist
Bridge City Sinners – Run From the Sun
The Who, Jimmy Fallon & The Roots – Won’t Get Fooled Again
Tommy Emmanuel and Feng E – Classical Gas
Taimane – System of Down, Led Zeppelin, ACDC, Beethoven
Remi Harris – Sketches #35
Zoe Bestel and Tobias Elof – The Blackest Crow
tenspd – Voicemail
Robin Evans – Badger Milk
Laura Currie – The Lovecats
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.
Amelia Clark (maker of this Uke Hunt inspired Christmas card) has released a ukulele girl birthday card.
On Video
– Bud Sugar visit Gambia and make a fantastic documentary.
– Anderton’s try out some ukuleles.
– Ukulele made of thousands of pencils.
Window Shopping
– 1920s Rexcraft uke made of sheet metal.
– Big Island HONU solid body electric.
– Kiwaya x Kurosawa Music Shop 60th Anniversary Model.
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 usually find writing tribute posts cathartic. It feels write to honour artists by playing their music and helping others do likewise. But the suicide of Scott Hutchison of Frightened Rabbit hit me in a way that’s still sore today. Nevertheless, I put together a a ukulele version of The Woodpile. Which is a song I relate to so much it could have been written for me.
– One of the joys of the past year has been Einer Bankz’s ukulele collaborations with a vast array of hip hop artists. Back in May Mass Appeal did a short documentary on him.
– Andy Eastwood premieres his composition for ukulele and string quartet.
In tabs: John Williams’ Imperial March and David Beckingham’s take on We’ll Meet Again.
In chords: Father John Misty’s darkly comic Mr Tillman.
– The fourth Big Chord Quiz.
In tabs: Charli XCX’s Boys and Amy Winehouse’s Rehab.
In chords: Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run and, inspired by the Last of Us 2 trailer Doc Watson’s Little Sadie
– Paul Mansell on playing classical ukulele.
– The ukulele that travelled to the North Pole and was signed by Thomas Edison, Charles Lindbergh, and Calvin Coolidge among many others.
In tabs: Leonard Cohen’s Winter Lady and guest tabs from Choan Galvez and Joao Tostes.
In chords: Lou Reed’s Perfect Day.
– 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.
In tabs: Aline Kelly’s excellent version of Leo Brouwer’s deliciously discordant Etude V and riffs from Yorkshire bands.
In chords: The welcome return of twenty one pilots with my favourites song of theirs to date Nico and the Niners
– What’s the deal with augmented chords?
In tabs: A rare ukulele-group tab from me: Abba’s Mamma Mia and You’ll Never Walk Alone.
In chords: Frank and Nancy’s Somethin’ Stupid.
– Halloween season with The Doors’ People are Strange and Midnight and the Stars and You from The Shining.
In tabs: The MASH theme Suicide is Painless.
In chords: Phoenix’s Lisztomania
– Jake Shimabukuro exposed where he gets his amazing uke skills from.
– I officially ended my oft-broken no Beatles rule with Hey Jude, Honey Pie and five intros and solos from The White Album
In tabs: Lana Del Rey’s Venice Bitch on baritone and St Vincent’s New York.
In tabs: Mariah’s All I Want for Christmas is You, Sousa’s Liberty Bell and What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?
In chords: Elton John’s Your Song and The Buzzcocks’ Ever Fallen in Love.
In tabs: Imagine Dragons’ Thunder and all the riffs from Weezer’s covers album.
In chords: Escapism from Steven Universe
– The Billie Eilish takeover of the internet started with Bury a Friend and When I Was Older.
In tabs: Joanna Newsom’s On a Good Day, Tom Waits’s Johnsburg, Illinois and Choan Galvez’s Drama-in-a-box
In chords: ,David Glen Eisley/SpongeBob – Sweet Victory and The Monkees – I’m a Believer.
In tabs: The trend of lowercase only titles continues with Billie Eilish – when the party’s over and Ariana Grande – thank u, next.
In chords: Bob Dylan/The Pogues – When the Ship Comes In and Scott Walker – 30th Century Man.
In tabs: Thomas the Tank Engine theme, Dream a Little Dream of Me and Herman Vandecauter’s take on Georg Philipp Telemann’s Siciliana and Allegro.
In chords: The Billie Eilish juggernaut rolls on with 8 and Bad Guy.
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.
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:
Chorus, Middle and Outro: Main strum four times for each chord.
The solo mostly restates the melody. The trickiest part is the run at the end which requires a big jump up the fretboard.
Tracklist
The Sonder Bombs – I don't have one anymore
Robin Evans – Come On In My Kitchen
Charming Disaster – Blacksnake
George Elmes – Roadrunner
Jósean Log – Canción Sin Nombre
Julián Rodríguez – Lorenzo
EatMyUke – Abbey Road
The Burney Sisters – I Wanna Be Real
Zoë Bestel – Moment of Madness
Honoka – Don't Stop Me Now
Brad at Live ‘Ukulele has an incredibly thorough discussion of how to pronounce ‘ukulele taking in Hawaiian history, overpopulation and punctuation.
The live action remake of Dumbo has some uke action on the soundtrack.
On Video
– Sol Hoopii in Down To Their Last Yacht (1934).
– Building a solid body baritone ukulele.
Window Shopping
– Tangi and Kawika collaborate on a violin-style ukulele.
– Petros Tunnel 13 ukulele apparently using redwood timbers salvage from the Southern Pacific Railroad’s Siskiyou Summit Tunnel #13.
– Vintage Knutsen harp ukulele.
– Pono 8-string tenor.
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