Having spent my summer break measuring cotton and watching tench pole-vaulting, I thought this song from Porgy and Bess best summed up my experience.
I’ve done a few jazz tabs in the past (like Take Five and La Vie en Rose) but this is the first time I’ve used a jazz approach and used the tune as a springboard for soloing. In this arrangement I play the melody straight for the first verse. Then semi-improvise around the tune for the next two verses. Each with a different scale.
In the second verse I’m use the G blues scale. The main shapes I’m using to solo are:
There’s an exception in bar 23 (and later in bar 39). That little turnaround lick is adapted from the Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald version of the tune.
I get more adventurous in the third verse and mostly use the G harmonic minor scale. I had fun playing around with the scale. The wide gap between the Eb and Gb notes give it an unsettling feel.
These two scale boxes I’m using:
I also borrow an F (A-string, 8th fret) from the G melodic minor scale in bar 37.
I highly recommend you play around with the scales and phrasing in this piece to come up with your own version. There’s much more on the blues scale and soloing in the How to Play Blues Ukulele ebook.
It was Yorkshire Day while I was on my blog break. So to celebrate I’ve put together some riffs from my favourite Yorkshire acts. Including three from Arctic Monkeys.
twenty one pilots have been hit-and-miss for me in the past. But I’ve been enjoying the three tracks they’ve released ahead of their new album. Particularly the uke-featuring track Nico and the Niners.
There are two main ukulele parts in the song. The first is a straight-forward move from Dm7 (all the strings played at the fifth fret) to Am7 (all the strings played open). The second is a spacey single-note figure in the bridge.
Suggested Strumming
Intro and Chorus: The main ukulele riff uses a ska-inspired all up-strums. Four each per chord:
– u – u – u – u
Make sure you keep these strums short by muting them with the side of your strumming hand right after playing them. You can do this quite forcefully. You can hear a percussive click on these as Tyler brings his hand down hard to cut the strums short.
Verse 1, Final Chorus and Outro: Once the uke part cuts out you can use whichever ska-flavoured strum you like (I cover a bunch of ska and reggae strums in How to Play Ukulele Strums). I like to do this once per chord:
– – d u – – d –
Bridge: For the first half of these I just do one down-strum per chord. Then for the second half I use the strum from verse 1. So together they sound like this:
The third and final guest tab from the trio of exceptional ukers comes from Brazilian ukulelist João Tostes’s album naturæ which you can download mp3s and tabs for free on his website. The album is a collection of richly textured and pristinely delivered ukulele instrumentals backed by bass and piano. Highly recommend giving it a listen.
The tab I’ve chosen to feature is a rapid-fire piece whose tension-filled opening alternates the open g-string with a descending line on the C-string.
Excellent barcelonés ukulelist and friend of the blog, Choan Gálvez has a new album out 10 minutos para ukelele solo. As well as being packed with fantastic playing and catchy tunes, he also includes tab for every song. Well worth €4 of your money. Choan was kind enough to let me post the tab of my favourite track from the album Jiga de los buenos días.
The piece is played in a campanella style and is challenging to play in some sections. Very rewarding when you get it down. Which I haven’t yet. But Jonathan Lewis has and here’s his version:
Today I’m very pleased to be able to post a trio of guest tabs from three exceptional ukers. Starting with this arrangement by David Beckingham.
David’s selection this time comes from Leonard Cohen. I’ve been very obvious with my Cohen choices having done Suzanne and Hallelujah. But Dave’s been more adventurous with Winter Lady from Cohen’s 1967 debut album.
The arrangement uses fCEA tuning. So tune your g-string down to F before you tackle the tab.
Videos
