Loudon has a great line in exasperated Christmas songs and Suddenly it’s Christmas is my favourite. The track first appeared on the Career Moves album. But I’ve written up the ukulele version released as a single a few years ago.
The song is in the not so uke-friendly key of E with a key change to F#. So I’ve written it up with the uke tuned down half a step to f# B Eb Ab. That makes the tune in the easier keys of F and G. If you want the chords for standard tuning here they are:
Cuphead is the most hyped game of the year. Unfortunately, I don’t own anything that can play it because I still haven’t forgiven Microsoft for Vista. So I’ve contented myself with playing the soundtrack. And a very good soundtrack it is too.
Like the game’s visuals, the music apes styles of the 1930s. So there’s plenty of big band jazz, ragtime piano and in Don’t Deal with the Devil barbershop.
To keep that barbershop feel I’m using fingerpicking rather than strumming in my arrangement. That means you can play all the notes at once as they sound in the original.
You might not have heard of Plied Sound before but there’s a good chance you’ve heard their music. They’ve scored ads for numerous companies. Most notably Apple. So if you’ve ever listened to Jonny Ive being precious about unibody aluminium and chamfered edges you’ve probably heard Plied Sound.
But they ditched the epic piano and spacey bleeps and bloops for the excellent, folky and ukulele-heavy soundtrack for Burly Men at Sea.
For my version of The Brothers Swim I’m using a low-G ukulele. In the first section, the thumb is picking everything on the G- and C-strings with the other notes played using alternate picking. In the second section (bar 9 onwards) I use one finger per string picking.
Being a walking simulator fan, I loved this game. The highlight for me was the glorious, Bafta winning soundtrack. It was written by Jessica Curry and is full of pastoral, Vaughan Williams style pieces. The Mourning Tree is an adaptation of the traditional British melody Down in Yon Forest which I tabbed in Christmas Ukulele III. When it cropped up in the game it took my breath away and I had to work up a version.
You could just about play this arrangement with just the thumb on the picking hand. But I’m using one finger per string picking up until bar 19. Then I use alternating index and middle fingers for the quick run and throw in some thumb and two finger picking.
I’ve done a ton of Life is Strange tabs and chords already. But there’s always room for more. Particularly since the prequel is currently halfway through its release. Speaking of which…
The Life is Strange prequel Before the Storm has taken a different direction with the music. Instead of a variety of acts, all the music is provided by the band Daughter. Which has made the soundtrack markedly less exciting to me.
But the use of No Care at the start of episode two saved what could otherwise be a slightly ridiculous scene.
The riff is challenging to play on ukulele but it’s just about possible.
We’re about a month out from Christmas so time to start polishing up the festive tunes and learning a few new ones. Here’s a rundown of everything Christmassy on the site.
I absolutely love Lyle Lovett’s understated humour. And he’s written some of my all time favourite songs. So it’s well past time I wrote up one of his songs.
Suggested Strumming
God Will is in 3/4 time. Here’s a 3/4 time strum you can use almost all the way through:
d – d u d u
Intro/Chorus/Solo: Do the main strum once for each chord. Until the fast Bb – F – Gm move where you do one down-strum per chord. Here’s how that goes:
If the fast chord changes are too quick you can just play the main strum on Bb through that change. And if it’s not enough you can go back up (as he does in the final chorus) and play Bb – F – Gm – F – Gm – F.
Verse: When the line has a Bb – F change do the main strum once per chord. Everywhere else do it twice per chord.
Twiddly Bits
Here’s a slide ukulele part based loosely on the steel guitar intro and solo (I wrote an ebook about playing slide ukulele if you want to learn). The main tip is to mute every string you’re not playing so you don’t hear anything you’re not supposed to.
I’m using open-C tuning which means you tune the A-string down to G.
David Beckingham is currently on a road trip. But that hasn’t stopped him filing a tab. This time a mostly instrumental piece from Elton John dedicated to a young employee of his who died in a motorcycle accident.
David plays it with his thumb and index finger only. But I’ve been playing the arrangement using thumb on the g- and C-strings, index in the E-string and middle on the A-string (just switching to one finger per string in bars 13-14 and 21-22). So play around and see which suits you best.
Fats Domino’s version of Blueberry Hill perfectly shows off the roots of rock and roll. He plays the driving boogie-woogie and has blues riff bassline. But the song itself is a country song first released by Gene Autry. So you have this sweet, major key country melody rubbing up against bluesy runs and liberal use of the minor third (the C-string, 3rd fret in my tab).
I’ve tried to keep those two elements in my arrangement of the tune. The verses have the melody with the bassline sitting between the lines (now not at all bassy). Try to separate these by playing the melody a bit louder (I didn’t do a great job of this in the video). The, “Wind in the willow…” section lays off the bassline and has chord stabs in between the melody. Keep those short by releasing the pressure with your fretting hand just after you strum.
To finish the song off I’ve added a little blues run. A great place to throw in your own favourite blues licks and play around.
A good chord progression is all about building tension and releasing it. Which makes the mysterious and unsettled suspended chords, sus2 and sus4, so effective in a progression.
This post should demystify them a little. Giving you ideas for when to use them, how to play them and why they work so well.
Using Sus4 Chords
Suspended chords are neither major nor minor which makes them sound unfinished. Sus4 chords particularly have a bright, restless feel to that pushes a chord progression forward.
The first example feels wrong because the Csus4 demands the C chord comes to the rescue to end the progression. It fuels the progression with momentum.
This move from a sus4 chord to its major chord is the most common use of the suspended chords. A classic example is The Who's Pinball Wizard which starts with a repeated move between Bsus4 and B then continues with a series of sus4 chords resolving into their relative major chord.
In this example I'm using the 2013 inversion of F which means the A-string, 3rd remains constant through the chord changes. Giving the progression continuity.
A great example of this is Prince's masterpiece Purple Rain. That uses G7sus4 to maintain F (E-string, 1st fret) and C (A-string, 3rd fret) notes through the first three chords:
Sus2 is very similar to sus4 in that it is neither major or minor. But it is much more mellow than sus4. To the point where it's almost melancholy.
This aspect of the chord is used to full effect in Radiohead's Paranoid Android with a move from Gsus2 to Gm. (It crops up once the hand moves down the neck.)
Amanda Palmer uses it to similar effect on Bigger on the Inside this time moving from Gsus2 to G.
Like sus4 chords, the most popular move with sus2 chords is to switch between the sus2 and its relative major. On uke this works particularly well with G, D and F (so long as you use the 2013 version of F). What makes them particularly good is that you can play the sus2 version of these chords and hammer-on an extra finger to create the major chord. You can hear me doing that to these chords in this example:
If you've really been paying attention you might have noticed that Fsus2 and Csus4 are exactly the same chord (0013).
Similarly, the chord shape for Asus4 (2200) is exactly the same as Dsus2. So, for example, the A – Asus4 move in Dancing Queen could also be thought of as an A – Dsus2 move.
Every sus2 chord has a twin sus4 chord (and vice versa).
That gives suspended chords another layer of ambiguity. Not only are they not major or minor but also you can't be sure what chord they are.
The Theory Behind Suspended Chords
Chords are all built from scales. For this example we'll use the C major scale since it's the most straightforward. It goes:
C – D – E – F – G – A – B – C
Major chords are made up of the first, third and fifth notes of this scale. In this case C, E and G. You can find all these in the standard C chord:
C on the open C-string and A-string, third fret.
E on the open E-string.
G on the open G-string.
Since the uke has four strings and major chords have three notes you can double up one of the notes in the chord. It doesn't matter which so it's usually the one that's easiest to play.
Suspended chords do exactly what they say on the tin. They take out the third note in scale and replace it with the fourth note in sus4 and the second note in sus2.
So Csus4 will take out the E and replace it with an F. You can play that just by adding the E-string at the first fret to the C chord.
Csus2 will replace the E with a D. That's a bit more tricky to play. First you need to get rid of the open E-string. You can do that by playing it at the third fret (a G note) then add a D by playing the C-string at the second fret.
C on the A-string third fret
D on the C-string, second fret.
G on the open G-string and E-string, third fret.
And, of course, the Csus2 chord shape is the same chord shape as Gsus4.
