There’s a new alt-J album out. And very good it is too. To celebrate here’s a tab of my favourite alt-J song Fitzpleasure.
There’s a lot going on in this song (as with most alt-J songs). At first I thought I’d have to use multiple ukes to do it. But the melody, chords and riffs are all so strong and elegant they ended up working pretty well on just one uke. The only major part I had to cut was in the, “steepled fingers…” section. The descending riff in bars 59 and 60 should carry though there but I had to switch to chords to carry it off.
I use a capo on the second fret for my version. But that’s only because it makes it in the original key so it was easy for working it out. You can play it without the capo without causing any problems.
What a brilliant song. And one that’s very popular with uke groups. It started life as a half-written Bob Dylan song called Rock Me, Mama before OCMS finished it up and launched their career with it. It’s been covered many times since with Darius Rucker‘s being the most popular.
Like the original, I’m using a capo on the second fret. It’s not essential but it does make the chords much easier and avoids the dreaded E chord.
Suggested Strumming
You can use this simple pattern all the way through:
d – d – d u d u
Use that once for every chord until the last C in the progression where you play it twice.
The first Soundgarden song I ever heard thanks to MTV2’s 120 Minutes back in the day.
For this one I tuned the C-string down to A. Which is the point it starts to get wobbly and doesn’t hold the tuning well. An alternative is to use a low-G with the G tuned up to A. The move everything from the third string to the fourth.
From Soundgarden’s underrated Down on the Upside. It’s packed with great riffs and my favourite album of theirs. But it didn’t do anywhere near as well as Superunknown and the band (temporarily) broke up after it.
Manchester is the heart of the UK’s music scene. And it’s hosted some legendary moments in live music including Bob Dylan’s Judas moment at the Free Trade Hall, the Sex Pistols gig at the Lesser Free Trade Hall (sparking the music careers of the Buzzcocks, Morrissey, Mark E Smith, Jay Division and Magazine), the epicentre of the house scene at the Hacienda and Oasis at Maine Road. To celebrate the great city and its music here’s a collection of Mancunian tunes I’ve tabbed and chorded:
Soundgarden were the most musically adventurous group to come out of the grunge scene. Their songs are peppered with unusual chords and strange time signatures. Both of which crop up in Black Hole Sun.
The progression starts with the sweat G6 and Bb6 chords then lazily descends the neck with trademark grunge melancholy.
I’ve kept that descending move in my arrangement with the chords starting high up the neck. So pay attention to the fret numbers at the side of the chord charts and remember that they’re relative to the capo on the first fret (e.g. the G6 chord is played 8th fret but notated at the 7th fret).
The strangest aspect of the progression comes at the end of the verse. The song is in G but the verse ends with an Ab chord. The chord doesn’t sit comfortably and they leave it hanging in the air. Building up the sinister, unnerving atmosphere and creating tension pushing the song forward into the chorus. Genius piece of songwriting.
Suggested Strumming
Intro and Verse: Here’s a strum you can use for most of the chords in the verse:
d u d u – u d u
Do that once for each chord except the short G – G7 move where you can use this once for each:
Chorus: I like to switch to this as the main strum:
d – d u d u d u
Again, once for each except the G-G7 where you use d-du.
Solo/Outro Riff
The riff in the solo and outro doesn’t transfer too well to ukulele. So I’d recommend skipping it if you’re performing it.
If you do want to tackle it, I strum down once on each chord except on the B-C move I strum down on the B then slide up to C. Finishing off with down on the F and up-down on the G.
This is where the weird time signature comes in. The riff is 9 beats long. I think of it as a bar of 5/4 followed by a bar of 4/4.
