If you want to write a hit song at the moment you need an intro with at least two of these features and preferably all three:
1. A minor key
2. Lots of echo
3. This rhythm:
To illustrate the point I threw together into a medley including Sia’s Cheap Thrills, Shawn Mendes’s Treat You Better, The Chainsmokers’ Don’t Let Me Down and Let Me Love You by DJ Snake and Justin Bieber
But I always associate this rhythm (and the echoy sounds) with the fittingly titled Intro by The XX.
This rhythm might be having a moment right now but it’s also timeless and well worth adding to your strum repertoire. The basic strum (from the video above) goes like this:
d – – d – – d –
The important thing to do is to use chord stabs i.e. stopping the strings ringing right after you play them (much more on the in How to Play Ukulele Strums).
The downside with this rhythm is that it does sound a bit sparse on ukulele. The best way fill it out is with some muted strums. Like this:
d x x u x x d x
This version sounds really funky when you speed it up:
After doing It’s Over, Isn’t It? before the break, I wasn’t planning on doing another Steven Universe song so soon. But I got some requests (as I always do for SU songs) and there are some really nice chord moves and picking in it.
In the chorus: you can just do one down strum per chord (or two down strums on Fmaj7 if you’re feeling adventurous).
In the verse: I’ve written up the whole C9 – C – Cmaj7 – C6 line but you don’t have to play the whole thing. You can just play C9, let the g, C and E strings ring while you play 5 – 3 – 2 – 0 on the A-string. Or you can just play the Steven strum on C9 then C6.
For everything else you can use the old Steven strum:
d – x u – u d –
In the verse do that twice on Fmaj7 and once each on E and E7.
In the pre-chorus: The Steven strum twice for everything except the first two G7sus4 – G7 moves (once each there).
In the bridge: Steven strum twice for all Cmaj7 – Fmaj7. And just a down strum per chord elsewhere.
Twiddly Bits
Here Comes a Thought (Tab)
Like It’s Over, this one uses one finger per string picking. Don’t worry too much about recreating the exact pattern. You can try any pattern you like the sound of so long as you’ve got the chords right and the rhythm is similar. The sound quality of the video isn’t great so the picking in the tab probably isn’t completely accurate anyway.
I released a new tab ebook this week: Songs of the States. It has a bunch of fun songs to play (particularly the Monty Python theme). A huge thanks to everyone who has already bought it for supporting the site. I massively appreciate it.
This arrangement is in five parts. All very simple. And all but Uke 3 are played with a pick. Although all could be managed perfectly well with fingers.
Uke 1
Uke 1 is just a two note stab played the whole way through.
Uke 2
Uke 2 acts as the bass so it’s played on a low-G ukulele. (All the others are in standard tuning.) The part is just eighth notes on the open G-string all the way through.
Uke 3
Uke 3 is the one fingerpicking part. Alternating between the g- and A-strings means you can let the notes ring into each other.
It kicks off in bar 5.
Uke 4
Uke 4 comes in at bar 9 and is what I think of as the, “It’s time for baking,” line.
After you pay you’ll get a link to the download page and an email with the link. There you can download the full ebook that contains the performance notes and the tabs. You can also download a zip file containing individual PDFs of the tabs if you want to work with them individually.
What’s It About?
I love taking tunes as far away from what you’d expect of ukulele music and transferring them. And you can’t get much further from a humble uke to a pompous marching band. So I thought it would be perfect to take on a collection of American patriotic marching band pieces, Civil War songs and songs generally full of fervour and Ameritude.
As well as being some corking tunes to play, I wanted this ebook to act as a guide to different techniques for performing tunes solo. The arrangements include a full on strumming chord-solo of Battle Hymn of the Republic, tunes you can play with just your thumb on the picking hand (Aura Lee and Hail to the Chief), fingerpicking tunes and a mixture of many techniques (Liberty Bell).
Practicing a new technique within a tune is more fun than dull exercises and you have a piece to show for it when you’re done. For example, if you wanted to get into campanella style fingerpicking you could start with the slow and easy Taps, move on to the quicker Reveille then onto the challenging arrangement of Yankee Doodle.
Difficulty: Mixed. Some tunes are perfect for people new to solo playing (Aura Lee and Taps) and some will be a challenge to even experienced players (Liberty Bell in particular)
Tuning: High-g gCEA tuning. Some of the tabs aren’t suitable for low-G or baritone (Reveille, Taps and Yankee Doodle wouldn’t work without changes).
Price: It’s going to be $12 but you can get it for $9 until the end of August. (If you’re in the EU VAT will be charged at the local rate.)
Videos: As well as videos of the full arrangements there are also close up, slowed down videos showing the techniques used.
Performance Notes: Tips for playing each tune and a brief history.
What if I buy it and it sucks?
As with all my ebooks, if you buy it and don’t like it just send me message with the email address you used to buy it and I’ll send a full refund. No questions asked.
After you pay you’ll be taken to the download page and get an email with a link to your download.
After you pay you’ll get a link to the download page and an email with the link. There you can download the full ebook that contains the performance notes and the tabs. You can also download a zip file containing individual PDFs of the tabs if you want to work with them individually.
Another fantastic song from Rebecca Sugar. The songs seem to be getting more intricate each time. A pain in the arse for tabbing but a joy to listen to. But there are still plenty of Sugarisms you’ll recognise from other Steven Universe songs such as the prominent use of Cmaj7 and diminished chords.
As they often do, Sugar uploaded their ukulele demo to Tumblr and it’s that version I worked from. However, the finished version is in the same key and there aren’t too many changes.
Suggested Strumming
In verse one you can do just one down-strum with your thumb for each chord name.
The chorus is fingerpicked but you can strum it without losing too much. This pattern works well:
d – x u – u d –
For the second verse (I call it that but it’s completely different to the first verse) you can go back to one strum per chord.
Twiddly Bits
It’s Over, Isn’t It? (Picking Tab)
The picking gets a bit tricky. Particularly when she ups the tempo in bar 13 (something you don’t need to do in your own version). The tab starts at the first chorus and continues through the second verse. Then you repeat the chorus section.
I use one finger per string picking so the picking fingers are all in place when you have to pluck all the strings at once. In the video above I play through the tab once up to speed then once slowly.
