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.

Christmas eBooks

I’ve written 3 collections of easy Christmas tabs: How to Play Christmas Ukulele, Christmas Ukulele 2 and Christmas Ukulele 3.

You can pick up all three for the price of 2 by buying the whole Christmas Trilogy at once.

Chords

12 Days of Christmas
2000 Miles – The Pretenders
A Christmas Duel – The Hives and Cyndi Lauper
All I Want for Christmas Is You – Mariah Carey
Chiron Beta Prime – Jonathan Coulton
Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) – Darlene Love
Christmas for Cowboys – John Denver/Ballard C Boyd
Christmas in July – Jonathan Coulton and John Roderick
Cold Outside – Julia Nunes & Wade Johnson
Fairytale of New York – The Pogues
Fuck Christmas – Eric Idle
Give the Jew Girl Toys – Sarah Silverman
I Wish it Was Christmas Today – SNL/Julian Casablancas
It’s Cliched to be Cynical At Christmas – Half Man Half Biscuit
iPod X-mas – Hello Saferide
Let It Snow
Lumberjack Christmas/Christmases Past – Sufjan Stevens
Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want To Fight) – The Ramones
Merry Xmas Everybody – Slade
No Christmas – Zee Avi
Present Face – Garfunkel and Oates
Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree
Run, Run Rudolph – Chuck Berry
Santa Baby
Santa Will Find You – Mindy Smith/Tripping Lily
Silver Bells – She & Him
Somewhere Only We Know – Keane/Lily Allen
Space Christmas – Allo Darlin
Suddenly it’s Christmas – Loudon Wainwright III
The Christmas Song – Weezer
The Christmas Song Song – Rocky and Balls
White Christmas
Winter Wonderland
Year End Letter – Garfunkel and Oates
You’re a Mean One Mr Grinch

Tabs

Away in a Manger
Carol of the Bells
Christmastime Is Here (from Charlie Brown)
German Christmas Carols
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (Instrumental)
Jingle Bell Rock
Jingle Bells
Little Drummer Boy
Mele Kalikimaka
Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence
O Christmas Tree (Single Note Version)
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
Silent Night (Harmonics Version)
Silent Night (Single Note Version)
Sleigh Ride – U900 / The Ventures
Various – Wilfried Welti’s Musikalisches Naschwerk für Solo Ukulele
We Three Kings
White Christmas
Winter Wonderland

Now you’ve got your raunchy jello pudding pop costume together, here are some tunes you may wish to bone up on before the big night.

Addams Family Theme Tune
Chopin – Funeral March
Jonathan Coulton – Re: Your Brains
Dance Macabre
The Doors – People Are Strange
The Fall – Mansion
The Gothic Archies – Freakshow
Halloween Theme
Harry Potter – Hedwig’s Theme
The Last of Us II –
Through the Valley
London Bridge Is Falling Down (From Halloween)
The Misfits – Dig Up Her Bones
The Misfits – Halloween
My Chemical Romance – Welcome to the Black Parade
Mike Oldfield – Tubular Bells (from The Exorcist)
Ray Parker Jr – Ghostbusters
The Rolling Stones – Sympathy for the Devil
Gustavo Santaolalla – Last of Us Theme
Skrillex – Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites
This is Halloween (From Nightmare Before Christmas)
Tom Waits – Whistlin’ Past the Graveyard
Twilight Zone Theme
The Walking Dead Theme
Warren Zevon – Werewolves of London
The White Stripes – Little Ghost

Five Halloween riffs/intros: Thriller, Devil Went Down to Georgia, Sweet Dreams, Don’t Fear the Reaper and Jump in the Line

And a tutorial on spooking up your playing:

Spooky Ukulele Sounds

Luis Fonsi – Despacito (Chords)

I’m about five billion views late to this one but with Fonsi’s latest includes a bit of ukulele and this track having a few tasty licks it’s still worth doing.

Update: Well, I can now pretend I’m being hyper topical rather five billion views late. YouTube had to take down the Despacito video today after it was hacked.

To keep the chords dead easy, I use a capo on the second fret. If you want to play without a capo you can use the chords Bm – G – D – A.

Suggested Strumming

If you want to keep things very simple you can just follow the keyboard stabs and do short down-strums on the off-beats (four per chord). For something a little more involved you could do this once per chord:

d – x u – u d u

Which sounds like this:

Strum 1

Or you can go all out and do this once per chord:

Strum 2

Twiddly Bits

The video version of the song starts out with two very nice picking patterns. I’m using one finger per string picking for my version. And it sounds like this:

Intro Picking

A post shared by @ukulelehunt on Apr 4, 2018 at 10:56am PDT

The intro proper starts out with a tasty lick flowing into the picking pattern under the woah’s and wails.

Links

Buy it on iTunes
More pop tabs and chords

The Pogues – Waxies’ Dargle Chords)

It’s St Patrick’s Day this weekend so time for the annual Pogues post. Waxies’ Dargle is a good old, traditional three chord romp. The chords are dead easy but it’s played so fast it can be hard to keep up. I like to play it with a capo on the second fret (or in D-tuning) and use the chords F, Bb and C in place of G, C and D respectively.

If you’re looking for more to play, there’s a list of all my Irish tabs and chords here. And check out Jonathan Lewis’s ebook Irish Tunes for Campanella Ukulele for a challenge.

Suggested Strumming

I use this as the main strum:

d – d – d u d u

Verse and Chorus: Each line is two strum patterns long. So if there’s one chord on the line you play the strumming pattern twice. If there are two chords you play the strum once per chord.

The exception is the penultimate line of each verse and chorus. There you can just play a down strum and let it ring. There is a bar of 2/4 in there while he’s yelling “AAAAAARRRRGHHH” then the drum comes in as it returns to 4/4.

The pattern is different when there are three chords on a line. When it’s G – D – G strum down once each for G – D then twice on the final G. When it’s G – G – D you play the main strum on the first G then one down strum each for G – D.

Solo: Do the main strum once for each chord until the final G – D – G when you strum down once each for G – D and twice for G again.

Twiddly Bits

A post shared by @ukulelehunt on Mar 6, 2018 at 9:09am PST

The solo is a lot of fun to play but the speed makes it very challenging. To get it all in I’m using a combination of pull-offs and campanella elements.

Links

Buy it on iTunes
More Irish tabs and chords

I’ve built up a hefty backlog of game tabs. So this post is splurging them all in one go.

If that’s not enough for you, there are more game tabs and chords here.

Cuphead: Don’t Deal with the Devil

Kristofer Maddigan –
Don’t Deal with the Devil (Tab)

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.

Buy it on Bandcamp
Cuphead

Burly Men at Sea: The Brothers Swim

Plied Sound – The Brothers Swim (Tab)

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.

Buy it on Bandcamp
Burly Men at Sea

Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture: Mourning Tree

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.

Buy it on iTunes
Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture

Life is Strange: Jose Gonzalez – Crosses

A post shared by @ukulelehunt on Feb 8, 2017 at 12:04pm PST

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…

Buy it on iTunes
Life is Strange

Life is Strange: Before the Storm: Daughter – No Care

Daughter – No Care: 7 second ukulele lesson

A post shared by @ukulelehunt on Nov 16, 2017 at 12:34pm PST

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.

Buy it on iTunes
Before the Storm
More Life is Strange tabs and chords

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.

Christmas eBooks

I’ve written 3 collections of easy Christmas tabs: How to Play Christmas Ukulele, Christmas Ukulele 2 and Christmas Ukulele 3.

You can pick up all three for the price of 2 by buying the whole Christmas Trilogy at once.

Chords

12 Days of Christmas
2000 Miles – The Pretenders
A Christmas Duel – The Hives and Cyndi Lauper
All I Want for Christmas Is You – Mariah Carey
Chiron Beta Prime – Jonathan Coulton
Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) – Darlene Love
Christmas for Cowboys – John Denver/Ballard C Boyd
Christmas in July – Jonathan Coulton and John Roderick
Cold Outside – Julia Nunes & Wade Johnson
Fairytale of New York – The Pogues
Fuck Christmas – Eric Idle
Give the Jew Girl Toys – Sarah Silverman
It’s Cliched to be Cynical At Christmas – Half Man Half Biscuit
iPod X-mas – Hello Saferide
Let It Snow
Lumberjack Christmas/Christmases Past – Sufjan Stevens
Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want To Fight) – The Ramones
Merry Xmas Everybody – Slade
No Christmas – Zee Avi
Present Face – Garfunkel and Oates
Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree
Run, Run Rudolph – Chuck Berry
Santa Baby
Santa Will Find You – Mindy Smith/Tripping Lily
Silver Bells – She & Him
Somewhere Only We Know – Keane/Lily Allen
Space Christmas – Allo Darlin
The Christmas Song – Weezer
The Christmas Song Song – Rocky and Balls
White Christmas
Winter Wonderland
Year End Letter – Garfunkel and Oates
You’re a Mean One Mr Grinch

Tabs

Away in a Manger
Carol of the Bells
Christmastime Is Here (from Charlie Brown)
German Christmas Carols
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (Instrumental)
Jingle Bell Rock
Jingle Bells
Little Drummer Boy
Mele Kalikimaka
Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence
O Christmas Tree (Single Note Version)
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
Silent Night (Harmonics Version)
Silent Night (Single Note Version)
Sleigh Ride – U900 / The Ventures
Various – Wilfried Welti’s Musikalisches Naschwerk für Solo Ukulele
We Three Kings
White Christmas
Winter Wonderland

Now you’ve got your raunchy jello pudding pop costume together, here are some tunes you may wish to bone up on before the big night.

Addams Family Theme Tune
Chopin – Funeral March
Jonathan Coulton – Re: Your Brains
Dance Macabre
The Fall – Mansion
The Gothic Archies – Freakshow
Halloween Theme
Harry Potter – Hedwig’s Theme
The Last of Us II –
Through the Valley
London Bridge Is Falling Down (From Halloween)
The Misfits – Dig Up Her Bones
The Misfits – Halloween
My Chemical Romance – Welcome to the Black Parade
Mike Oldfield – Tubular Bells (from The Exorcist)
Ray Parker Jr – Ghostbusters
The Rolling Stones – Sympathy for the Devil
Gustavo Santaolalla – Last of Us Theme
Skrillex – Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites
This is Halloween (From Nightmare Before Christmas)
Tom Waits – Whistlin’ Past the Graveyard
Twilight Zone Theme
The Walking Dead Theme
Warren Zevon – Werewolves of London
The White Stripes – Little Ghost

And a tutorial on spooking up your playing:

Spooky Ukulele Sounds

If you’re looking for something festive to learn here’s a complete rundown of everything Christmassy on the site.

Christmas eBooks

I’ve written 3 collections of easy Christmas tabs: How to Play Christmas Ukulele, Christmas Ukulele 2 and Christmas Ukulele 3.

You can pick up all three for the price of 2 by buying the whole Christmas Trilogy at once.

Chords

12 Days of Christmas
2000 Miles – The Pretenders
A Christmas Duel – The Hives and Cyndi Lauper
All I Want for Christmas Is You – Mariah Carey
Chiron Beta Prime – Jonathan Coulton
Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) – Darlene Love
Christmas for Cowboys – John Denver/Ballard C Boyd
Christmas in July – Jonathan Coulton and John Roderick
Cold Outside – Julia Nunes & Wade Johnson
Fairytale of New York – The Pogues
Fuck Christmas – Eric Idle
Give the Jew Girl Toys – Sarah Silverman
It’s Cliched to be Cynical At Christmas – Half Man Half Biscuit
iPod X-mas – Hello Saferide
Let It Snow
Lumberjack Christmas/Christmases Past – Sufjan Stevens
Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want To Fight) – The Ramones
Merry Xmas Everybody – Slade
No Christmas – Zee Avi
Present Face – Garfunkel and Oates
Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree
Run, Run Rudolph – Chuck Berry
Santa Baby
Santa Will Find You – Mindy Smith/Tripping Lily
Silver Bells – She & Him
Somewhere Only We Know – Keane/Lily Allen
Space Christmas – Allo Darlin
The Christmas Song – Weezer
The Christmas Song Song – Rocky and Balls
White Christmas
Winter Wonderland
Year End Letter – Garfunkel and Oates
You’re a Mean One Mr Grinch

Tabs

Away in a Manger
Carol of the Bells
Christmastime Is Here (from Charlie Brown)
German Christmas Carols
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (Instrumental)
Jingle Bell Rock
Jingle Bells
Little Drummer Boy
Mele Kalikimaka
Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence
O Christmas Tree (Single Note Version)
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
Silent Night (Harmonics Version)
Silent Night (Single Note Version)
Sleigh Ride – U900 / The Ventures
Various – Wilfried Welti’s Musikalisches Naschwerk für Solo Ukulele
We Three Kings
White Christmas
Winter Wonderland

Now you’ve got your depraved nose-hair trimmer costume together, here are some tunes you may wish to bone up on before the big night. Including a band new version of Danse Macabre so you can compare version and judge whether I’ve improved or degraded in the nine years between arrangements.

Addams Family Theme Tune
Chopin – Funeral March
Jonathan Coulton – Re: Your Brains
Dance Macabre
The Fall – Mansion
The Gothic Archies – Freakshow
Halloween Theme
Harry Potter – Hedwig’s Theme
London Bridge Is Falling Down (From Halloween)
The Misfits – Dig Up Her Bones
The Misfits – Halloween
Mike Oldfield – Tubular Bells (from The Exorcist)
Ray Parker Jr – Ghostbusters
The Rolling Stones – Sympathy for the Devil
This is Halloween (From Nightmare Before Christmas)
Tom Waits – Whistlin’ Past the Graveyard
Twilight Zone Theme
Warren Zevon – Werewolves of London

And a tutorial on spooking up your playing:

Spooky Ukulele Sounds

If you’re looking for something festive to learn here’s a complete rundown of everything Christmassy on the site.

Christmas eBooks

I’ve written 3 collections of easy Christmas tabs: How to Play Christmas Ukulele, Christmas Ukulele 2 and Christmas Ukulele 3.

You can pick up all three for the price of 2 by buying the whole Christmas Trilogy at once.

Chords

12 Days of Christmas
A Christmas Duel – The Hives and Cyndi Lauper
All I Want for Christmas Is You – Mariah Carey
Chiron Beta Prime – Jonathan Coulton
Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) – Darlene Love
Christmas for Cowboys – John Denver/Ballard C Boyd
Christmas in July – Jonathan Coulton and John Roderick
Cold Outside – Julia Nunes & Wade Johnson
Fairytale of New York – The Pogues
Fuck Christmas – Eric Idle
Give the Jew Girl Toys – Sarah Silverman
It’s Cliched to be Cynical At Christmas – Half Man Half Biscuit
iPod X-mas – Hello Saferide
Let It Snow
Lumberjack Christmas/Christmases Past – Sufjan Stevens
Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want To Fight) – The Ramones
Merry Xmas Everybody – Slade
No Christmas – Zee Avi
Present Face – Garfunkel and Oates
Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree
Run, Run Rudolph – Chuck Berry
Santa Baby
Santa Will Find You – Mindy Smith/Tripping Lily
Silver Bells – She & Him
Somewhere Only We Know – Keane/Lily Allen
Space Christmas – Allo Darlin
The Christmas Song – Weezer
The Christmas Song Song – Rocky and Balls
White Christmas
Winter Wonderland
Year End Letter – Garfunkel and Oates
You’re a Mean One Mr Grinch

Tabs

Away in a Manger
Carol of the Bells
Christmastime Is Here (from Charlie Brown)
German Christmas Carols
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (Instrumental)
Jingle Bell Rock
Jingle Bells
Little Drummer Boy
Mele Kalikimaka
Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence
O Christmas Tree (Single Note Version)
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
Silent Night (Harmonics Version)
Silent Night (Single Note Version)
Sleigh Ride – U900 / The Ventures
Various – Wilfried Welti’s Musikalisches Naschwerk für Solo Ukulele
We Three Kings
White Christmas