If you want to play Street Spirit on the ukulele, just forget it. Impossible. Can’t be done. Having said that…

…if you make enough changes, you can move it from ‘impossible’ to the merely ‘too difficult to bother attempting’. With that in mind, I’ve tabbed out a difficult version based on the guitar part and come up with an easier version which fits more comfortably on the uke.

Difficult Version

For the ukulele version, I’ve transposed everything up 3 frets (so it’s in C minor rather than A minor). Here’s the first, and most played, riff in the song:

Part 1 midi

For the right hand picking, I use my index finger on the E-string, middle finger on the A-string and thumb to cover the other two. I’ve also put some fretting hand suggestions in the tab. Strictly speaking, the second note of this tab should be the G-string open, but this makes the right hand picking much more tricky.

The second little riff (“All these things…”) is a little trickier.

Part 2 midi

The G at the beginning of the bar is an octave above where it should be. Try to bar your little finger across the E and A strings for those notes at the tenth fret. Otherwise, it’s a big jump down to the sixth fret.

And the tab for the chorus:

Part 3 midi

If I was attempting this song (which I’m not, because it’s impossible), I’d just play the chords for this section (Eb, Gm, Cm) even in the hard version.

Easy Version

This first part of the song is derived from the vocal melody and the picking pattern.

Midi

If you wanted to make it even easier, you could strum out these shapes. So it would be 0033 for the first half of the first bar, then 0233 for half a bar, 0333 for half a bar and so on.

For the next section, I hold down a Gm chord shape and pick with one finger for each string (thumb on the G-string, first finger on the C-string etc.

Midi

For the chorus, take a breather and just strum out the chords Bb, Gm, Cm.

Here’s a pdf of all the tabs:

Street Spirit (Tab)

Hammer-Ons and Pull-Offs

Hammer-Ons

Hammer-ons are produced by plucking a note on the uke then ‘hammering on’ a finger at a higher fret – making the sound of the higher note without picking it. You can watch this being done here.

Example 1

In tab, hammer-ons are shown by an arch between the two notes (with the second note always being higher than the first). These arches can appear above or below the notes themselves.

Here the string is being played open, then the middle finger hammers-on at the second fret (without the string being repicked).

Some tabs will represent a hammer-on with an ‘h’ between the notes.

Pull-Offs

Pull-offs are the opposite of hammer-ons. They are produced by playing one note then lifting your fretting finger off the string so that a lower note sounds. You can watch it being done here.

Example 2

The tab for pull-offs is also the opposite of that for hammer-ons. Again, there is an arch between the two notes but this time the first note is higher than the second.

Here the string is being played second fret, then the middle finger pulls-off the string (without the string being repicked) to let the open string sound.

Some tabs will represent pull offs with a ‘p’ between the notes.

Hammer-Ons and Pull-Offs

You can have a combination of hammer-ons and pull-offs in a single run. In this case, there is an arch over all the notes that are produced by hammering-on or pulling-off rather than being picked.

Example 3

Read the rest of the series here: How to Read Ukulele Tab.

This series was derived from my ebook Ukulele 101: 101 Things Every Ukulele Player Needs to Know.

Colbie Caillat – Tied Down (Chords)

With its laid back island vibes, it no surprise that Colbie Caillat‘s summer hit Bubbly inspired plenty of ukulele covers, despite using the term ‘bubbly face’ as a compliment.

Her album also features a similarly laid back catchy tune played on uke: Tied Down. It’s also very simple to play. Most of the chords will be very familiar to you (F, Am, G, C). You might not recognise C6 but it’s just all the strings open.

The strumming pattern is also pretty simple. Strum up, down, up four times for each chord. After the second up strum, stop the strings ringing by bringing your picking hand down on the strings – or do a chnk.

Interestingly, the chords in the live version are slightly different. Instead of F and C6 in the verse, it’s F6 and C. Well, it’s interesting to a nerd like me.

I’ve gone and set up a community to run alongside Uke Hunt.

It’s called (rather cheesily, I admit) YouKulele. It’s got a bunch of web 2.0 type features. You can see them in action on my profile here. You can upload mp3s, videos and photos, blog and make friends. The message board, and this is my favourite part, lets you record videos or mp3s as a reply. Which could come in handy in musical discussions.

Go here to sign up and get your own profile.

Once you’ve uploaded your mp3, you can embed it pretty much anywhere you can put html code thusly:

.
.If you’re reading by email or in a feed reader, come over to the site to check it out.

You can also embed videos and various ‘widgets’. Head over and see what you think to it. And don’t forget to friend me up.

Ukulele de Chocobo (Chords)

Final Fantasy is one of those games that completely passed me by and I’ve never actually played any of the Police Academy sized oeuvre. What didn’t pass me by is the fact that ukuleles crop up in the ninth version of the game. Ukulele de Chocobo is the tune that starts playing every time you jump on board a Chocobo (like getting a piggy back from Big Bird). You can hear it in the game itself here. That clip also has Aloha de Chocobo – another uke tune which I’ll probably work out sometime.

I’ve written up the chords in tab form – to give you a better idea of where the changes come. In the original key, the melody goes a little too high for comfort on the uke:

Ukulele de Chocobo (Tab)

It’s much more comfortable if you shift it down five frets:

Ukulele de Chocobo (Tab in G)

If you want to play the accompaniment to this version, you’ll have to transpose the chords from C to G.

Far too many videos this week. A couple of Hawaiian masters, a ukulele/melodica cover of Beck, GUGUG, a bit of English folk music, loads of other stuff. Click More to see them all. Read the rest of this entry »

Uke Hunt’s Rag Bag is a new page I’ve put up of tab and chords I’ve done but not posted (yet). There are various reasons why I haven’t posted them, so you’ll just have to take your chances.

Let’s Play Ukulele is a really interesting new site. It takes chords from guitar sites and adds uke chords to them. The site is still in its early stages of development, but it’s well worth checking out. Particularly fun is its integration with Last.fm. You put in your username and it’ll show you chords for songs you’ve been listening to. If you’re a fan of The Pipettes or Half Man, Half Biscuit, you won’t be able to get away from me.

Ukulele Underground will be running a draw this month to win yourself a Kala Soprano. All you have to do is sign up for their forum and leave a message in the Ukulele Giveaway Thread. If you do, I’d appreciate it if you put, “I was referred by Uke Hunt,” or words to that effect, because I want to win too.

Two ukulele festivals for the price of one. Attend the Stockholm Ukulele Festival, join all the ukers on the official uke cruise, then visit the Finnish Ukulele Festival. This is part of the new Nordic Ukulele Alliance intended to encourage more ukulele players to tour the region. If you’re interested in the festival or performing up there get in touch with Juha.

Australia’s North Coast Ukulele Collective has a bunch of song sheets available for download. One of their number, Michael Connor is a luthier and makes some gorgeous ukes. Go and check out his site.

Jason at Ukulele for Sale has been writing some interesting and indepth reviews of some of the Rigk Sauer’s video report of the NAMM Show.

The Word elects Victoria Vox, “the ukulele lady we would most like to date.” I’m sure there’s a lengthy discussion to be had on that topic.

Ladies, worried about breaking a fingernail while strumming? Jeff sent me this photo with the perfect solution.

Watch the debut perfomance of Taimane Gardner (after a bit of Jake). “She’s somewhat of a ham,” no kidding – don’t miss the moonwalk at the end.

Sex, Drugs, and Ukuleles: A musical comedy by NY Ukes‘ Uke Jackson.

Ukulele the film. “How far can the love of a man and his ukulele go?”

World’s second richest man attempts to avert a recession by playing his ukulele at a stockholders’ meeting.

La vidéo Ukulélé du jour has a fantastic version of AC/DC’s Back in Black on Tahitian ukulele.

Germany’s Got Talent – and a headache I should think.

The uke that’s most tempting me to reach into my pocket at the moment is the Kelii Koa Pili Koko. The ukes are solid wood and, while not actually koa, are made from a close relative of the koa. They’re as pretty as koa and sound very similar judging by this video by musicguymic.

But the most attractive thing about them is the price:$219 for the soprano, $249 for the concert and $289 for the tenor. You’d be hard pushed to find a better deal than that on a solid wood uke.

Another new Flea design: the Ivy Flea Ukulele.

There are plenty of pictures of Lightspeed Champion with a ukulele but it’s not often you see him playing the ukulele. I was hoping there’d be a little uke on his new album, but no such luck. So, I’ve written up his latest single Tell Me What It’s Worth.

The only potential stumbling block with the chords is the Fmaj7. You can make it easier to get to in the chorus by fretting the C chord with your index finger rather than the ring finger. But that’s not going to help you in the middle section where it goes from G to Fmaj7. If you find it too big of a jump, play the standard F chord there (you can use the standard F chord in the chorus too, it’ll sound right).

The song’s guitar solo sounds really good on the uke if you use the re-entrant string and let the notes ring into each other like this:

This creates a cascading effect. Much more interesting than the boring guitar way of doing it:

I’ve just released a brand new ebook called, “Ukulele 101: 101 Things Every Ukulele Player Needs to Know.”

When I’ve been looking through beginners ukulele books, I’ve always been a little frustrated about the things they leave out. They teach you to strum and play a few chords, maybe play a nursery rhyme or too, but leave out so many things. These might not be about physically playing songs on the ukulele, but are essential knowledge for people wanting to get the most out of the ukulele such as which ukulele to buy, how to look after it, the best ways to practice. In particular, books rarely even mention all the ukulele related resources that are online.

Ukulele 101 is intended as kind of a Ukulele Beginners Book 2.0. It fills in the blanks that other books leave.

You can read more about it and buy it here.

Some of the information in the book has been rejigged from posts on my blog (and some of it will turn up there in future) so if you want a taste of the book, check out my how to read tab series.

The book answers a hundred and one questions (questions people have asked me, questions that often crop up in forums etc.), these questions, to be exact:

Buying a Ukulele

1. Where should I buy a ukulele?
2. Which Size Ukulele Should I Buy?
3. How Much Should I Spend?
4. What’s the best ukulele for under $50?
5. What’s the best ukulele for under $100?
6. What should I bear in mind when buying on eBay?
7. What sort of wood should a ukulele be?
8. I’m left-handed, do I need to buy a left handed ukulele?
9. What’s better geared or friction tuners?
10. Should I buy a banjo ukulele?
11. Should I buy an electric ukulele?
12. What’s a ‘low-G’ ukulele and should I buy one?

Strings

13. Does it matter what strings I use?
14. Which strings should I buy?
15. How do I replace strings?
16. How often should I replace strings?
17. Do I need different strings for different sizes of ukulele?
18. Do I need different strings for C-tuning and D-tuning?
19. Can I use guitar/mandolin/banjo strings on a ukulele?
20. How do I make strings last longer?

Ukulele Online

21. Where can I find tab and chords online?
22. Where can I learn chord shapes online?
23. Where can I find ukulele lessons and tutorials online?
24. What ukulele forums are there online?
25. Where can I hear ukulele music online?
26. How can I pick up a bargain on eBay?
27.What ukulele blogs are there?
28. Which YouTube channels should I be watching?
29. Where else can I find ukulele videos?

Making A Good Sound

30. How can I hear how I sound?
31. How should I hold the ukulele?
32. Where should I strum?
33. Can I use a guitar pick?
34. How can I look after my uke?
35. Why won’t my ukulele stay in tune?
36. What should I wear when I’m playing the ukulele?

Recording

37. What’s the best portable recorder?
38. What microphone should I get?
39. What software should I use?
40. How far from the mic should I be?
41. How can I put my music on the internet?
42. How can I sell my music on the internet?

Fonts, Software and Other Downloads

43. How can I put ukulele chord charts in word processing documents?
44. How can I make my own ukulele tabs?
45. How can I get in tune with my computer?
46. Where can I get a metronome online?
47. How can I improve my ear?
48. Where can I get ukulele icons?

Adjusting Your Ukulele

49. That sounds scary, should I do it?
50. What is intonation?
51. How can I measure how good my ukulele’s intonation is?
52. How can I improve my ukulele’s intonation?
53. How can I stop my ukulele buzzing?

Ukulele Accessories

54. How can I plug my ukulele into an amplifier?
55. Do I need to buy a tuner?
56. What’s a capo?
57. Do I need a strap?
58. Can I play the ukulele with a guitar pick?
59. Should I buy a metronome?

Practicing

60. How often should I practice?
61. Do I need to warm up?
62. What’s the most important thing when practicing?
63. How can I play faster?
64. Do I need to use a metronome when I practice?

Chord Charts

65. How do you read ukulele chord charts?
66. Why are there different chord shapes for the same chord?

Tab and Techniques

67. How are strings tabbed?
68. How are notes tabbed?
69. How is a sequence of notes tabbed?
70. How are notes that are played simultaneously tabbed?
71. How are chords tabbed?
72. How are strums tabbed?
73. How are rhythms shown?
74. How is rhythm shown in tab?
75. What are bars/measures?
76. How is fretting hand fingering shown?
77. How is picking hand fingering shown?
78. How are repeats tabbed?
79. What are tremolo strums and how are they tabbed?
80. How are rasguados played?
81. How do you play dotted notes?
82. How do you play tied notes?
83. What are triplets?
84. What is swing time?
85. How do you play hammer-ons?
86. How do you play pull-offs?
87. Can hammer-ons and pull-offs be used together?
88. How do you play slides?
89. How are shift slides different from normal slides?
90. How are slides into and out of a note tabbed?
91. What are all those crazy squiggles on the tab?
92. How are accented notes shown?
93. How do you make dead notes?
94. How do you play trills?
95. How do you produce vibrato?
96. What are grace notes?
97. How do you bend a note?

Easier Chords and Chord Changes

98. What’s the easiest way to play a D chord?
99. What’s the easiest way to play an E chord?
100. What’s the easiest way to change from F to Fm?

101. Your own question.

Buy it here for $9