Tag: Moderate
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Panic at the Disco – High Hopes (Tabs)
Here’s my take on Panic at the Disco’s High Hopes.
Intro: Starting out dead easy with the parping horns section.
Chorus: This section is fiddly. But it’s all contained on the lower frets. It’s also fun to play once you get it down.
Verse: This section moves up the neck and ramps up in difficulty. Setting up bar 17 is particularly hard. To help with that, I recommend not letting the F chord in the previous bar ring. That gives your fingers more time to set up.
Bridge: This is the fiddliest section. You can replace the 5 – 6 on the E-string with 0 – 1 on the A-string if you find that easier. Or even just use the open A-string followed by the E-string 6th fret.
Pre-Chorus: A welcome easy section. You’re just blasting out chords here. That leads into a chorus with just the melody, then a final chorus with chords.
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The Clash – Should I Stay or Should I Go (Tabs)
The Clash’s Should I Stay or Should I Go like all good punk songs, it’s just four chords. And the melody and chords alternate so you’re only doing one of them at any given time. Just make sure you’re bashing it out.
The only slightly unusual element is the song shifting to double time in the chorus. So you’re strumming twice as fast with this pattern:
d – d – – u d u
d – d – – u d u
d – d – (then a picking section)
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Alice in Chains – Down in a Hole (Tabs)
Down in a Hole by Alice in Chains fits on uke better than I was expecting. There’s a nice mix of fun bits and challenging bits.
Intro: This sets up the Gm – F – C chord progression that runs through the verse and pre-chorus. I’ve thrown in a few twiddles based on the acoustic and electric parts in the original. Definitely room for your own ideas here.
Verse: I played around with just doing one of the vocal parts here (first heard in bar 9). But I think the vocal harmony is too good to ditch.
Pre-Chorus: This is the hardest part of the song by some distance. It’s high up the neck and fiddly. You could get away with simplifying the section. Either by repeating parts or moving notes around. But I’d be reluctant to get rid of the dissonant C# (E-string, 9th fret).
Chorus: Mostly bashing out the chords in the chorus. Things get tricky towards the end though with a trip up the neck and a short lick.
Outro: A reprise of the intro but with the baffling choice of ending on an A major chord (despite the whole song being gloomy and minor).
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The Beatles – Something (Tabs)
Something has become particularly associated with the ukulele since Paul has been regularly playing it on uke in tribute to George Harrison. And it transfers over to one very nicely.
Intro: A brief, one-bar intro. Make sure you bend the note at the 7th fret before you pick it.
Verse: The verses are built on two chromatically descending lines. Firstly, descending notes on the A-string set against a C chord. Secondly, descending notes on the g-string set against an Am chord.
With the steady pace of the song, there’s nothing too challenging here.
Bridge: Things get a bit more challenging in the bridge. The action shifts up the fretboard and there are a couple of stretches to deal with.
Solo: The trickiest section. And it’s such a great solo, I’d advise against changing it too much.
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Al Green – Let’s Stay Together (Tabs)
Al Green’s Let’s Stay Together is a buttery-smooth track, a laid-back feel, and has an earworm melody and tasty chords. All of which mean it suits the ukulele well.
Intro: The intro nicely sets up the harmony for the piece. And prepares you for plenty of movement up and down the neck. Keep the notes (except the C-string bass notes) staccato to mimic the horns.
Verse: The first verse has a more minimal arrangement. The second and third verses are heavier and have a bit of filigree. You can mix and match these elements as you like. Or include some of your own ideas.
Pre-Chorus: A tasty Am9 in this section. Which is fretted like an Em chord but with the g-string played at the second fret.
Chorus: A lot of moving up and down here. But if you plan ahead, you can use the passing notes to get into position for the next chord. For example, if you play the A-string, 3rd fret in bar 40 with your pinkie, you’ll be set up for the Dm7 chord in bar 41.
Solo: The string solo is the hardest part of the song. I’ve kept this arrangement as close to the original as possible. But I think there’s room for a more uke-friendly version if you want to try. Or, I don’t think anyone would notice if you just skipped this section.
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Phil Collins – Against All Odds (Tabs)
Here’s my take on Phil Collins’ Against All Odds.
Intro: A quick intro with the thumb picking the C-string with index and middle on the higher strings.
Verse: Switching to one finger per string picking from here up to the outro. That allows the g-string to get in on the melody in bars 3 and 4. You can take advantage of the open strings in bar 2 to give yourself time to move up to the fifth fret.
Chorus: This is the trickiest section, with lots of movement up and down the neck, some campanella playing, and a stretch for the Gm chord in bar 11.. To prepare for that stretch, make sure you’re playing the E-string, 6th fret with your index finger. That’ll put your hand in the right place for the chord.
The chorus includes a couple of bars of 2/4. The original only has the second one. But it felt much more natural to me to play it both times. If you don’t want to do that, you can skip the first half of bars 13 and 19.
Outro: A repeat of the intro with another, “Take a look at me now.” Then a series of chords that leave the song on a cliffhanger.
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Elvis Presley – Suspicious Minds (Tabs)
Here’s my take on Elvis’s Suspicious Minds.
Intro: A nifty little riff to start with.
Verse: The verses are nice and simple. A straightforward G-C-D chord progression with a simple but effective melody.
The verse at the end (bar 40 onwards) is a beefed-up version of the first half of the earlier verse pattern.
Chorus: Here’s where things get challenging. There’s a lot of bouncing up and down the neck. And things get fiddly at the top end. I found the high Bm section (bar 24) the most challenging bit of the song.
Bridge: This section has a big drop in tempo and a time signature change to 6/8. Like the chorus, there are some challenging moves here. But the slower tempo makes it more manageable.
Outro: Closing off with a descending G minor pentatonic inspired by the live ending of the song.
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The White Stripes – Fell in Love with a Girl (Tabs)
The White Stripes’ Fell in Love with a Girl is a simple song but the tempo is high. I’ve slowed it down in my version (from 180BPM-ish in the original to 170) but it’s still a challenge to keep up. To make things easier, the arrangement moves across the strings rather than up and down the neck. Which means there’s a lot of open strings and use of the g-string in the melody.
Even more than usual, this one rewards practicing slowly. Let your fingers learn the patterns before building up speed . Because once it’s up to tempo, there’s no time to think.