With Nirvanna the Band the Show back in action, I was inspired to put together a version of the Wii Shop theme It works well on uke. But there are a lot of unusual chord shapes that might take a while to get under your fingers.
Tag: Game Themes
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Koji Kondo – Zelda Medley (Tabs)
Shamefully, I haven’t played a Zelda game since A Link to the Past. So these arrangements are heavily influenced by that era.
Zelda’s Lullaby: A chill start to the medley with gentle picking and a soft Cmaj7 chord. There is a big leap up the neck in bar 6. But this part is slow enough that it’s not a big challenge.
Main Theme: Ramping up the pomposity and changing the key to F. There’s another big jump in 16. This one is at a quicker tempo so it’s more of a challenge. From there, you get the descending note until you hit the C.
Ilia’s Theme: Back to a more relaxed feel. This time, the challenge is a big stretch between the 4th and 10th fret in bar 23. If you’re struggling there, you can change the A-string, 10th fret to A-string, 7th fret in bars 22 and 23. It changes the feel a little but it still sounds nice.
Kakariko Village: The challenge here is to emphasise the melody notes so it doesn’t just sound like a melody-less picking pattern. Otherwise, nothing too difficult.
Hyrule Castle: Switching to C minor and more pomposity. Where the Main Theme is grand, this one has some menace with the chromatic notes on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th frets. 8-Bit Music Theory did an excellent video on this tune.
Song of Storms: A final key change to E minor and the trickiest section of the piece.
Links
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Kung Fu Master (Arcade Game Theme) (Tabs)
A recent nostalgia trip compelled me to knock up a version of Masato Ishizaki’s music from the 80s arcade game Kung-Fu Master.
The tune is very quick. Even slowed down, it’s still a challenge. In order to cut the finger movement to a minimum, it’s arranged campanella style so the work is done with the picking hand and fretting hand doesn’t have to move much.
Links
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Sonic the Hedgehog – Green Hill Zone (Tab)
This Sega classic by Masato Nakamura starts off with the hardest bar in the entire arrangement. And it’s such an iconic run there’s not much scope to change it.
The good news is that this is followed by a very easy section of just Em, Dm and F chords. And the rest of the tune isn’t too tricky. The most difficult bit are the little runs in the Em parts (e.g. bars 11 and 13).
Links
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Kerry’s Song from Cyberpunk 2077 (Tabs)
The hullabaloo around the game has stopped me from playing Cyberpunk 2077, but when Kerry’s Song from the game was requested by a Patron I was really taken with the chill tune.
What isn’t so chill is trying to play it on the ukulele. There are a lot of big, quick leaps up and down the fretboard to contend with. A good tune to try if you’re practicing your fretting accuracy.
Links
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Gustavo Santaolalla – Beyond Desolation (Tab)
The third and final of my tabs from the game The Last of Us Part II.
The piece is unadorned and mournful. It’s an excellent piece for anyone practicing their fingerpicking. It’s nice and slow but there are plenty of switches in the picking pattern to get used to. But all the patterns use one finger per string picking.
The finale of the piece is very intriguing. The original and the tab are both in Gm. But the song ends on Cm7 making the song feel incomplete. I haven’t played the game yet but, since this is the last piece on the soundtrack, I’m guessing that means there’s unfinished business at the end of the game and there will be a Part III.
Links
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Gustavo Santaolalla – The Last of Us Part II Theme (Tab)
Another Last of Us video. This time the theme tune by the master of the Bolivian super-ukulele Gustavo Santaolalla.
Mercifully, it’s much easier to play than the theme to the first game. That means you can focus on putting emotion into your playing using dynamics and pacing. The pacing in the original is so varied I was at a loss of how to write up some of the rhythm. So take what’s written in the tab as only the loosest guide.
You can also play with the timbre. For example, in bars 6-13 I pick closer to the bridge and use my fingernails more to make it sound closer to the banjitar used in the original.
Links
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Last of Us 2 Medley: A-ha, Pearl Jam, Pink Floyd, New Order (Tab)
In this month’s Patreon request thread, I got a total of five requests for songs that are featured in The Last of Us 2. So I thought I’d put them all together in a medley. Although Wayfaring Stranger and Take On Me are by far the longest sections.
Wayfaring Stranger: I first wrote this song up in Ukulele for Dummies, so it was nice to revisit it with the freedom to add in some more twiddles. Just be sure to pick the melody with more force than twiddles so the two are clearly separated.
Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here: A very brief blast of the intro. It fits perfectly with Wayfaring Stranger.
New Order – True Faith: No one requested this one but I loved the version in the trailer and it fits nicely with the other songs. Through doing this I found out that True Faith slowed down is uncannily similar to Mad World.
Pearl Jam – Future Days: Played almost exactly the same way as it’s done on guitar (making it five steps higher than the original).
A-ha – Take On Me: The request was for the slowed version A-ha did for MTV. So that’s the version I worked from (but it’s not far removed from the Last of Us version). The last few bars of this involve notes above the 12th fret. If your uke doesn’t go that high, you can move all the notes at the 12th fret and above down 12 frets. Then it will match the Unplugged and Last of Us versions which both switch an octave down from the original there.
Links
The Last of Us Part II Soundtrack
Gustavo Santaolalla – The Last of Us Theme (Tab)
More game theme tabs
Uke Hunt Patreon -
One Night Ultimate Werewolf – Fantasy Theme (Tab)
It’s game day on Uke Hunt. I’m covered music connected to three types of games. Starting with the tabletop hidden-role game One Night Ultimate Werewolf. A game I haven’t played but have spent a lot of time watching charming nerds play while practicing. So inevitably I worked up a version of the song from the game.
As I understand it, the tune uses tracks form the Logic Pro library. So you might recognise elements from elsewhere.
Links
One Night Ultimate Werewolf
More Game Theme tabs
Uke Hunt Patreon -
Darren Korb – Vagrant Song (Pyre)(Tab)
Part two of Game Day and this time it’s a song from the video game Pyre suggested by patron Xavier. I’m using a capo on the 4th fret to keep it in the same key as the original. But there’s no reason you can’t play it without one if you prefer.
The arrangement has three main sections. It starts with just the melody. I’m using one finger per string picking here but you can pick it in whatever way suits you. The second section adds chord backing to the melody. I would recommend using one finger per string picking here but you could use thumb strumming. The final section has the C-string plucked and a strum with a few little twiddles. I’m using whatever finger comes to hand here so go hog wild.
Links
Buy the song
Buy the game
More Game Theme tabs
Uke Hunt Patreon