Time for a song of great social and political import. And, more importantly, an easy to play song. I’ve kept the simplicity of the accapella original. Just adding a few chords in for support.
I’m using fingerpicking in my version. But it’s arranged so you can play the whole thing with your thumb if you prefer.
A quick bonus tab. In tribute to Roger Bannister I knocked together a simple version of the Chariots of Fire theme tune. There were a bunch of requests for a tab so here it is.
I’m about five years late to this one. And three years late to anyone caring about it. But I still love this tune. And it works very well on ukulele. All beginner chords and you don’t even have to move past the third fret.
The melody uses exclusively notes from the F major pentatonic scale: F – G – A – C – D.
With the song being four part harmony it makes sense to use all the strings for this one. So I’m mostly strumming the tune here. Just a few notes here and there picked out.
I also throw in a few triplet strums inspired by the banjoleling. For the triplets I’m doing: down with index, down with thumb, up with middle.
Mostly fingerpicking in this one with just one bit of strumming in bar 5. After the intro everything else is one finger per string picking.
Two songs bashed together here. The opening, Dr Zaius, song is mostly strumming and the second, Chimpan-A to Chimpanzee, is all fingerpicking apart from the triplet strums at the end. I’m using a different triplet strum here. I’m doing: down with middle, up with index, up with middle.
Rounding off Valentine’s week with one of the few lovey-dovey songs I actually like. Make You Feel My Love first cropped up on Bob Dylan’s Out of Time (a record that was seen as Dylan’s “I’m nearly dead” album when it came out twenty years ago). But it became much more widely known when Adele covered it on 19. My arrangement leans towards the Adele version. But there’s not a lot to choose between the two anyway.
I’ve kept the arrangement very simple. I’m mostly using thumb and two finger picking. The only exception is when I strum all the strings with my thumb in bars 7, 24 and 26. But it is arranged in such a way that you could play the whole thing with your thumb.
The one part that might be a challenge is the jump down the neck between bars 10 and 11.
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One of 2017 most unexpected hits. Portugal. The Man have been knocking around for years without bothering the charts. But last year’s instantly catchy Feel It Still changed that. And made me tackle arranging it despite it being not immediately uke-suitable. So this one is a bit tricky to play and uses a range of techniques.
The arrangement starts with the bass riff which sets up the C – Eb – F chord progression that is used through most of the song. (The original is in the key of C# so you play in the original key by putting a capo on the first fret.) In this section I’m muting the strings slightly by lightly resting the palm of my picking hands on the strings. The muffled sound makes the melody stand out more once it comes in.
In the spirit of, “Don’t bore us, get to the chorus,” the verses are ultra short. It’s all played with fingerpicking with thumb, index and middle fingers.
You can blast out the choruses by bringing in the strums. The tricky part is fitting the strums around the rapid fingerpicking required. I’m using a lot of alternate picking to fit them in. I’m also flicking my index finger up when picking some notes to create a fuller sound.
Since it’s Christmas, I’m breaking my no Beatles rule to do this one I’ve had a fair few requests for over the years.
I’ve kept the arrangement as simple as possible. After the fingerpicking in the first bar it’s all strumming and lots of familiar chord shapes. And the melody is recognisable you don’t have to worry about emphasising it all that much. I’m using a capo at the first fret which puts it in the same key as the original. But you can just play it open if you prefer.
The only thing that might trip you up are the extra beats that he throws in. There’s one extra beat in the middle of the verse and two extra at the end.
In case you’re not familiar with the Italian repeats in the tab. You play through as normal up to the “D.S. al coda” in bar 29. Then you go back to the squiggle in bar 13. Play through to the “Da Coda” in bar 23. Then skip ahead to the target symbol in bar 30.
It’s been a pretty good year for pop music. There were great songs from Charli XCX, Selina Gomez and Lorde. Even the Cash Me Ousside girl released a banger. But Camila Cabello’s Havana immediately struck me as prime for a ukeing.
There’s nothing massively challenging in this arrangement but there are a few leaps up and down the fretboard. You can make things a easier with a bit of planning though. In bars 10 and 12 moving your hand up so you play the 3rd fret with your index finger makes it a much easier transition into the next bar.
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 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.
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.
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Burly Men at Sea
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.
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Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture
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…
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Life is Strange
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.
Fats Domino’s version of Blueberry Hill perfectly shows off the roots of rock and roll. He plays the driving boogie-woogie and has blues riff bassline. But the song itself is a country song first released by Gene Autry. So you have this sweet, major key country melody rubbing up against bluesy runs and liberal use of the minor third (the C-string, 3rd fret in my tab).
I’ve tried to keep those two elements in my arrangement of the tune. The verses have the melody with the bassline sitting between the lines (now not at all bassy). Try to separate these by playing the melody a bit louder (I didn’t do a great job of this in the video). The, “Wind in the willow…” section lays off the bassline and has chord stabs in between the melody. Keep those short by releasing the pressure with your fretting hand just after you strum.
To finish the song off I’ve added a little blues run. A great place to throw in your own favourite blues licks and play around.