Louis Armstrong/Sam Cooke – What a Wonderful World/Wonderful World (Tab)

A pairing of two almost identically titled songs: Sam Cooke’s Wonderful World and Louis Armstrong’s What a Wonderful World. One because of a Patreon request and the other in tribute to Maple the guitar dog.

The arrangement starts with the beautiful melody of What a Wonderful World. Nothing too difficult here. Be sure to make the melody notes stand out against the backing note. And prepare for bar 13 by barreing across the strings for the notes on the E-string, 1st fret in bar 12.

Things speed up for Wonderful World but the chords get simpler. I must have heard this song hundreds of times, but I didn’t have any recollection of the bridge section. It’s certainly more forgettable than the earworm of the verse and chorus.

Links

Buy the Louis Armstrong MP3
Buy the Sam Cooke MP3
Uke Hunt Patreon

Beyonce – Halo (Tab)

I’ve been negligent not doing a Beyonce song before this. But with some pushing from Patreon I’ve rectified the situation.

My favourite part to play is the intro. It fits so nicely on the uke I decided to use it as the outro too. Things stay fairly straightforward to play in the verse. All that is played with one finger per string picking.

But in the bridge and chorus Beyonce stretches her vocal range which means a trip up the neck. The arrangement goes as high as the 14th fret where it’s tough to play cleanly. You’ll also need to pick more forcefully so to keep the volume of the note at the same level as notes lower on the neck.

The picking in the rest of the song is more haphazard. For the quick notes, I’m using alternate picking to keep up.

Links

Buy the original
More pop tabs and chords
Uke Hunt Patreon

Joe Biden has nominated Jake Shimabukuro for the National Council on the Arts.

Fender have released a ukulele with Dhani Harrison.

On Video
– Documentary on the Survivor Girl Ukulele Band.
– The George Formby Society celebrate their Diamond Anniversary.
– Helen Arney teaches you how to use a toilet.

New Releases
– The UOGB’s Ben Rouse has released a solo record: Classical Ukulele.
– Ciat Conlin’s The Moon and The Sea.

Patreon

A massive thanks to all Uke Hunt’s Patreon backers for keeping the site up and running. And double thanks go to these unmatched patrons of the arts:

– Arthur Foley
– Colleen Petticrew
– Dan
– David Burt
– Elizabeth Beardsley
– Fiona Keane
– Katherine Penney
– Kie77
– Leia-lee Doran
– Lisa Johnson
– Mr Daniel Barclay
– Nick Parsons
– Olga deSanctis
– Pat Weikle
– Paulina Banach-Mazur
– Pauline LeBlanc
– Thorsten Neff

If you sign up at the Concert level or higher you’ll get access to all the past Patreon-only tabs including May’s tab Alicia Key’s If I Ain’t Got You June’s Jose Gonzalez’s Heartbeats.

Watch on YouTube

It’s the halfway point of the year and it’s already a golden year for the ukulele. There’s even been a ukulele song at number 1 for the first time since Hey, Soul Sister. Here’s a round-up of my favourites of the year so far.

In other video news, I’m switching to doing UkeTube once a month. At least for the summer months now that people are legally permitted to spend more time having fun and less time making ukulele videos.

Tracklist
Tyrone and Lesley – No Words
Jenifer Cabrera – Negro Gato
Polo G and Einer Bankz – RAPSTAR
SeattleUke – Jerry’s Breakdown
The Backyard Revival – Boiling Point
Ari Chi – Next Fall
Ryo Natoyama – Absolute Zero
Julián Rodríguez – Por una cabeza
dodie – Hate Myself
Vivian Kim – Mozart Symphony No.40

Ryan Adams – Stars Go Blue/Semisonic – Closing Time (Tabs)

Following up Bob Dylan with another “Blue” song: When the Stars Go Blue by Ryan Adams (one of the many sensitive singer-songwriters I listened to who turned out to be a full-time shithead). Although it was a bigger hit when Bono and The Corrs covered it.

I’ve paired that with Semisonic’s only hit Closing Time as they have almost identical choruses.

Links

Buy When the Stars Go Blue
Buy Closing Time
More 90s tabs and chords
Uke Hunt Patreon

Bob Dylan – Tangled Up in Blue (Tab)

There are at least five options when it comes to the best Bob Dylan album. And I’ve cycled through all of them. But currently it’s Blood on the Tracks. So here’s an arrangement of the opening track.

This tab is very straightforward. It’s mostly strummed with a few notes picked out here and there. The only big challenge is the stretch up to the 7th fret in bars 11 and 13. If you’re struggling with that, you can just play the note at the 5th fret and no one will notice.

The arrangement plays through the verse twice and ends with a solo. The solo is very loosely based on the harmonic part at the end of the original but is mostly just me bashing out whatever I feel like.

Links

Buy the original
More folk tabs and chords
Uke Hunt Patreon

Watch on YouTube

Tracklist
The Backyard Revival – Boiling Point
Julián Rodríguez – Por una cabeza
Taimane – Phonkytown
Bobby Alu and Foloi Iulia – Falealili Uma
Alida McKeon – SALT
Abe Lagrimas, Jr. – Take The A Train
Todd Rundgren – Bang on the Drum
guardin – i think you’re really cool
Brittain Ashford – The Sway

Mouse Rat – 5,000 Candles in the Wind (Bye, Bye Lil Sebastian)(Tabs)

I hope you brought a change of clothes because your eyes are about to piss tears thanks to Andy Dwyer’s heartbreaking tribute to Li’l Sebastian.

The trickiest part of playing this is fighting through the tears. There are also some quick bits of picking and a rogue bar of 2/4 on “horsiest friend” near the end.

If you want to play along with the original, put a capo on the second fret.

Links

Buy the original
More TV tabs and chords
Uke Hunt Patreon

Joan Osborne – One of Us (Tab)

Back when I spent entire days watching MTV, this song and More Than Words made up a good 30% of the airtime. I got heartily sick of it at the time. But I’ve mellowed on it.

The tune is very simple. Four chords and the melody doesn’t go higher than the third fret. The only slightly unusual part is on the “Yeah, yeah”s in bars 13, 15 and 17. If you want to make that super-simple, you can replace 5500 with 2000 and 543x with 003x and it won’t sound much different.

The original starts with an instrumental version of the chorus. But, since we’re playing that later, I came up with an intro based on the chords. Feel free to ditch it and come up with your own.

Links

Buy the original
More 90s tabs and chords
Uke Hunt Patreon

The Kinks – Sunny Afternoon (Tab)

I had always assumed the first verse was mocking George Harrison’s Taxman. But it appears Sunny Afternoon was released a couple of months before Taxman. So phenomenally rich people moaning about taxes must have been the rage at the time. Thank god that’s over.

The tune starts off with a bit of a stretch but an otherwise simple descending riff. Be sure to release the pressure with your fretting hand shortly after playing to keep the notes short. The melody is reasonably straightforward as well.

The problems only start when you have to combine the descending run with the melody notes in bars 35 to 40. Here’s an easier version without the descending line if you prefer:

Links

Buy the original
More 60s tabs and chords
Uke Hunt Patreon