I couldn’t let the festive season pass without another addition to my jazz odyssey. This time the Christmas classic written by Joan Javits and Philip Springer in 1953 and made popular by Eartha Kitt.
I used the intro and turnarounds to stretch out a bit and throw in some fancy chords and chromatic notes. I would definitely recommend playing around and coming up with your own ideas for those sections.
The fingerpicking is all over the place. So do whatever feels natural to you.
If you’re interested in more Christmas tabs, check out my Christmas ebooks.
Who first released the songs these ukulele orchestras are covering?
11. Calderdale and Huddersfield Ukulele Group
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12. Bolton Ukulele Group
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13. Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain
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14. Ukulele Orchestra jako Brno
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15. Ukulele Orchestra of India
.
Name the Celeb
Which celebrity is displaying their uke?
16.
a) James Corden
b) Jimmy Fallon
c) Jimmy Kimmel
d) Jimmy Saville
17.
a) David Crosby
b) Steven Sills
c) Graham Nash
d) Neil Young
18.
a) Adam Driver
b) JJ Abrams
c) Oscar Isaac
d) Andy Serkis
19.
a) Dua Lipa
b) Selena Gomez
c) Rebecca Black
d) Hailee Steinfeld
20.
a) Lupita Nyong’o
b) Letitia Wright
c) Angela Bassett
d) Maz Kanata
Name the Lyric
Which songs – oft covered on ukulele – are these lyrics from?
21. So you’re a tough guy / Like it really rough guy / Just can’t get enough guy / Chest always so puffed guy
22. There are places I’ll remember / All my life, though some have changed / Some forever, not for better / Some have gone, and some remain
23. And I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know
24. And let me see what spring is like / On a-Jupiter and Mars / In other words, hold my hand / In other words, baby, kiss me
25. I’m falling / In all the good times I find myself / Longing for change / And in the bad times I fear myself
A dead simple Christmas song that’s easy to bash out any time. Like most Ramones songs, it’s mostly a three chord affair (you can replace the G with G7 if you want to make things even easier). Although they do get dangerously avant-garde in the chorus with a minor chord and a 7 chord.
The only tricky part is the chord-slide in the intro from Bb to C. If you’re not ready for that yet, you can just replace the whole thing with a C chord.
Intro: One down-strum each for the first three chords. One down-strum on the Bb chord, then slide up to C and finish the bar with three down-up strums.
From there, do the main strum on the C and dudu on the F and G. For the final C-F-C-G do two down-strums per chord.
Verse: Like most of the intro, main strum on C, two down-ups each on F and G.
Pre-Chorus: Same again with the end of the intro strum for the C-F-C-G.
Chorus: Main strum once per chord for the first three lines. Then four lots of down-up each on the last line.
Outro: Same as the verse but just one down-strum each for the last three chords.
I don’t think any ukulele player has had a bigger year than Billie Eilish. She’s been all over the shop and her debut album WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? and 2017 EP don’t smile at me have both been selling by the bucket-hat load. I’ve already done a few tracks from the album, so today I’m doing one from the EP.
I’m using one finger per string picking all the way through this arrangement. There are many chnks in the song which can make it difficult to get your fingers back in position. I’d recommend not doing a standard chnk and instead muting the strings with your fretting hand and bringing each finger down on the string it’s plucking. That should leave them in the right position for picking.
The tab is pretty long thanks to the second verse and second chorus being slightly different to the first. Both are a little trickier second time around. I don’t think anyone would notice if you just played them the same both times.
We’re about a month out from Christmas so time to start polishing up the festive tunes and learning a few new ones. Here’s a rundown of everything Christmassy on the site.
I think White Winter Hymnal would make for a great ukulele group song. It’s got very easy chords (if you capo at the second fret), some sweet vocal harmonies and a solo for the show-offs. Plus lots of winter imagery that turns a little disturbing.
This song was covered by Pentatonix (which seems to be the more popular version). If you want to play along with that one, you can use the same chords but without a capo.
Suggested Strumming Pattern
I just do down-up strums through the whole song. But emphasise every second down-strum. Like this:
Window Shopping
