Nov/21/19
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They Might Be Giants Medley (Tab)

They Might Be Giants Medley (Tab)

Over the last 35 years They Might Be Giants have but out some of the funnest and nerdiest music around (and found some time to paint cat ukuleles). So I collected together some of their best known songs along with some of my favourites.

Istanbul (Not Constantinople): Starts off with a short solo using the F harmonic minor scale. Which is like the more common F natural minor scale but with the Eb replaced by an E (A-string, 7th fret). The melody for the chorus is made up solely of notes in the Fm chord then the C7 chord. So hold down these notes as long as possible to build the chords behind the melody.

Birdhouse in Your Soul: I wrote up tab for the entire song here. This is just the intro transposed to the key of F.

Dr Worm: A quick version of Rabbi Vole’s guitar solo.

Why Does the Sun Shine?: I love that TMBG wrote a scientifically inaccurate song then wrote a song to correct it.

Boss of Me: AKA the Malcolm in the Middle theme. The chorus for this part is dead simple. It’s mostly just switching between the open A-string and A-string, 3rd fret while the chords change underneath.

Older: While the rest of the songs after Istanbul are in F, this one is in its equivalent minor: D minor.

Dog on Fire: AKA The Daily Show theme. From the original version before Timberland chopped it up.

Seven Days of the Week: From their third album of children’s songs Here Come the 1,2,3s. Although there only seems to be the most marginal difference between their children’s records and the rest of their oeuvre.

Links

TheyMightBeGiants.com
More They Might Be Giants tabs and chords

Nov/20/19
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The Princess Royal (Tab)

Jonathan Lewis – The Princess Royal (Tab)

Today’s post comes from Jonathan Lewis who has a new tab ebook out: Morris Tunes for Campanella Ukulele which you can pick up from free on Gumroad.

I’m grateful for Al for agreeing to share this arrangement of a popular Morris tune.

There are two sections which are played AABB. The A section is pretty much all campanella picking, while the B section has some chords and harmonies. The chords used are F, Bb, C and Gm.

In bars 15 and 16 you’ll need to change from the Bb chord, barred on the 5th fret (7565) to an F5 in the same position (5588). The tricky part is playing the note E on the first string with your little finger while holding the Bb chord, then quickly moving to that F5 where you’ll need to use your little finger to cover both first and second strings on the 8th fret, keeping the bar on the 5th fret.

As always, it’s best to figure out for yourself which fingerings work best for you, and to simplify (or complicate) according to level.

You can download Morris Tunes for Campanella Ukulele for free on Gumroad. I also highly recommend checking out his Irish Tunes for Campanella Ukulele ebook.

As is tradition, I had my own stab at playing this tab here’s my version of the verse.

Nov/19/19
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The Clash – Spanish Bombs (Chords and Tab)

The Clash – Spanish Bombs (Chords)

Is there a cooler ukulele player ever than Joe Strummer? Not that I can think of. And The Clash are certainly the greatest punk band of all time. So with the 40th anniversary of London Calling coming up, I thought I’d write up my favourite from the record.

I’ve gone with a capo on the 4th fret for the chords. It’s higher than I’d usually like but it makes the chords simple and means you can combine the chords and the intro riff very easily. If you want to play just the riff it goes like this in the intro:

And slightly differently in the middle of the song when the intro is reprised:

Suggested Strumming Pattern

I use this as the main pattern:

d – d – d u d u

Intro: Main strum once on F. Then halving the pattern so you do d-d- on Dsus2 and dudu on F. Then main strum once for everything else.

Verse: Similar to the intro except here you’re halving the strum from Dm-Am and doing it once for everything else. Here’s how that sounds:


Verse Strum

Chorus, Bridge and Outro: You can just carry on with the strum as you have been halving all the bars for Dm-Am. Or you can follow the guitar and do this once for each Dm and Am:

x x d –

Which sounds like this:


Chorus Strum

Twiddly Bits


Verse 3 Solo

The third verse has a neat lead line which you can play on uke (without a capo) like this.

Links

Buy it on Amazon
The Clash – Should I Stay or Should I Go (Chords)
The Clash – Straight to Hell / MIA – Paper Planes

Nov/9/19
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UkeTube: Molly Lewis, Sudan Archives

Watch on YouTube

Tracklist
Molly Lewis – Children & Art
Sudan Archives – Did You Know On electric mandolin.
Byrd & The Boys – Hog Sloppin' Time In the Hollow
thingsBIGthe – Age of Consent
Taimane – Pipeline's Daughter
Marc Gallagher and Victoria Vox -Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now
Jule Vera – Radioactive
UKEPRO – Waikalulu
Klaus Schindler – Pachelbel's Canon

Nov/7/19
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DuckTales Theme (Tab)

Mark Mueller – DuckTales Theme (Tab)

Finishing off cartoon week with an exceptionally catchy tune that set the standard for yelling “woo hoo!” (it’s a Duck-Blur indeed). And it’s particularly relevant to give it a ukeing now that the rejiggered series features Uke Hunt favourite Kate Micucci.

The song includes a subtle key change with the chorus being a whole step higher the second time around. To keep things easy to memorise, I’ve arranged it so it’s played exactly the same but two frets higher second time around.

Links

Buy it on Amazon
More TV tabs and chords

Nov/6/19
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SpongeBob SquarePants – F.U.N. Song (Tab)

SpongeBob SquarePants – F.U.N. Song (Tab)

While writing up Sweet Victory earlier this year, I decided I had to do a tab of this classic SpongeBob ukulele song.

I’ve kept the arrangement very simple. There are just three underlying chords: F, Bb and C. And I’m only using my thumb for picking. Although you could very easily use fingerpicking or a pick. Using those might help with the quick thumb work in bars 5 and 6.

Links

Buy it on Amazon
Sweet Victory chords and tab
More easy tabs and chords

Nov/5/19
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Splendora – You’re Standing On My Neck (Daria Theme)(Chords)

Splendora – You’re Standing On My Neck (Chords)

With most theme tunes these days being heavy on doom and light on tunes, you can always rely on cartoons for an enjoyable, catchy theme. So this week I’m taking on some of my favourite tunes from animated shows. Starting with the unforgettable riot grrrl tune from Daria (recently covered almost note for note by Honeyblood – which has the same chords as the original).

I went with a capo on the first fret for this one. This does introduce an E chord. But the E-G move is easier than an F-Ab move. Of all the variations on the E chord, I went with muting the g-string with the thumb of my fretting hand. I’m also doing that with the rapid B-A-G-A chords in the lead-up to the chorus.

Suggested Strumming Pattern

For the main strum I use:

d – d – d u d u

Verse and Solo: Main strum once each in the first three lines. Then one down-strum per chord on the “excuse me”s.

Chorus: Main strum once each on C and G. Then twice on A. And on the, “You’re standing on my neck,” lines just one down-strum per chord.

Middle: One main strum per chord.

Twiddly Bits

The iconic “la la laaa la la” riff makes use of the flattened fifth note (a.k.a. the devil’s interval). The same riff crops up in a different key at the start of solo (where it’s five frets higher) and gets moved up one fret in the outro. In the Honeyblood version it’s played in the same key as the intro on both these occasions.

The solo itself is exceptionally easy. Most of it is just one note: A-string, 3rd fret (with a capo still at the first fret). Then towards the end you slide up two frets. Then back down to the third fret. Up to again. Then end on the open E-string.

Links

Buy the Honeyblood version on Amazon
More TV theme tabs and chords

Oct/26/19
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UkeTube: Crooning Vampire, Nick Mulvey

Watch on YouTube

Tracklist
Crooning Vampire – I’m in the Mood for Blood
Rachel Manke – Anything Can Happen On Halloween
Christopher Davis-Shannon and Michael Durkan – I Can’t Give You Anything But Love
Desirée Dawson – Give Me One Reason
Nick Mulvey – In the Anthropocene
Noah Wisch – Coexistence
Young M.A x Einer Bankz – BIG
Nico’o – Surf y Tequila

Oct/24/19
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The Decemberists – Shankill Butchers (Tab)

The Decemberists – Shankill Butchers (Tab)

There’s a long history of murder ballads in folk music. But they’re all set comfortably in the past. It’s a very different experience listening to a song about murders set in your own lifetime.

The Shankill Butchers were loyalist gang in 1970s Northern Ireland who viciously murdered 19 people (possibly with police turning a blind eye). Hearing a song mythologising them is an uncomfortable experience (particularly since Northern Ireland is perilously close to returning to those days). But it brings home how fresh the events in old murder ballads were to those who originated them.

Shankill Butchers is in the key of C#m. My first instinct was to rearrange it into a more uke-friendly key like Cm or Dm. But it turned out to work best in C#m. The intro riff (played with the thumb alternating between picking the g- and C-strings) works particularly well.

Links

Buy it on Amazon
More folk tabs and chords

Oct/23/19
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Halloween Riffs: Hendrix, Eilish, Suspiria, 30 Rock

Some more short tabs of Halloween suitable songs.

If you’re into these, you can find lots more on my Instagram.

Jimi Hendrix – Voodoo Child (Slight Return)

Billie Eilish – All the Good Girls Go to Hell

Goblin – Suspiria Theme (Easy Version)

Goblin – Suspiria Theme (Tricky Version)

Tracy Morgan – Werewolf Bar Mitzvah

Franz Ferdinand – Evil Eye

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