Time for the Uke Hunt Annual Chord Quiz. Test your chord knowledge, theory knowledge and musical ear. The method is as low-tech as ever.
– Grab a pen and paper.
– Answer the questions (using a ukulele to help you is entirely allowed and encouraged).
– Check the answers here (no peeking).
Each of these triads of notes makes up a minor chord (e.g. the notes of an A minor chord are A, C and E). Which one? (The notes are listed in alphabetical order starting at C to make it harder.)
16. D, F and A
17. C, E and A
18. D, G and Bb
19. C#, F# and A
20. E, G and B.
Chord Progression
Match the MP3 to the chord sequence:
a) F – C – F – C – F
b) F – Eb – C – C7 – F
c) F – C – Bb – C – F
d) F – Eb – Dm – C – F
e) F – C7 – Eb – C7 – F
I’m very glad Fontaines D.C. came along and showed that rock music isn’t dead quite yet. Boys in the Better Land sticks to the old rock formula of “three chords and the truth” and makes it sound exciting and vital again.
There are two versions of the song. The original version is the much slower “Darklands version”. Which really threw me off for the balls-to-the-wall version on their album Dogrel. And it’s the album version I’ve written. In terms of chords, they’re the same. But the arrangement of the Darklands version is slightly different with the solo coming after the first chorus and missing out the repeat of the second verse and the pre-chorus and chorus that follow it.
The song is in the key of E. If you don’t fancy using any of the variations of the E chord, you can always slap a capo on the second fret and play the E – D – A chords as D – C – G respectively.
Suggested Strumming
For everything but the chorus, you can use this for the E chord:
The only exception is the repeat of the second verse. There you play three lots of this on the first E:
d u d u d u d u
And in the chorus, play this on the E three times.
d u d u d u d u
Then the same as the verse strum for the D and A.
Twiddly Bits
Here’s a version of the riff the lead guitar part that first blasts in at bar 9 of the intro. It crops up throughout the song. Sometimes in a reduced form where it’s just switching from -45- to -44- every two bars.
And, finally, a version of the solo that I play using a pick. Those two thick black lines on each stem indicate that it’s tremolo picked in constant sixteenth notes. Or, if you’re anything like me, as close to constant as you can manage. If you prefer, you can just pick each note once without losing too much.
The last few tabs have been at the trickier end of the scale. So for this one I’ve gone super-simple. The melody for this song is so great it benefits from having very minimal backing.
The whole arrangement is played with just the thumb on the picking hand. And most of the chord shapes used will be very familiar to you. The only time it ventures up the neck is the high variation on, “nothing compares,” right at the end. It’s a bit of stretch. So if you’re struggling you can stick with the way it’s played in previous bars. Or you can replace the 55 at the start of bar 32 with an open C-string.
We’re about at the halfway point of the year and it’s time to round up some of the great ukulele videos so you don’t miss anything. If there’s something great I’ve missed, I’d love to hear it. You can send me a message or tweet me @UkeHunt.
Even by the standards of 1968, Dr John’s debut album Gris Gris is a trip into the strange and unnerving. With I Walk on Guilded Splinters being a masterpiece. But I’ve gone with something more uke-suitable to celebrate his life: Such a Night (not to be confused – as Wikipedia does – with the Drifters/Elvis song of the same name.
Suggested Strumming
You can keep the strumming very simple. Either follow the guitar part and do down-strums on the off-beats. Or the organ and do down-strums on every beat. But I like to add a little variety and use this two bar pattern in the verse and chorus:
d – d – d – d –
d – d – d u d u
And then use two down-strums per chord in the middle until the little walk-up at the end where it’s one strum per chord.
The Hippie Ukulelist has developed an Essential Tremor in both hands and is looking for advice from anyone who has experience similar problems playing with shaky hands.
When I did the meme music post I asked on Instragram if people wanted a full version. Turns out they did and here it is.
The arrangement is shortened by a verse and a chorus (you can just repeat the previous verse and chorus if you want those). I originally included the weird solo but realised it was the worst part of an already pretty bad song and took it out. If you’d like to play here’s how I arranged it:
These are the tabs for Study No. 33 – Medium Rare, Please, featuring alternating thumb strokes, swing, split strums, staccato, ostinato, harmonics, and, wait for it, The Lick.
As usual, I’ve made plenty of annotations that you can profit or dismise –fingering and stroking annotations are well intentioned suggestions.
Performance notes
Swing!
First thing to note is that this piece is performed with a bluesy swing, so rhythmic notation doesn’t exactly match rhythmic performance. Actually, when the beat is divided in two parts, the former part is played longer and slighty more accented than the latter.
I play close to a 2:1 ratio, so two consecutive eighths are played as a triplet quarter note + triplet eighth. Add the syncopation and you’ll get into a notation hell and a reading nightmare if the rhythms were to be precisely notated. Beware: your eyes may bleed and your head explode when trying to decipher the following example (the first two bars from this study):
Wikipedia has a decent section on Swing as rhytmic style with some good examples and a description of various rhythmic swing approximations.
In bar 8 you’ll find some staccato double stops. As these are played at a fast pace, the best way to stop the notes ringing is to slightly release the pressure of the fretting finger without abandoning the string.
Split strums
You’ll find an interesting set of strokes in measure 12. A couple of chords (Db7, C7) are played split, two notes at a time. I choose to strum upwards with the index finger, downwards with the thumb, stroking two strings in each movement.
Note that the arrows in the notation follow the order of the strings in the tablature, so a down arrow means an up stroke. Another notation glitch! (Would you prefer upbow/downbow symbols instead of arrows?)
Ostinato
Second section starts with an ostinato melodic figure, repeated over different harmonies. I do love the effect it creates.
But you should actually practice the second voice line. It consists of a steady thumb picking on the beat, although this time the pattern involves as much as three strings.
You’ll win bonus points if you also get to play the crescendo fluently ;)
The Lick
A conscious and shameless usage of The Lick appears on bar 19. Harmonics
