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  • Macy Gray – I Try (Tabs)

    Macy Gray – I Try (Tab)Download

    Thanks to Lin for suggesting Macy Gray’s I Try for a tabbing. She’s remembered as a one hit wonder, but Macy Gray had a few great songs.

    Verse: The first verse is nice and simple, with everything in the first position. Just a few sus chords among us. And the open g-string gets a lot of use in the melody.

    The second verse is more tricky, with a couple of trips up the neck.

    Pre-Chorus: Just a big jump up to the seventh fret to deal with the first time around. Again, the second time around, things get tricky and you’re playing way up the neck.

    Chorus: I love the campanella run in bar 16. It’s a little fiddly to play, but I think it’s worth the effort.

    Outro: This section might not be worth the effort! The key change in this song is so iconic I couldn’t leave it out. But it makes the song much more difficult to play. I wouldn’t blame if you just played the chorus in the original key here instead.

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  • Taylor Swift – august (Tabs)

    Taylor Swift – august (Tab)Download

    Verse: These are nice and simple. Standard chords in the first position.

    Chorus: There aren’t many songs that get more gentle in the chorus. But it’s very effective here. This section is slightly more difficult. It moves up the neck for a bit of campanella action and there’s some swift picking required.

    The second chorus starts with an A minor chord rather than a C. If you prefer, you can just stick with C since that’s what she did on the Long Pond version.

    Bridge: The song changes character here and it gets much trickier to play. The melody is less structured than in the verse and chorus, with a bunch of words crammed in.

    Outro: I tried to mimic the way the song drops out for the first bar of this section the second time it crops up. Then blasting in with full on strumming.

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  • Jawbreaker – Boxcar (Tabs)

    Jawbreaker – Boxcar (Tab)Download

    I was very sad to hear of the death of Steve Albini recently. I’ve covered a bunch of songs he worked on in the past including Where Is My Mind?, All Apologies and Heart Shaped Box.

    For this tribute, I went with Jawbreaker’s response to sell-out accusations: Boxcar.

    The arrangement is just blasting out chords with a few picked notes here and there. The only thing that makes it tricky is the speed. I found the G-Am change in the chorus particularly tricky to get the hang of.

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  • Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros – Home (Tabs)

    Edward Sharpe – Home (Tab)Download

    Intro: Straight in with the trickiest part of the song. If you wanted to make this easier, you could just chug out the chords rather than tackling the fingerpicking.

    Verse: I’ve tried to keep the feeling of a duet in this section. For the female part, I use bends and play close to the bridge to give it a raspier sound. Then play away from the bridge to get a fuller tone for the male part. You can judge for yourself whether it works. I’m not sure.

    If you don’t want to play the bends, you can replace them with the open A-string.

    Chorus: Nice and easy. Just picking a simple melody and strumming the chords.

    Solo: Nothing difficult here either in terms of fretting. But there are a bunch of bars of 2/4 which make the timing tricky to keep track of.

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  • The Black Keys – Tighten Up (Tabs)

    The Black Keys – Tighten Up (Tab)Download

    The Black Key’s Tighten Up, like most of their songs, is a very straight forward blues rock song. But there are a couple of oddities. The first is a rogue bar of 3/4 in bar 38.

    The second starts at bar 48 when the song, ironically, loosens up and the tempo slows. I think you could switch the 3/4 bar to 4/4 and no one would notice. But the tempo change feels integral to the song.

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  • Blink-182 – All the Small Things (Tabs)

    Blink-182 – All the Small Things (Tab)Download

    Here’s a fun version of Blink-182’s infectious (in the good sense and the bad sense) earworm All the Small Things.

    Intro: All strums. I’m using my index finger a bit like a pick here (and in most of the song).

    For all the strumming parts in the song, don’t worry about hitting the exact strings so long as you’re holding down the chord.

    Verses: I’m using a bit of palm muting on the strings during the strums (i.e. resting the side of my strumming hand lightly on the strings). That allows the melody to stand out more.

    The only tricky part here is in bar 17. I like the harmony on “At my show” so I’ve included that with the lower note picked by the thumb and the higher note by the index finger.

    Pre-Chorus, Chorus and Outro: All very simple strumming on standard chords.

    Solo: Similar to the intro but with a little melody on the g-string. So try to emphasise that as much as you can.

    Break: Starts of with strumming then switches to fingerpicking which builds into the outro. The picking isn’t complicated but it is fast. If you’re only it for the strumming, you can skip this bit entirely and just play the first four bars of the break.

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  • Hozier – Take Me to Church (Tabs)

    Hozier – Take Me to Church (Tab)Download

    I can’t say Hozier’s massive hit Take Me to Church fits nicely on the uke. But it is well worth learning if you’re up for a challenge.

    Verse: No mucking around with an intro. The verse starts in 3/4 time and switches to 4/4 at the end. If you know the song, it shouldn’t trip you up.

    Pre-Chorus: Back to 3/4 for the “Amen” section. And again switching to 4/4 at the end.

    This is the most sparse section of the song. Creating contrast with the chorus.

    Chorus: Staying in 4/4 for the most challenging section of the song played high up the neck. Reaching the 14th fret for the falsetto on “death”.

    Bridge: Some movement up and down the neck in this section, but it’s still easier than the chorus. And it stays in 4/4 time but with a cheeky bar of 2/4 that threw me off when I was first learning the song.

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  • Ozzy Osbourne – Mama I’m Coming Home (Tabs)

    Ozzy Osbourne – Mama I’m Coming Home (Tab)Download

    Intro: Starting off with an incongruous country lick. Then moving into a descending line played on the g- and C-strings with the thumb. Set against static notes on the E- and A-strings (plucked by the index and middle fingers respectively).

    It fits nicely on the uke and sounds more intricate than it actually is.

    Verse: Carrying on the descending line but now played with one finger per string picking.

    Pre-Chorus: Building up the tension with a strum each time there’s a chord change.

    Chorus: Bringing in more strums, slides and ventures up the neck. Stepping things up in terms of intensity and difficulty.

    Break: This little acoustic break is my favourite part to play. It’s a challenge to play at speed but it suits the ukulele very well.

    Solo: The big electric solo is less suited to the uke but still fun to play. I haven’t been particularly faithful to the original, so feel free to adjust it to your own taste.

    Coda: The coda is just like the end of the chorus, but there are an extra couple of beats on the F chord that add a little suspense.

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  • boygenius – Ketchum, ID (Tabs)

    boygenius – Ketchum, ID (Tab)Download

    Here’s a quick version of my favourite boygenius song: Ketchum, ID. It’s straightforward to play on uke and uses one finger per string picking the whole way through.

    Intro: This is my own noodling over the C-F-C-G chord progression. A good place to pick out your own version.

    Verses: Both verses (I’ve gone with the Phoebe Bridgers verse and Lucy Dacus verse) are simple melodies that are just played in the first position.

    Choruses: The choruses move up and down the neck as I do my best to recreate the harmonies on uke. But the pace is stately so it’s not too tricky.

    There are small differences between the choruses. Notably an Am chord in bar 49 for the final chorus.

    Bridge: Another place you can introduce your own ideas. I’ve stuck fairly close to the original.

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  • The Smashing Pumpkins – Cherub Rock (Tabs)

    The Smashing Pumpkins – Cherub Rock (Tab)Download

    At first, I thought there’s no way Cherub Rock would work on the uke. But I found it a fun song to play that you can blast out with strums.

    Intro: Starting out at full pelt building up a C chord and breaking into the intro riff.

    If you don’t have the space on your uke to play the riff high up the neck, you can move the E-string notes on the A-string. Just lower each note five frets and let the E-string ring open. You can do the same with the melody in the verse.

    Verse: Staying high up the neck for the verse and continuing to blast out the strums with just a few picked notes.

    Chorus: All strums here too. Be sure to mute the g-string with your thumb for everything but the Eb chord.

    Bridge: Adding a C chord to the chord progression from the chorus.

    Solo: The trickiest part of the song. I’ve changed it significantly from the original. So feel free to make adjustments of your own.

    Bridge 2: Similar to the chorus, but watch out for the A-string, 5th fret at the start of the F chord (first in bar 39).

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