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  • Stephen Sanchez – Until I Found You (Tabs)

    Stephen Sanchez – Until I Found You (Tab)Download

    In a rare case of being almost up to date, here’s a tab of Stephen Sanchez’s retro ballad and TikTok smash Until I Found You.

    Intro: The retro touches start in the intro with a classic IV to minor iv chord change (C to Cm) in this case. Which shows up in a million Beatles songs as well as Creep and Wake Me Up When September Ends.

    Verse: The verse starts with the unmistakeable interval from the Crazy melody. The verse melody has a very lazy, slurred timing to it. I’ve kept some of that but I have straightened it up a little.

    Chorus: The chorus is more straight forward in terms of timing. The slide up to the seventh fret is the only bump.

    Solo: A very simple solo. Just bashing out the chords and doing a little slide. But doing that accurately and quickly is challenging.

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  • Old Crow Medicine Show/Darius Rucker – Wagon Wheel (Tabs)

    OCMS – Wagon Wheel (Tabs)Download

    Old Crow Medicine Show’s Wagon Wheel is pretty much ubiquitous wherever ukuleles are strummed. Or any instrument is strummed. Even Kesha has had a go at it.

    Part of the reason it’s so popular is its long gestation taking in Curtis Jone’s Roll Me Mama and Bob Dylan’s mumbled demo Rock Me Mama before OCMS’s Ketch Secor gave the song its current form. It’s not a coincidence that a song passing through so many hands would shape it into something so widely loved. Which is why the current music copyright insanity is so harmful.

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  • Brandi Carlile – You and Me on the Rock (Tabs)

    Brandi Carlile – You and Me on the Rock (Tab)Download

    Here’s my take on Brandi Carlile’s Joni Mitchell influenced and very catchy You and Me on the Rock.

    Intro: The Mitchell influence kicks in right away with a Big Yellow Taxi-esque strumming riff.

    Verse: And continues with a wordy verse. It’s tricky to hit every note in the melody. So I’ve taken a few liberties. Don’t stress to much about hitting every note and string exactly.

    Chorus: Things calm down a bit in the chorus. And I move from strumming only to include more picking. Even with the picking I’m doing a bit of “flick up” motion so I stroke the next string along. Making the note softer but still supporting the main melody.

    The chorus ends with a bar of 2/4 but it flows naturally.

    Bridge: There’s a short bluesy lick leading into the bridge introducing the more minor feel with the addition of Eb (the first chord outside the bog-standard I-IV-V in the rest of the song).

    Outro: The outro is cut down from the original so it’s just the second half of the chorus.

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  • Willie Nelson – Stardust (Tabs)

    Willie Nelson – Stardust (Tab)Download

    A tab of Willie Nelson’s version of Stardust (written by Hoagy Carmichael) for everyone who likes a bit of Willie. In thanks for his contributions to ukeing as father of Amy Nelson of Folk Uke and grandfather of Raelyn Nelson.

    There are loads of less common chords in the song. And a fair amount of hopping around the fretboard. But the tempo is very slow and there’s plenty of room for changing the phrasing of the melody. So this one is fairly straightforward to play.

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  • The Band – The Weight (Tabs)

    The Band – The Weight (Tab)Download

    A version of The Weight in tribute to Robbie Robertson. Robertson appeared on the Playing for Change version alongside some uke from Taimane.

    Intro: Usually, you’re free to play around with the intro. Not in this case. Robertson’s intro is iconic and doing anything other than playing it as close to the original as possible is sacrilege.

    Verses: The melody in the verses is a little fiddly, but it’s the third verse that’s most challenging. There’s an extra campanella bit in bar 37 (“Waitin’ on Judgement Day”) and a trickier ending to the verse.

    Chorus: I haven’t tried to cram in all the vocal lines in the chorus in order to keep things clear. Most obviously, the arrangement doesn’t include the overlapping “you put the load…” lines (bar 46).

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  • Placebo – Pure Morning (Tabs)

    Placebo – Pure Morning (Tab)Download

    Placebo’s Pure Morning is hilariously unsuited the ukulele. But it’s always fun to have a go at those. You can decide for yourself whether it actually works because I’m not sure.

    There’s no chord progression at all in the song. It’s just an E drone the whole way through (Eb in the original). To emphasise that, I’m playing an E on both the open E-string and on the C-string 4th fret whenever I get the chance.

    As the song builds, the arrangement moves up the neck and uses some octaves. If you don’t have a 14th fret, you can always just mute the A-string. Or playing it open will work.

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  • Rod Stewart – Maggie May (Tabs)

    Rod Stewart – Maggie May (Tab)Download

    Intro 1: The album version of the track starts with Martin Quittenton’s (completely out of place) little contrapuntal piece in 3/4 time. I almost skipped it but it’s a fun tune that’s worth learning by itself.

    Intro 2: The second intro is much more in keeping with the song’s melancholy mood.

    Verses: The verses are fairly straightforward. It’s mostly strummed with a few notes picked out here and there.

    Solo: Loosely based on the original with lots of sliding around the fretboard. As always, throw some ideas of your own in here.

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  • Nirvana – All Apologies (Tabs)

    Nirvana – All Apologies (Tab)Download

    Sinead O’Connor’s cover prompted me to knock up a quick version of Nirvana’s All Apologies.

    Intro: It’s a fun riff to noodle away on. I recommend learning this bit even if you don’t learn the whole song. (Put a capo on the first fret to play along with the original.)

    Verse: The intro and verse are all fingerpicked with thumb on the C-string, index on the E and middle on the A. The verses are very repetitive, so I cut the second verse down to half. You might want to do the same with the first verse too.

    Chorus: Like every Nirvana song, there’s a quiet-loud-quiet-loud dynamic going on. So switch to strumming and bash out the chorus.

    Outro: The riff again. This time played with a bit more abandon and hitting the open C-string any time you feel like. Then a dead simple ending.

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  • The Velvet Underground – Sunday Morning (Tabs)

    The Velvet Underground – Sunday Morning (Tab)Download

    Sunday Morning is the poppiest song The Velvet Underground’s debut album. It has a laid back, easy going vibe. And you have two days to learn it so get to work. Watish!

    Intro: Played high up the neck to give a music box feel. But if it’s too cramped up there or your uke doesn’t have enough frets, you can play the same picking pattern with any inversion of F and Bb and it’ll work.

    Verse: Switching from thumb and two finger picking in the intro to one finger per string for the start of the verse. It’s tricky to bring out the melody in bars 13-16 with the melody switching from the A-string down to the C. So emphasise those as much as you can while keeping the chill vibe.

    Back to thumb and two finger picking from the Fmaj7 in bar 17 to bring out the descending low notes.

    Chorus: Bringing in a few strums in the chorus for contrast.

    Solo: The original solo has a bunch of hammer-ons, pull-offs and double stops. So I’ve used that concept for this solo rather than recreating it note for note.

    Outro: Similar to the first bars of the verse. But here there’s a slide up to the fifth fret instead of the open A-string. I toyed with playing it this way in the verse and decided to hold it back for the outro. But give it a go in the verse and see how you feel about it.

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  • Green Day – Good Riddance (Tabs)

    Green Day – Good Riddance (Tab)Download

    This arrangement of Green Day’s Good Riddance is played with fingerpicking the whole way through (one finger per string picking style). I love the way the intro sounds played that way and fingerpicking brings out the melody.

    But I originally arranged it strumming so it’s closer to the original and it works well. Plus it’s easier to play that way. So you have my full permission to play it that way (not that you need it).

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