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The Pogues – Dirty Old Town (Tabs)

The Pogues – Dirty Old Town (Tab)Download

To celebratre St Patrick’s Day on Friday, I thought I’d cover a song written by an American about a place in England. But it has become thouroughly Irish-ised through versions by The Dubliners and the Pogues version. For this arrangement, I worked from The Pogues version.

Intro: A quick couple of bars then into the thumb-and-strum pattern which carries on through the song i.e. the thumb alternates between picking the g- and C-strings with a couple of strums in between.

Verse: The first verse is the most straightforward. The second and third have a couple of extra bits of filigree.

Solo: I like The Pogues version, this arrangement modulates to C for the solo. It’s heavily based on the melody with a few extra twiddles. I particularly like the campanella run in bar 48. As always, feel free to add your own ideas and adapt it to your own style.

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14/03/2023
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Maps (Tabs)

Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Maps (Tab)Download

Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitarist, Nick Zinner is one of my favourite guitar players. His playing is very minimal but he makes every note count. Never more so than on Maps. This arrangement is minimal too. With a few nods to the acoustic version which is a bit more fleshed out with the chords.

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02/03/2023
Culture Club – Karma Chameleon (Tabs)

Culture Club – Karma Chameleon (Tab)Download

In keeping with the theme of the song, Culture Club’s Karma Chameleon is a mish-mash. Including some country harmonic, funky bass, cheesy 80s keyboards and a catchy pop chorus.

Intro: A bit of everything here: the guitar riff, muted strums for the drums and a bit of harmonica.

Verse and Pre-Chorus: A fair bit of sliding up and down here but nothing too challenging.

Chorus: This is where it gets tricky. The melody notes here are very fast. You’ll need to use alternate picking to get them up to speed.

Bridge: I forgot this section existed before I relistened to the song!

Solo: A brief solo that I cobbled together based mostly on the chords.

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28/02/2023
Billy Bragg/Kirsty MacColl – A New England (Tabs)

Billy Bragg/Kirsty MacColl – A New England (Tab)Download

A New England was originally by Billy Bragg and made more famous by by Kirsty MacColl. This arrangement starts with a riff inspired by Johnny Marr’s intro on Kirsty MacColl’s version. After that, it’s closer to the Billy Bragg version.

I’ve reduced the tempo for my recording. There are a lot of fast notes in it. With the most challenging run being bars 59-60. If you can play that at the tempo of the MacColl version, you’re a way better player than me.

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16/02/2023
Peggy Lee/Jessica Rabbit – Why Don’t You Do Right? (Tabs)

Peggy Lee/Jessica Rabbit – Why Don’t You Do Right? (Tab)Download

Why Don’t You Do Right? has a colourful history. The tune started out as Weed Smoker’s Dream in 1936. It was adapted and released in 1941 by Lil Green (with guitar by Big Bill Broonzy). The most famous version was the Peggy Lee’s uptempo take. At least it was until Jessica Rabbit’s sultry version in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Tempo-wise, this version is most similar to the Lil Green version. But I took inspiration from all three versions.

There are a heap of places in the song for little licks, and I’ve included a solo as well. As always, I recommend using the tab as inspiration for your own ideas rather than slavishly following each lick.

When soloing, I mostly thought in terms of the D blues scale (D – F – G – Ab – A – C – D). In addition to that, I threw in a few notes that crop up in the chords: Db and Bb. And a couple of chromatic runs (in bars 31-32 and the blues turnaround in bars 35-36).

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15/02/2023
Simon & Garfunkel – The Sound of Silence (Tabs)

Simon & Garfunkel – The Sound of Silence (Tab)Download

Because the song is just a verse repeated, I’ve arranged it slightly differently each time. First time is just a straight ahead melody and chords. Second time introduces harmony to the melody line. And third time is the harmonised melody with a bit of strumming.

There are a couple of bars of 6/4 in each verse that might trip you up. I found the one in bar 9 quite natural to play. But the one in bar 13 tripped me up much more.

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02/02/2023
Nirvana – Heart-Shaped Box (Tabs)

Nirvana – Heart-Shaped Box (Tab)Download

Nirvana’s ever-present quiet-loud-quit-loud dynamics are in full effect on Heart-Shaped Box. So using fingerpicking for the quiet bits and strumming for the loud bits is a must in this arrangement.

All the picking is one-finger-per-string style. That means you’re picking consecutive notes on g- and C-strings (e.g. in bar 5). I’d usually avoid that as it’s less natural than using thumb then index finger. But it works out much better for the rest of the verse.

There are a whole bunch of bends in the song. The trickiest of them are in the chorus where you’re playing chords on the 2nd/3rd fret then bending at the 9th fret. You’re also bending whilst fretting the C-string for an extra challenge.

On the upside, the bends sound better if they’re a little out of tune so you don’t have to worry too much about that.

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31/01/2023
Billie Eilish – ocean eyes (Tabs)

Billie Eilish – ocean eyes (Tab)Download

Here’s a tab for Billie Eilish’s song about Dwight: ocean eyes.

Intro and Verse: Based on a descending chord progression and a simple melody line. Nothing challenging here.

Chorus: Here’s where the challenge starts. There’s an ascending riff on the C-string going along side the busier melody. I’ve used a bit of campanella style playing to deal with the quick notes.

Solo: Heavily based on the verse with a few extra twiddles. A good place to play around with your own ideas.

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19/01/2023
Garbage – Only Happy When It Rains (Tabs)

Garbage – Only Happy When It Rains (Tab)Download

I’m back and I’m starting the year how I intend to carry on: with pessimistic miserablism in the form of Garbage’s Only Happy When It Rains.

Verse: Not wasting any time with an intro. Since the melody does a lot of switching between A and G, I’m taking advantage of the re-entrant string and using the open A and G notes. I love how well the bent notes at the fifth fret work here.

Chorus: Switching to a major key for a fairly jaunty chorus melody.

Solo: Nothing too flashy here. If you do want to get flashy, you could replace some of the notes at the third fret at the start of the bars in the second half with notes bent at the second fret. That’s more true to the original but tricky to pull off (particularly on the E chord).

Outro: A bit of stretch here when you’re playing Am then hitting the A-string, 5th fret.

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17/01/2023
The Beatles – You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away (Tabs)

The Beatles – You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away (Tab)Download

Intro: I did an extended intro based on the verse chords. It’s a little tricky so feel free to adapt it however you like. Or just replace the whole thing with one bar of G like the original.

Verse: First time around, this section is picked (using one finger per string picking). Second time is more loose and strummed with a few notes picked out.

Chorus: The funnest part of the song with a big G chord on the “HEY!”

Solo: Lots of room for your own ideas here too. You could make it as simple as strumming the chords and throwing in a few sus2 and sus4 chords.

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14/12/2022

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