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.
Intro: Starting off in usual fashion with Eb leading into G major. The Bb note (A-string, 1st fret) suggests G minor so the G major chord is a little surprising.
Verse: I’m fingerpicking this section the first two times it’s played. The third I’m using some strumming particularly on the Gsus4-G bit. You can do that every time if you prefer.
Chorus: The Eb chord crops up again creating discord under the line, “Everybody’s having fun,” and suggesting the Christmas isn’t as merry as claimed. If that was intentional, Noddy Holder is a more nuanced songwriter than I gave him credit for.
Bridge: I had forgotten this section existed. But it does give us the Gm that has been hinted at since the intro.
Intro and Verse: It starts off straightforwardly in G minor.
Chorus: A switch to G major and a busier melody make for an upbeat chorus. The octaves in 20 and 24 are tricky to play. If you’re struggling, you can play either the top or bottom line alone.
Solo: My version of the solo is only loosely based on the original. There’s plenty of room for making it your own. Bars 37-38 are a pain in the arse to play. But also the best bars in the whole song.
I hadn’t heard Harry Styles’s As It Was before it cropped up as a Patreon request and my hopes weren’t high. Turns out it’s a pretty great song. Very catchy with a melancholy edge.
Intro: A bit of Take On Me action with this riff. Once the chords kick in at bar 2, prioritise keeping the energy up over hitting exactly the right strings. As long as you’re holding the chord, it’ll sound great.
Verse: Mostly one finger per string picking here but I’m alternating index and middle finger to pick the C notes in bars 7 and 11.
I snuck in a little lick at the end of bar 8 to fill up the bar. You’re welcome to use your own ideas here.
Chorus: Just strumming for the chorus. The trickiest part is hitting the F chord just before the end of bars 15 and 19. Don’t worry if you hit some of the open strings when you play the A-string, 7th fret the note before.
You could always extend that note at the 7th fret and hit the F chord at the start of bar 16/20. I doubt anyone will notice.
Bridge: A whole mess of notes here. Definitely need some alternate picking to get through it.
Intro: Starting off with thumb and two finger picking.
I love the way this riff works with open strings on the uke. So much so, I considered inserting into the song itself. In the end, I saved it for the outro.
Verse: By far the hardest part of the song comes with the big jumps down the fretboard in bars 13-16. Well worth practicing these bars by themselves until you’ve got them down.
Chorus: Switching to one finger per string picking and moving into strums at the end of the chorus.
By far the most challenging aspect of Mazzy Star’s Fade Into You is the timing of the melody. Thanks to Gen X disaffection, the melody keeps coming in later than you’d expect.
In the verses, you’d expect the melody in bars 7, 11 and 19 to hit right at the start of the bar (as it does in bar 15). Instead, it comes in a quaver late (or eighth note if you prefer).
In the chorus, it’s similar in bars 23, 27 and 31. But I found these even trickier to get the hang of.
No such problems in the solo, though. Here you can mess around however you please using the chords as a basis for your twiddling.
1979 is the Smumpkins’s biggest hit but was almost cut from Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. Which is confusing as that album could do with a dozen songs cutting but not this one.
This arrangement is mercifully easy after the nightmare of Send Me on My Way. This one is all strumming and nothing too difficult with the fretting hand. So you can really concentrate on mixing up the dynamics and enjoying the chill Gmaj7 chords.
Rusted Root’s Send Me on My Way was a bit of a flop when it was first released. But it’s jaunty nature and semi-comprehensible lyrics have given it success in soundtracks to Ice Age, Matilda and that millipede.
There are a lot of rapid notes to get your fingers around in this one. Even at this slightly slowed tempo, it’s tricky to pull off.
Intro: The classic riff. Making use of the high-g string to avoid moving up and down the neck.
Verse: No avoiding moving up and down in this part. But it’s not too difficult until the end of bar 14 with the mabubadeesay mabubadeeum bit (lyric sheets claim he’s saying, “You know what they say about the young,” but there is no way). This includes my favourite trick: playing the same note on different strings (g and E) to allow for quicker picking.
Chorus: Busting out the strums for the chorus. Nothing too difficult here.
Bridge: The trickiest bit with the very quick “Send me on my way”s. I’ve cut down the number of notes in some of these to make them easier to play.
Solo: The funnest bit. As long as you keep the strumming up, you can play around with this section as much as you like.
Outro: Just strumming out the chords in the outro followed by a stripped down version of the riff.
The biggest challenge with this piece is getting the rhythms right. There are a bunch of time signature changes and even within the bars things get weird.
Intro: In straight 4/4 but the rhythmic weirdness starts right away. You’d expect the initial riff to be played four times but it’s only played three times before switching to the slightly different second riff.
Verses: These are made up of three bars of 5/4 and one bar of 3/4. Tricky to get the hang of but once you do the rest is fairly easy. It’s just strumming and occasionally picking the g-string. Other than that, there’s just a little lick at the end to deal with.
Breaks: After each verse there’s an instrumental section of varying length. You can do pretty much whatever you like in these sections. I’d recommend not following exactly what I’m doing and just use it for ideas for your own version.
I’m using mostly notes from G major and G minor scales with a few extra notes for a discordant sound. The only rule is to keep up the propulsive force of the tune.