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  • Avril Lavigne – Sk8er Boi (Tabs)

    Avril Lavigne – Sk8er Boi (Tab)Download

    Before I get thrown in music jail, this was not my idea.

    To be fair, the music of Sk8er Boi does have a few things to recommend it. I do enjoy the move from Em to Eb while keeping the two note riff on the A-string. And the chorus is undeniably catchy.

    I went into this tab expecting it to be pretty straight-forward. But there are a few tricky twists in this arrangement. The trickiest bit comes in bars 18-19 with the pinkie playing the 10th fret. I tried a few different ways of playing this section and couldn’t come up with anything that felt natural.

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  • Phoebe Bridgers – I Know the End (Tabs)

    Phoebe Bridgers – I Know the End (Tab)Download

    This is one of my favourite songs of last year and no amount of boomer wailing is going to convince me otherwise. I’m also a big fan of her policy of wearing her jammies for every media appearance for the last year.

    The song starts out very simple with an F-Bbmaj7 chord progression in the verses. The picking pattern is very ramshackle. I’m just using whatever falls nicely. With the melody mostly played with alternate picking. The rhythm of the melody does get a little complex. So I recommend listening to the original recording and following that rather than trying to read the rhythms.

    Once the middle hits, things speed up but get much more simple rhythmically. I start introducing more strums here with just the melody notes picked.

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  • Frightened Rabbit – I Wish I Was Sober (Tabs)

    Frightened Rabbit – I Wish I Was Sober (Tab)Download

    I recorded this video last year for the anniversary of Scott Hutchison’s death. And I’ve been a little reluctant to get around to the tab as I’m still cut up about it.

    The trickiest part of the arrangement comes in the bridge. In this section, I’m trying to combine the guitar riff and the vocals so there are two melodies to keep track of at once. The fretting in some places isn’t intuitive, so check the video if you find yourself getting tangled up.

    And be sure to keep a steady tempo when the chorus hits so you don’t do what I did and speed up horrendously.

    Links

    TinyChanges.com
    The Woodpile tab

  • O du lieber Augustin/Hail to the Bus Driver (Tabs)

    O du lieber Augustin/Hail to the Bus Driver (Tab)Download

    O du lieber Augustin is a short and sweet waltz from 17th Century Vienna. It’s a real earworm that’s been repurposed for everything from symphonies to children’s songs all over the world.

    My first encounter with it came in The Simpsons. But I was inspired to do a version after watching the absolutely wild movie Funeral Parade of Roses.

    The tune is fun, super-simple and uses only two chords. Just make sure to give it a bounce to give it an oompah waltz feel. You can do that by playing the second and third beats staccato i.e. muting them shortly after picking them instead of letting them ring (where they’re not part of the melody).

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  • The Cure – Boys Don’t Cry (Tabs)

    The Cure – Boys Don’t Cry (Tab)Download

    I went into this one expecting it to be tricky. But it all fell quite nicely once I transposed it into C. The riff works very well and is an absolute classic (even if I can’t shake the feeling it’s a bit 90s daytime TV theme).

    For my version, I worked from the ’79 version which I didn’t realise until after is subtly different from the 80s video version. The biggest difference is in the bridge section. The video version has harmonised vocals and ascends on the “more”s at the end. While the single version is a single vocal line and descends at the end.

    The chord move F-Em-Dm at the end of the riff is very quick. You can make it easier by keeping your middle finger free on the F chord. Leaving open to play the Em. n:

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  • Sex Pistols – God Save the Queen (Tabs)

    Sex Pistols – God Save the Queen (Tab)Download

    I’m still to entirely sure this one works but it is fun to play. There’s very little melody in the song. So this arrangement is heavily chord-based. But you can style it out, especially if the listener knows the song and is singing along in their head.

    The verses and choruses are talk-sung. So there I play the chords in the rhythm of the vocals. The bridge has just two notes: F (A-string, 8th fret) and E (A-string, 7th fret). They’re both in the chords they’re sung over, so there’s little to do here either. The outro has a long descending melody. All but one are the root notes of the chords they’re sung over. So the only addition to the chords is an A note (g-string, 2nd fret) over the B minor chord.

    The only tricky bit is the solo. But if you hurl yourself into it and make sure the bends are out of tune it’ll work out fine.

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  • Rick Astley – Never Gonna Give You Up (Tab)

    Rick Astley – Never Gonna Give You Up (Tab)Download

    This video has been knocking around for a while but I thought I’d put up the tab to give you enough time to get it under your belt before April Fools Day. The viral nature of this song has ensured it’s become Stock Aitkin Waterman’s most enduring hit, you can’t throw a dart at their catalogue without hitting something equally cheesy, catchy and memorable.

    I’ve had a few stabs at arranging this tune over the years and I’ve tackled the chorus slightly differently each time. But the run on “Never gonna” (end of bar 16) has never changed. Playing across all four strings makes it easier to play at full speed, lets the notes bleed into each other and leaves you in the right position for the following bar.

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  • Kerry’s Song from Cyberpunk 2077 (Tabs)

    Kerry’s Song from Cyberpunk 2077 (Tab)Download

    The hullabaloo around the game has stopped me from playing Cyberpunk 2077, but when Kerry’s Song from the game was requested by a Patron I was really taken with the chill tune.

    What isn’t so chill is trying to play it on the ukulele. There are a lot of big, quick leaps up and down the fretboard to contend with. A good tune to try if you’re practicing your fretting accuracy.

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  • Inspector Gadget Theme (Tabs)

    Inspector Gadget Theme (Tab)Download

    This one is a lot of fun but a real finger-twister. I slowed it down a fair amount from the original and it’s still a challenge with quick runs, big leaps up the fretboard and a couple of triplet strums.

    There are also some very strange musical choices in it. Most notable is the key change from E minor to F major (in my version) in bar 13. Up to that point, the only two notes that haven’t appeared are F and C (both of which show up in the F chord).

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  • The Supremes – Where Did Our Love Go (Tabs)

    The Supremes – Where Did Our Love Go (Tab)Download

    A little tribute I put together for Mary Wilson of The Supremes who died recently.

    Where Did Our Love Go, written by the legendary Holland-Dozier-Holland, was originally intended for Mary Wilson. But Berry Gordy decreed Diana Ross the leader. Which is a bit of a shame as this song would have suited her deeper, richer voice more than Ross’s higher, poppier sound.

    The arrangement starts out with a Motown stomp before two rounds of the main melody. Next up, I throw the backing vocals into the arrangement.

    The only tricky bit of the arrangement comes in the solo. I’ve already adapted it pretty heavily from the original, so feel free to adjust it to suit your playing.

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