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  • George Gershwin – Summertime (Tab)

    George Gershwin – Summertime (Tab)Download

    Having spent my summer break measuring cotton and watching tench pole-vaulting, I thought this song from Porgy and Bess best summed up my experience.

    I’ve done a few jazz tabs in the past (like Take Five and La Vie en Rose) but this is the first time I’ve used a jazz approach and used the tune as a springboard for soloing. In this arrangement I play the melody straight for the first verse. Then semi-improvise around the tune for the next two verses. Each with a different scale.

    In the second verse I’m use the G blues scale.

    There’s an exception in bar 23 (and later in bar 39). That little turnaround lick is adapted from the Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald version of the tune.

    I get more adventurous in the third verse and mostly use the G harmonic minor scale. I had fun playing around with the scale. The wide gap between the Eb and Gb notes give it an unsettling feel.

    I also borrow an F (A-string, 8th fret) from the G melodic minor scale in bar 37.

    I highly recommend you play around with the scales and phrasing in this piece to come up with your own version.

    Links

    Buy the Ella Fitzgerald version
    More jazz tabs
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  • Amy Winehouse – Rehab (Tab)

    Amy Winehouse – Rehab (Tab)Download

    I considered posting this song back when Amy Winehouse died but it seemed like exceptionally bad taste at the time. But it’s far too great a song to ignore for long and I’m not going to hold her questionable uke skills against her.

    To keep the tab a manageable length I’ve notated straight repeats for the second verse. But there are a couple of differences between the verses. So I’ve added those at the end of the tab.

    I’m using my thumb, index finger and middle finger for all the picking. But I’m am switching which strings those cover. As a general rule, if there’s no g-string in the bar my thumb is on C, index on E and middle on A. If there is some g-string, my thumb will be on g, index on C and middle on E.

    Links

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    More 2000s tabs
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  • Charli XCX – Boys (Tab)

    BoysDownload

    I don’t cover a lot of pop music on here but Charli XCX’s contribution to the long tradition of lusty songs about handsome boys was the song of last summer and one of my favourite songs of the year.

    The arrangement is a bit tricky with a few leaps up and down the fretboard. Probably the trickiest parts are the Mario coin noises. These are created by playing a note on the E-string 10th fret quickly followed by natural harmonic on the A-string, 12th fret. If you’re still getting the hang of natural harmonics you can fret the string at the 12th fret as you usually would. It won’t have the same ringing sound but it will sound right.

    Links

    Buy it on iTunes
    More pop tabs
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  • Frightened Rabbit – The Woodpile (Tab)

    Frightened Rabbit – The Woodpile (Tab)Download

    I first tried to do a uke arrangement of The Woodpile back when it came out in 2013. But it quickly joined the massive pile of tabs I’ve started but wasn’t satisfied with. But with the death of Scott Hutchison I had to dig it out and get it finished. Particularly since Midnight Organ Fight is up there with Pet Sounds as one of the great albums that has a tiny bit of ukulele on (in the later part of Good Arms vs Bad Arms).

    There are a couple of things that make this tune tricky. First is the artificial harmonics played in the riff (the ones with A.H. above them). There’s a guide to playing artificial harmonics here. But if you don’t want to tackle them you can just play the tab as written without them and it’ll sound perfectly fine.

    Secondly, the shifting time signature. The riff and verses alternate between bars of 5/4 and 4/4. The change isn’t jarring but it messed me up a few times when I was learning it. So it’s worth counting the bars in your head while you’re getting it under your fingers.

    Links

    Buy it on iTunes

    Tiny Changes
    More rock tabs
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  • John Williams – The Imperial March (Tab)

    John Williams – The Imperial March (Tab)Download

    This year’s Star Wars Day inspired me to work up a version of John Williams’s ultimate bad-guy theme tune The Imperial March. If you’re interested in the theory behind how this tune conjures up the dark, powerful, militaristic images I highly recommend watching 12tone’s video on the tune.

    The trickiest part of the arrangement is the legendary rhythm at the beginning. It involves three quick triplets. It’s one to practice very slowly and gradually speed it up.

    I’m using a slight variation on the traditional Hawaiian triplet strum:

    – Down with index finger.
    – Down with thumb (indicated by dt in the tab).
    – Up with index.

    More on that in the Ukulele Strums ebook.

    The variation is that I’m strumming down with my index and middle fingers together to give it more power and make sure the force is strong in this one. Here’s how the strum looks slowed down:

    I also had problems with this because of the rhythmic mismatch between the triplets in the rhythm part and the dotted eighth notes in the melody (mentioned in the 12tone video). I had a hard time switching between the melody in bar 14 to the strumming in bar 15.

    Links

    Buy it on iTunes
    Cantina Band (Tab)
    More movie tabs

  • Edith Piaf – La Vie En Rose (Tab)

    Edith Piaf – La Vie En Rose (Tab)Download

    There’s loads of room to add your own spin onto this song. You can play around with dynamics and pacing, change the phrasing, throw in chord extensions or add in a few jazzy runs. Check out Louis Armstrong’s version for inspiration.

    It seems like every cover version ditches the intro section of the original. And I’ve done likewise. I’ve replaced it with a chord section that establishes the harmony of the tune by borrowing chords from elsewhere in the song. This is a good place to start adding your own ideas.

    Links

    Buy it on iTunes
    More 40s tabs
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  • U2 – One (Tab)

    U2 – One (Tab)Download

    In One U2 make use of a simple melody trick that crops up in many popular songs. They take the highest note used in the verse (the E on the A-string, 7th fret) and use that as the first note of the chorus. It makes the song peak at the right moment and in this case adds emotion as Bono pushes for the note. They take that even further in the middle section with the starting note moving up to G (A-string, 10th fret). You can tell Bono’s reaching for the note and it really makes the song peak.

    The rhythms in this one are a little unusual and wander around the beat. So I’d recommend going with the flow of the song rather than trying to recreate every rhythm.

    To keep my arrangement short, I’ve chopped out the second verse and chorus and shortened the guitar solo in the outro.

    Links

    Buy it on iTunes
    More Irish tabs

  • Janis Joplin – Mercedes Benz (Tab)

    Janis Joplin – Mercedes Benz (Tab)Download

    Time for a song of great social and political import. And, more importantly, an easy to play song. I’ve kept the simplicity of the accapella original. Just adding a few chords in for support.

    I’m using fingerpicking in my version. But it’s arranged so you can play the whole thing with your thumb if you prefer.

    Links

    Buy it on iTunes
    More 60s tabs

  • Vangelis – Chariots of Fire (Tab)

    Vangelis – Chariots of Fire (Tab)Download

    A quick bonus tab. In tribute to Roger Bannister I knocked together a simple version of the Chariots of Fire theme tune. There were a bunch of requests for a tab so here it is.

    Links

    Buy it on iTunes
    More movie theme tabs

  • Lumineers – Ho Hey (Tab)

    Lumineers – Ho Hey (Tab)Download

    I’m about five years late to this one. And three years late to anyone caring about it. But I still love this tune. And it works very well on ukulele. All beginner chords and you don’t even have to move past the third fret.

    The melody uses exclusively notes from the F major pentatonic scale: F – G – A – C – D.

    Links

    Buy it on iTunes
    More folk tabs
    Uke Hunt Patreon