Inevitably, I’ve trimmed this one down from its 8 1/2 minute runtime. This arrangement includes the opening slow verse, then speeds up for the first chorus, then speeds up again for the second verse and chorus.
There’s nothing too tricky to play until the second half of the second verse. As well as the increased tempo, there’s a lot of jumping up and down the neck to handle.
But the hardest part for me was memorising the verses. The chorus has a very catchy melody and a clear chord structure. But the verses are meandering and wordy. The chord progression never settles into a pattern. And even changes slightly between the two verses.
I hadn’t thought about Eagle-Eye Cherry’s Save Tonight since the Cretaceous period until it was requested on Patreon. But the chorus is still buried in the back of my brain.
Intro: Just strumming out the chords with a few hammer-ons. Don’t feel you have to slavishly follow the tab here. So long as you keep the feel of the original
Verse: A few challenges here. There’s a lot of movement up to the fifth fret and back, some quick chord changes and some pull-offs to deal with.
Chorus: The chorus is much easier to get in a groove with. Be sure to keep the strums on the second and fourth beats of each bar percussive. I’m almost moving into the range of them being chnks.
Solo: I kept the solo short and strummy. If you want to stretch out, you can double the number of bars (to make it the same length as the original) and introduce your own ideas.
Doctor Worm is my favourite TMBG song. And it has been dusted off to promote their latest live album. It’s a lot of fun to play but has some challenging sections.
Intro: I tried a few different ways to play this horn riff. And three of them crop up in this arrangement.
The version in the intro is by far the trickiest but also the truest to the original. If you’d rather avoid playing it (and that’s the sensible choice), you can replace the first four bars with bars 69-72. Or, if you have the chops of Rabbi Vole, you can make the opposite substitution.
Verse: The verses are much simpler. The third verse is especially simple, as it’s just the melody without chords.
Chorus: The chorus starts with just blasting out the strums with the melody alternating between B and C on the A-string.
The chorus ends with the horn riff transposed to Bb.
Middle: The trickiest section of the whole song. You have to deal with the melody whilst the chords alternate between G and C. I highly recommend slowing this section right down when you’re learning it before attempting it anywhere near full speed.
Bridge: A nice, simple section to recover after the middle.
Solo: A very easy solo too. It starts off mirroring the verse melody then descends from there. The bass has much more room to descend than the uke, so I had to cheat it a little.
Outro: Another variation on the horn riff. This time heading up the neck for the crescendo.
Nirvana’s In Bloom is a nice, easy one. It’s almost all strumming. There’s just a bit of fingerpicking in the first half of the verses. The rest is just blasting out chords with a few extra notes here and there.
The only challenging part is the second half of bar 2 (repeated in bar 30). There’s a quick walk-up on the g-string that’s played with all down strums. If you’re finding that too hard, you can switch to just strumming out the Bb chord.
Here’s my take on a track from R.E.M.’s massive Automatic for the People: Find the River.
Intro: Easing into the song with a very straightforward four bars. Then into some tricky fast picking in the next four bars. Be sure to play the G chord in bars 5 and 7 by barreing the second fret. That’ll make for a smooth transition up the neck for the Gm7.
Verse: The verse is fairly simple. It’s all first position chords and almost all strummed.
Chorus: The chorus is more challenging as it moves up and down the neck. Although it’s still just strumming. The trickiest part comes in the second half of bars 19 and 21. If you’re finding that tricky, Here’s an alternative version that’s easier to play. Although it does require a quicker move down to the G chord.
Keeping up the summer vibes (and the Brian Wilson tributes) with The Beach Boys’ Surfin’ USA. Musically, the song is based on Chuck Berry’s Sweet Little Sixteen. But Wilson took the wise decision to change the lyrics.
The key technique throughout is strum blocking i.e. muting the strings you don’t want to sound. For example, in the opening three notes, I’m muting the g-string with my thumb and the E- and A-strings with my index finger.
Intro: A very Chuck Berry-style lick. Played with all down-strums. And I’m holding my thumb against my index finger for some extra force (almost holding it like a pick).
Verse: The verse starts out alternating bars between melody notes (played on the g-string) and a standard blues shuffle. Then switches to more straightforward chords in bar 10.
For the strum blocking in the melody bars (e.g. bar 4) I’m muting the C-string with the underside of the finger I’m fretting the g-string with. And I’m muting the A-string with my middle finger (which is fretting the E-string).
Chorus: Starts almost identical to the verse except for having a more basic shuffle and not muting the C-string for the melody parts. Then it ventures up the neck for the falsetto “Everybody’s gone…” in bar 30.
Solo: I’ve stuck fairly close to the original here. But so long as you stay in the Chuck Berry area, there’s plenty of room to make changes.
Outro: Just the “Everybody’s gone…” bit repeated, then I threw in a little lick at the end.
Here’s one to learn while sweating your bollocks (or lady bollocks) off: Bananarama’s Cruel Summer.
The intro is by far the hardest part of this one. It gets fiddly at the top of the fretboard. Apart from that, it’s pretty straightforward. There’s only three chords in the whole song (Em, D and C). And those are all in the open position until the break section where I use different inversions and things get sweaty on the strumming front.
Intro: The song kicks off with a couple of jazz licks that are completely unrelated to the rest of the song. But do sound cool. It’s fine to drop those if you’re not into it. Or adjust it to your taste.
That leads into the intro proper. I’ve changed this up a bit from the original. And I’ve shortened it since the original is 30 seconds in before the verse starts.
Verse: The verse is nice and straightforward. It’s all contained in the first few frets and uses familiar chord shapes. Be aware that the open g-string at the start åof bar 19 is a melody note, so make sure it stands out.
Pre-Chorus: Switching to strums for the build up to the chorus. I didn’t find a nice way to play the melody and the descending notes at the same time. So I sacrificed the melody and just hinted at it with the hammer-ons on the E-string.
Chorus: Almost identical to the melody in the verse. But it’s beefed up with a bunch of strumming.
Solo: The trickiest part of the song. There are some quick runs that use campanella picking and a bit of quick movement up the neck. There’s room for changing things here. But I wouldn’t move away from the original too much as it has a strong melodic sense to it.
I hope you’re not coming here for a detailed harmonic breakdown of Charles Mingus’s Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, because I have no idea what he’s doing most of the time. Which made it a tough song for me to memorise. With all the unfamiliar chords and movements, I found myself constantly having to think ahead, since there weren’t many familiar shapes to fall back on.
Verse: I found the easiest way to play the opening bars is to barre across the first fret from the last note of bar 1 to the Gm in bar 4. Not all the chords need the barre, but it’s a lot easier to keep it there than to take it on and off.
As well as the harmony, there’s plenty of rhythmic jiggery-pokery going on. Most notably, the entire tune is in swing time except for bar 10. Which is played straight.
Solo: In the original, the solo uses a new (slightly simpler) chord progression. For my version, I’ve gone with a simplified take on the original chords. And I’ve leaned into the songs bluesiness with a bunch of bends and slides.
There’s loads of room here to bring in your own ideas. My take draws heavily on the melody. But you can go way off piste if you’re feeling brave.
How else could I pay tribute to Brian Wilson than with one of the greatest songs of all time: Wouldn’t It Be Nice. The song weaves through multiple keys and spans a wide vocal range, so I’ve done some shifting to bring it all within the range of the uke.
Intro: Kicking off in the key of B with a nifty riff that is a bit of a finger-twister but fun to play. This section ends with a D chord setting things up for the key change to G in the verse. If you’re going to change keys in a song, playing the V chord of the key you’re changing to is the smoothest way to do it.
Chorus: The happiest section of the song where you’re mostly rocking out open chords. As long as you keep things bright and percussive, you can’t go far wrong here.
Verse: Moving to the key of E minor (the relative minor of G) for the more melancholy verse. This section contains my favourite chord in the song (the juicy F9 in bar 14) and favourite note (the D on “staaaaaayyyy” at the start of bar 16).
Bridge: Shifting to the key of E major. This time, it’s more abrupt, without a chord to smooth the transition. This is the trickiest part of the arrangement. Lots of barre chords and use of the g-string in the melody.
Outro: A nice, simple jam of an ending. No need to even change the chord. It’s just G all the way through.
