There are a bunch of nice ukulele tunes on the Rayman Legends Soundtrack.
I got a request for this one and went with it because the whole thing is done with chords. That means you don’t have to be able to read tab to play this one. I’ve included all the chord charts you need above the tab.
Feel free to vary the strumming in the piece. That happens in the original and in my version.
To counteract yesterday’s gloomfest I decided to do a version of the most cheerful song of the summer. Plus I was feeling like a room without a roof so this is the smiliest I have looked in any video ever.
For the most part I’m playing the verses and the middle picking and the chorus with strums.
In the chorus I’m using a triplet technique (although I’m not actually playing triplets) by strumming down with my index finger, then flicking my index finger up, then my middle finger up. But that’s very much optional. You can strum it however seems appropriate to you.
In the middle section I’m recreating the soul-claps by playing muted notes on the g-string.
The muted notes in the middle section are very tricky. So you can just drop those in that section and play it with just the sparse melody.
I love Lana Del Rey’s first couple of singles. But after Paradise and the baby seal beatings I’d given up on her. But I absolutely love her new album, Ultraviolence,. With some help from Dan ‘Black Keys’ Auerbach she’s gone full on Bond. So I felt compelled to do a version of the Bondiest track on the album.
Buy the original on iTunes
Lana Del Rey – Video Games (Instrumental Tab)
I just love Zeppelin so this song has been on my to-do pile for a long time. It had stayed there because I was a bit intimidated by how much there is going on. But once I got stuck into it the tune transferred to the ukulele surprisingly smoothly. I didn’t even have to change the key and I think I crammed the most important parts in.
My version is shortened but most of the important sections are in there once.
My favourite technique in the tune is the long, drawn out up strums. I’m doing a slow up strum with my index finger there. Definitely worth incorporating into your playing arsenal.
I found sliding down the 3323 chord really tricky. You can simplify out without losing anything much by muting the g-string and just sliding down the G7 chord shape i.e. from x323 to x212.
Blues Run the Game is the up there with World Turned Upside Down as the best modern folk song. Both those songs are widely covered and not best known for the original versions (a defining characteristic of a great folk song).
Blues Run the Game was written by Jackson C Frank but has been more heard in its many cover versions by the likes of Simon & Garfunkel, Nick Drake, John Renbourn, Sandy Denny, Eddi Reader John Mayer and Laura Marling.
But my favourite is Bert Jansch’s version. And that was the strongest influence on my ukulele version of the picking.
The first thing to say about my take is that it uses the capo on the fifth fret. Usually I wouldn’t capo that high up but it was the only way I could get it onto the ukulele and keep it in the same key as Jansch’s version.
The second thing is the alternate picking. The thumb alternates between the g and C strings thumb and two finger style.
Buy the Jackson C Frank version
Buy the Bert Jansch version
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I got a request from Justin saying that Alexandre Desplat’s music from the new Wes Anderson movie Grand Budapest Hotel would be perfect for ukeing. And he was absolutely right. As soon as I heard this tune I knew it would suit a campanella-style ukulele arrangement.
And it turned out to be even easier than I expected. Without even changing the key the whole first section of the verses mostly could be played on the open strings.
As with most campanella arrangements the trickiest bit is memorising the string plucking order. If there’s a quicker way to learn it than playing through slowly over and over again I don’t know what it is.
In the bridge section I’m trying to recreate the mandolin tremolo strumming. Tremolo strumming is a bit more tricky on the uke though. So I used a technique I refer to as “flicking the bean”.
It involves turning your strumming hand palm upwards and wiggling your middle fingers across the strings like this:
For this arrangement I’ve taken the intro and outro of the song and made a mandolin solo sandwich. Mandolins are built for speed so I had to slow it down a fair amount to play it. And even still I didn’t play it as smoothly as I’d like.
The intro and outro is mostly octaves picked with thumb and middle finger. If your uke only has 12 frets you can just play the lower half of the octaves and it should work out okay.
The picking for mandolin section is a complete mess! Where I can I’m using running man picking (alternately picking the same string with index and middle fingers). But mostly I’m using whatever finger gets there first. Which would explain why I’m not playing it smoothly.
Gustavo Santaolalla is my absolute favourite film composer. He first came to prominance with Argentine films Amores Perros and The Motorcycle Diaries. Then went on to win Academy Awards for Brokeback Mountain and Babel.
No doubt part of the reason I love his music is his extensive use of a ronroco (a large version of, the ukulele’s cousin, the charango). It’s that instrument he used for the theme tune to his first game soundtrack The Last of Us. And it’s an incredibly beautiful tune. Here’s a fascinating video of him discussing his work on it with a short clip of him playing it live.
Because the ronroco uses reentrant tuning, the tune transfers nicely to the ukulele.
All the way through I’m using thumb and two finger picking. The thumb plays the g- and C-strings, the index finger plays the E and the middle finger plays the A.
When you’re playing this try to always emphasises the melody. In the first section (bars 1 to 11) that’s every note on the g-string. So pluck more forcefully with your thumb.
Then it switches to the A-string in bars 12 to 24. So in that section pick more strongly with your middle finger.
The section in bars 27 to 34 is a little different. There isn’t a strong melody here. But do give a little more emphasis to the notes on the A-string on the third and fourth beats of each bar.
Also, try to vary the dynamics as you play. Having louder and softer sections through the piece.
Buy the original on iTunes
TheLastOfUs.playstation.com
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I couldn’t let Pete Seeger week pass without writing up this song in some form. In the spirit of the song I’ve kept the arrangement super simple. I go through the verse three times. Getting more strident each time.
I’m just playing the melody. Picking it out with my thumb.
Harmonising the melody. I’m picking this with my thumb on the lower string and index finger on the higher string.
Playing the melody back with the chords. I’m just using my thumb here. Strumming up to the melody note.
The Pete Seeger version on iTunes
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By my reckoning the last ukulele song to win the Best Song Oscar was Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head in 1969.
But that could change this year with the nomination of Karen O’s The Moon Song this year. The song was written for the Spike Jonze film Her where it’s performed by Joaquin Phoenix playing ukulele and Scarlett Johansson playing a Siri. Here’s a ukulele-based précis if you need to catch up.
I’ve written up two versions of the song. Above is the plain chords based on the Karen O guitar version. And below the ukulele picking version from the movie.
For the main pattern you can use:
d – d u – u d u
Do that once each for Dm and G. You can do it twice for the C chord. Or you can do this:
d – d u – u d u
– u d u d u d –
Just do one down strum each for the F and Fm.
The ukulele version has the same basic chords but a few different inversions. That means you can switch chord inversions as you see fit.
The arrangement, though, is slightly different. The intro is longer and there’s a verse missing.
I’ve suggested a thumb and two fingers picking pattern (shown in the first bar and repeated all the way through). It doesn’t seem to be what he’s using but it’s what I’d recommend.
Karen O on iTunes
Visit HerTheMovie.com
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