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  • Ray Charles – Hit the Road Jack (Tabs)

    Ray Charles – Hit the Road Jack (Tab)Download

    Ray Charles’s Hit the Road Jack is tricky to play. Mostly because it’s so quick. I’ve slowed it slightly from the original. But it’s still a challenge.

    Intro: This sets up two aspects that run through the whole song. First, the descending pattern of Dm-C-Bb-A7. And second, the liberal use of chnks.

    Chorus: This continues the pattern from intro and adds the melody on top. There’s a trip up the neck for the “no more…” part that requires some quick and accurate jumps.

    Verse: The melody here is quick and relentless. I’ve included a few bits of campanella playing to fit them all in. This is the section I had the most trouble with.

    Solo: I went with a very ukulele-style solo. So it’s almost all chord strumming with a lot of movement all over the neck. Then finishing off with a quick run.

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  • Severance Main Theme (Tabs)

    Severance Main Theme (Tab)Download

    The Severance Theme minimalist, making it relatively easy to play. It can feel sparse on the ukulele, but it still retains the original’s eerie atmosphere.

    A Section: Played with thumb and two finger picking. The one exception is the Abm chord. I pluck that with index and middle fingers to keep the same timbre as the other notes at the start of the bar. But you can stick with thumb and index here if you prefer.

    B Section: Switching to one finger per string picking for the B section. This section is trickier but still very manageable. Start by barring at the fifth fret, then gradually move the note on the C-string down a fret each bar. In bar 11, switch to fretting the A-string,5th fret with your pinkie to prepare for the Eb on the C-string, 3rd fret.

    For the giltchy outro, I used Cryogen by Glitchmachines. I wouldn’t recommend paying full price for it. I picked it up for £3 in a sale.

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  • Blur – Tender (Tabs)

    Blur – Tender (Tab)Download

    Here’s a tab of a song that featured in Aftersun, my favourite movie of the last few years:
    Blur’s Tender.

    Intro: Starting off with the trickiest bit. The quick hammer-on to pull-off to slide at the start of bar 3 is a finger-twister.

    When this riff repeats at the end of the chorus, there is a slight change in bars 21 and 22 to watch out for.

    Verse: Just a G – F – G chord progression and nothing too tricky in the melody.

    Chorus: In the second and third choruses, I’ve included the high “fee-ling” part the choir sings (bars 33 and 46). This involves a slide up to the 14th fret. If your uke doesn’t have that many frets (or you just don’t fancy it) you can just repeat the first chorus.

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  • Buena Vista Social Club – Chan Chan (Tabs)

    Buena Vista Social Club – Chan Chan (Tab)Download

    Chan Chan was originally written by Compay Segundo. But it’s the Buena Vista Social Club version that is best known. And it’s that one I worked from.

    Intro: The intro sets up the chord progression that’s used (adding a 6 or 7 here and there) all the way through the song: Dm-F-Gm-A. The rest of the song is in 4 bar sections, but the intro has 6 bars. Which makes the start of the verse come in at an odd place.

    Verses: For the melody sections, you’re playing the same chords at the fifth fret. And that’s interspersed with two bars from the intro.

    Chorus: A very similar melody to the verse, but this time played twice through and with a four bar section of the intro.

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  • Monty Python – Always Look on the Bright Side of Life (Tabs)

    Monty Python – Always Look on the Bright Side of Life (Tab)Download

    Diving into 2025 with some wildly unjustifiable optimism in the shape of Always Look on the Bright Side of Life from Monty Python’s Life of Brian.

    Intro: Lots of jumping around the neck in the section. But it’s slow and loose, so it’s not too challenging.

    Chorus: The tempo ramps up here and we switch to swing time. This bit is my favourite part to play. It has a nice flow to it on ukulele. Lots of use of the g-string in the melody.

    Verse: Similar to the intro, but the increased tempo makes it much harder to play. I’ve simplified much of it to make it easier. Particularly bar 19 where I’ve dropped the chords entirely. If you fancy a challenge, you could play this like bar 3.

    Outro: There’s a key change here, so you’re playing the chorus in D. It is more difficult to play in this key. So you could play the chorus again in C and no one would notice or care.

    I’ve tacked on an “have a banana” outro at the end as a nod to the song’s musical hall style.

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  • Nat King Cole – The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting) (Tabs)

    Nat King Cole – The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting) (Tab)Download

    Just sneaking this one in before the deadline. The song was originally written by Robert Wells and Mel Tormé and first recorded by Nat King Cole. It’s one of the chillest songs in existence to listen to. But not so chill to play. There are many big moves up and down the fretboard to deal with. And plenty of unfamiliar chord shapes.

    The intro and solo are of my own devising. So feel free to mess around with those as much as you like.

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  • Band Aid – Do They Know It’s Christmas? (Tabs)

    Band Aid – Do They Know It’s Christmas? (Tab)Download

    Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas? is one of the most lyrically disastrous songs ever written. But since this is an instrumental, we can ignore that.

    The chords simple; just F, G and C with a few D minors and A minors thrown in.

    The melody gets a little fiddly though. And it wanders all over the fretboard. A couple of bits to look out for are Bono’s legendary “Tonight thank God…” (in bars 38 and 39) and the pinkie stretch to the fifth fret in bar 32. You can make that part easier by using the open E-string instead of holding the third fret.

    The other challenge is memorising it all. There are no repeats until the chorus right at the end of the song.

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  • The Cure – Friday I’m in Love (Tabs)

    The Cure – Friday I’m in Love (Tab)Download

    I had to break protocol for this one so I could post The Cure’s Friday I’m in Love on a friday.

    Intro: There’s an odd start to the song with the first note coming in on the “and” of 1. If the listener is unfamiliar with the song, it can throw them off.

    After the opening lick, it’s into some straight-forward strumming with a few picked notes thrown in.

    Verse: The first two verses are simple, with all familiar chord shapes in the first position. The third and fourth verses are a bit more tricky since they incorporate a high note on the A-string, fifth fret.

    Chorus: The trickiest part is going from the riff at the end of the verse to G chord with the high D note. If you’re struggling, you can just strum out the A chord in bar 17.

    Solo: The solo has a lot of moves up and down the neck. But there’s nothing too fancy to trip you up.

    Bridge: This is the hardest section to play. You’re up at the fifth fret and it gets a bit fiddly. That’s one reason I halved its length.

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  • The Clash – I Fought the Law (Tabs)

    The Clash – I Fought the Law (Tab)Download

    I Fought the Law was originally recorded by The Crickets after the death of Buddy Holly. The Bobby Fuller Four had a big hit with it later in the 60s. Then The Clash recorded the definitive version. And it’s The Clash version I based this arrangement on.

    Most of this arrangement is very easy. It’s just strumming out basic chords. For the single open-C strings notes the first crop up in bar 11 (where they lyrics say “and the”), I’m strumming all the strings while muting the g-string with my thumb and the E and A-strings with my fingers. If you prefer, you can just play these with fingerpicking the C-string alone. But that does lose a bit of the energy of the song.

    Things only get tricky in the solo section. But even then, it’s not exactly a finger-twister.

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  • Billie Eilish – What Was I Made For? (Tabs)

    Billie Eilish – What Was I Made For? (Tab)Download

    Here’s my take on Billie Eilish’s contribution to the Barbie soundtrack: What Was I Made For?

    Intro: I went with a few spicy chords for the intro to emphasise the melancholy mood of the song. If you prefer, you can just pick through the standard C – Em – F chord pattern.

    Verse: I’ve kept the arrangement for this simple and sparse. It’s a great melody, so doing that gives it plenty of room to breathe.

    Chorus: Things get a bit more involved in the chorus with pull-offs, slides and a few trips up the neck to deal with.

    Break: This section is only loosely based on the original. So there’s plenty of room to play about here.

    Outro: The song is in C but it ends on a G chord (i.e. the V chord). That leaves the song hanging on a tense, uncertain note.

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