Ever since Money Heist hit Netflix, I’ve had a steady stream of YouTube commenters telling me I look like Helsinki (played by Darko Peric. There were only two responses I could make to this: get a giant, angry bear tattooed on my body or do a cover of theme tune. So until the tattoo parlours reopen here’s a tab of the theme Cecilia Krull’s My Life Is Going On.
The first half of the arrangement is played with fingerpicking (thumb on C-string, index on E-string and middle on A-string). Then switches to strumming with a few picked notes in between. The wavy lines indicate roll strums (i.e. strumming with every finger on your strumming hand in quick succession).
Thanks to Patreon Jenn for requesting this typically catchy stomper from The Lumineers.
Most of the arrangement is strummed with the melody notes added to the chords. Arranging like that does risk the melody getting lost in the chords. It helps that this song has a strong melody. And it really helps if the listener already knows the song.
The little arrowheads above the notes indicate emphasised strums. So give those an extra bit of oomph or the strum is going to sound very boring.
In these divided times it’s comforting to know that Kanye lovers and Kanye haters can unite in hating Kanye.
Like James Brown and Duke Ellington, one of Kanye’s under-appreciated skills is finding talented collaborators and pushing them to make their best work. For the first piece in this little medley, he worked with arranger Rosie Danvers. Who until that point had mostly worked with British artists and recently worked on Dave’s showstopping performance at the BRITS.
Kanye had a whole raft of collaborators on Violent Crimes (including an unexpected writing credit for the drummer form Pond). But the standout collaborator here is 070 Shake who was signed to Kanye’s label from nowhere and was immediately phenomenal on this album.
The two songs tackle the subject of loss of innocence in two different ways. Lyrically and musically. All of the Lights uses basic chords and a simple, emotional melody. Violent Crimes uses a maze of complex jazz chords. But I think they work together very nicely.
After bouncing off BoJack a couple of times, I finally started watching it in earnest after I was told to watch this fantastic bit with K Flay’s Blood in the Cut riff. After that it rapidly became one of my favourite shows of all time.
For most of the medley I’m either using strums (with a few picked notes mingled in) or thumb and two finger picking.
The song that works best on ukulele is the outstanding I Will Always Think of You. Which is such a dead-on pastiche I had to double check it wasn’t a long lost Cole Porter song.
The trickiest to pull off is Back in the 90s. That includes some quick Cotton picking i.e. the thumb alternates between the g- and C-strings with the index and middle fingers playing the melody on the E- and A-strings respectively.
The full tracklist:
A Horse with No Name (America)/Special Feeling/Avant Gardener (Courtney Barnett)/I Just Met My Perfect Match/Generic 90s Grunge Song/Mr Peanutbutter’s House/Blood in the Cut (K.Flay)/I Will Always Think of You/Back in the 90s/Stars (Nina Simone)/Boxer vs. Raptor
Following up on Brave Sir Robin with another medieval pastiche. This time from the TV show The Witcher. I haven’t got around to watching the show yet, but Toss a Coin to Your Witcher has been impossible to avoid.
The original is in Am so it transfers neatly to the ukulele in the original key. There’s nothing massively difficult in the tune. But the hardest parts are the jumps up the neck. Particularly the one in bar 16. So I’ve arranged it with open strings in the previous two notes so you move up the neck early in preparation.
I don’t think any ukulele player has had a bigger year than Billie Eilish. She’s been all over the shop and her debut album WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? and 2017 EP don’t smile at me have both been selling by the bucket-hat load. I’ve already done a few tracks from the album, so today I’m doing one from the EP.
I’m using one finger per string picking all the way through this arrangement. There are many chnks in the song which can make it difficult to get your fingers back in position. I’d recommend not doing a standard chnk and instead muting the strings with your fretting hand and bringing each finger down on the string it’s plucking. That should leave them in the right position for picking.
The tab is pretty long thanks to the second verse and second chorus being slightly different to the first. Both are a little trickier second time around. I don’t think anyone would notice if you just played them the same both times.
Idles are masters of playing with tension and release. The opener on their latest album, Colossus builds tension for four minutes then releases it for a riotous two minutes. Danny Nedelko is more traditional in its structure. The verse, pre-chorus and bridge are just a C chord all the way through with some 7th notes to increase the tension. Then they break into a bright, singalong chorus with the cheesiest chord progression going.
As I mentioned, there’s no getting away from the I’m Yours chords these days. It’s even in the punk songs. But at least Idles mix it up a little. Rather than I V vi IV (C-G-Am-F), it’s I vi V I IV V (C Am G C F G).
I’ve raved about Hitman before on here. But I haven’t given enough praise for how much the music adds to the experience. The music works to subtly differentiate different areas of the maps and set the mood for each one.
This excellent little guitar piece is used to evoke a small Columbian fishing village which is relaxed on the surface but houses a huge drug operation. Similarly, the tune is relaxed and easy-going with a few little hints of darkness peaking through.
Christmas came early for depressed weirdos last week with the surprise release of Bon Iver’s new album i,i. The record is a perfect blend of his previous three albums. The acoustic track Marion is the most like his debut album and so obviously suited for a ukulele cover I started working it out during my first hearing of it.
I’m playing it with a capo on the third fret to keep it in the original key of Eb. But it does stray high up the neck so you might want to ditch it if you’re using a soprano uke.
It’s not too difficult to play. The only big stretch comes in bars 10-11. Everything else is plain sailing. I’m very loose with the timing in the song. Spreading out and compressing notes to add feeling to the song. So I encourage you to do the same.
