Here’s a rare cheerful songs I like: I Can See Clearly Now. I worked from the original Johnny Nash version but I’m more familiar with the Jimmy Cliff version so a bit of that might have snuck in.
I’ve tried to keep the arrangement loose and breezy to match the song. So focus on the mood when you’re playing rather than nailing down every note exactly.
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Intro: Starting off in usual fashion with Eb leading into G major. The Bb note (A-string, 1st fret) suggests G minor so the G major chord is a little surprising.
Verse: I’m fingerpicking this section the first two times it’s played. The third I’m using some strumming particularly on the Gsus4-G bit. You can do that every time if you prefer.
Chorus: The Eb chord crops up again creating discord under the line, “Everybody’s having fun,” and suggesting the Christmas isn’t as merry as claimed. If that was intentional, Noddy Holder is a more nuanced songwriter than I gave him credit for.
Bridge: I had forgotten this section existed. But it does give us the Gm that has been hinted at since the intro.
Jim Croce is an artist that past me by. He never get much attention in the UK. But after Time in a Bottle was a popular request on Patreon and it’s given me an appreciation of the song.
Intro: With this song, the more impressive sounding parts are easier to play and the less impressive sounding parts are more a challenge.
Despite how it sounds, the intro is fairly easy. Just make sure you’re fretting the A-string, 4th fret in bar 5 with your middle finger. Everything else falls into place.
Verse: This is the part I found to be more of a challenge. Bars 9-12 feel cramped with the descending chromatic line on the C-string and the melody on the A-string.
Things go back to being simple and effective in bars 14-16 with a walking bass line set against the melody.
Chorus: A change from F minor to F major for the jaunty chorus. Some fun sliding around in this section.
Outro: Closing out with some artificial harmonics to emulate the original. Made even more tricky than usual as you’ll probably have to estimate where the 20th fret would be. If you’re struggling, you can just play these without the harmonics and it’ll sound great.
And don’t be a moron like me, fret the C- and E-strings with your middle and index fingers respectively for an easier stretch.
The chill organ intro is my favourite part of the song. I’m picking this using one-finger-per-string.
The picking in the verse is a bit more haphazard. But the basis is the thumb alternating between the g- and C-strings with each followed by a strum. Then the melody sits of top of that.
In the original, there’s a half-verse solo with an instrumental of the melody. Since we’re already doing that, I threw in a quick solo of my own making. Plenty of scope for your own ideas here.
Here’s my take on Marvin Gaye’s Let’s Get It On. Although you could just tell people it’s Ed Sheeran’s Thinking Out Loud and no one will notice.
I recommend being relaxed and loose with the phrasing in this one. Being on the beat is not sexy! My phrasing is slightly different to Marvin’s and you should play it the way you feel it.
The trickiest parts of this arrangement are where you’re holding a Bb chord and also bending the E-string at the third fret (e.g. at the end of bar 1). You have to make sure you’re only bending the E-string and not the g- or C-strings. The good news is you only have to bend it slightly sharp. This mimics the original giving it a yearning feeling.
One Love first came out in a ska version in 1965. But my arrangement is based on the later, more laid-back and more famous reggae version. You might have noticed that good-time island vibes and togetherness are not my métier. So I’m sure you can improve on my version.
I love the mix of textures on this track. Particularly the sharp guitar stabs, the rinky-dink piano and Marley’s smooth vocals. I’ve tried to include those in this arrangement as much as I can.
This arrangement is based on Nico’s version rather the more laid-back Jackson Browne version. I couldn’t resist playing the Cotton picking guitar of the Nico version (played by Browne himself) on the ukulele.
Intro: Setting up the cotton picking pattern along with the thumb alternating between the g- and C-strings, the index finger picking the E-string and the middle A.
Except in bars 1 and 3 you start on the g-string and in the others you’re starting on the C-string. I’ve done to complete the descending line on the g-string. That run goes C-B-A-G in the first bar and needs the F on the C-string to finish it off.
Verse: Some more switching of the pattern in this section. This time it’s because some of the melody notes go low enough to fall on the C-string e.g. the final C note in bar 6 and the C-string, second fret in bar 8.
There’s a break from the alternating picking when you switch to one-finger-per-string picking in bar 12. That continues until you ease back into the alternating style in bar 16.
Solo: My take on the solo is a bit more in the Jackson Browne style. Particularly with the country bend in bar 26. I’ve also taken a hint from the descending bass-line and used a descending line harmonised with thirds in bars 24 and 34. The rest is plucking the chords with a few references to the melody thrown in.
Of course, you’re allowed and encourage to do whatever you fancy in this section and make it your own.
The Man Who Sold the World starts off with that iconic riff playing over changing chords. It works nicely on uke and is well worth learning on its own.
At the end of the intro, there’s an awkward bar of 2/4. I considered extending it to a bar of 4/4 (as Nirvana did in their Unplugged version). It certainly feels more natural that way. Even Bowie messed up and came in late sometimes. I’d recommend going with a bar of 4/4 if that feels more comfortable to you. There’s another bar of 2/4 in bar 20, but that one feels much more natural.
The verse is a simple chord and melody affair. But things get a little tricky in the chorus where you’re playing the riff and the melody. Make sure you keep them as distinct as you can by giving extra emphasis to the melody notes and sustaining them as much as you can over the riff.
Following on from I Will Always Love You with the song Dolly wrote on the same day. I don’t know how it’s possible to write two all-time classics in one day.
The arrangement starts out with a very basic version of the chorus. You could play the verse in this style and create a nice arrangement.
Next is an approximation of the intro riff from the original. The syncopated rhythm is tricky to get the hang of. Apparently, even the session musicians had trouble getting it down. I’ve made a close up video for just this section. If you want to play along to the original, you’ll have to tune down half a step to Gb B Eb Ab.
The verse and chorus are based on an alternating thumb picking pattern (moving between the C and g-strings) like the original. Unfortunately, the melody sometimes strays onto the C-string which complicates matters. I found it a little tricky to switch in and out of the alternating pattern. But after starting super-low and gradually increasing the speed, it started to feel almost on autopilot after a while.
I Will Always Love You is one of those songs where a cover version has completely obliterated the original. But Dolly’s version is still my favourite. Specifically, the 70s countrified version rather than the syrupy 80s version. So I used that one as the basis for this arrangement. Although some of the phrasing might be closer to the Whitney Houston version.
The intro is the trickiest part of the arrangement with a couple of bends and a bar of 2/4 to navigate.
The arrangement uses a lot of arpeggios. So you really need to emphasise the melody notes so it doesn’t just become a mush. But you can rely on most people being familiar with the melody, so they’ll do some of the work for you.
You do need to prepare a bit for the high vocal trills in bars 15 and 19. There are open strings either side of those to give you a bit more time to move.