My favourite aspect of War is Over is the usual way it uses key changes. Most commonly, you find key changes near the end of the song e.g. in Penny Lane. But here there’s a key change before the first chorus (in this arrangement change from F in the first verse to Bb in the second). But this wasn’t the first time Lennon pulled off an early key change. If I Fell starts in Db before switching to D for the first verse.
Don’t Leave Me This Way was originally recorded by Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes. But by far the most well known version in the UK is by the The Communards. It’s also been covered by Thelma Houston and briefly popped up in Moulin Rouge. This version is based on the Melvin version with shades of the very similar Communards version.
The biggest element of this song is the switch from D minor in the intro and verses to D major in the chorus. Unlike the strange change from major to minor, the change from minor to major is pure fun and lifts the song as it enters the big hook.
The outro for both the Melvin and The Communards version are very loose. So I went into the outro with that spirit and improvised around the D-C-G progression. I’d encourage you to play around with your own ideas in that section.
I put a call out for Halloween-suitable songs on this month’s Patreon request thread and Sam requested Black Sabbath’s Paranoid album in celebration of the 50th Anniversary. Which was a great and also ridiculous idea.
It is, of course, entirely unsuited to ukulele. Which makes it all the more fun to play. It uses forceful picking almost all the way through. With just a few quieter sections to keep things chugging along.
And then there’s the solo. My take on it is pretty shambolic. So feel free to concoct your own. Or take then sensible option and leave it out entirely.
The third and final tab for Game Day. The Last Dance, the documentary on the Jordan-era Chicago Bulls, had some great 90s music in it. The closing sequence with Pearl Jam’s Present Tense absolutely floored me. But instead of covering any of that, I dusted off my cricket bat RISA ukulele and have a go at this delicious slice of 80s cheese.
The grunt work of the chords is done on guitar (since my IQ drops 30 points every time I play one). That starts with C5 (x355xx) – Abmaj7 (4x55xx) – F5 (x335xx) – C5 with the first chord switching to Cm7 (x3534x) half way through.
I’ve tabbed up the two ukulele riffs and the solo. The first riff is a dead simple one bar riff repeated through the whole thing. The second is a more challenging set of arpeggios. The solo is a blast to play. I kept the half step bend in (A-string 5th fret) but I’ve replaced all the whole step bends with slides.
Another bonus week of tabs courtesy of the Uke Hunt patrons. Kicking off with this John Denver classic suggested by Litespeed. It seems many people have it on their minds at the moment. Just in the time I’ve been working on the song covers by Whitney with Waxahatchee and The Petersens have popped up.
The backbone of this arrangement is the old thumb-and-strum. You pluck the g-string with your thumb then strum the other strings (it doesn’t matter exactly which strings you hit, so long as you’re holding down the chord shape). With the high-g, it gives a bit of banjo feel to the song.
From the intro to the end of the second chorus, that pattern crops up everywhere you’re not playing the melody (or that little lick in the intro). In the bridge, it switches to a plain strum of the chord each time it changes. Then there’s a final chorus played in that style. Which means the song starts at the tricky part and gets gradually easier.
A little tribute to John Prine who passed away last month.
Both these pieces use Cotten picking (named after Elizabeth Cotten) where the thumb alternates between the g- and C-strings and the index and middle fingers play the melody on the E- and A-strings respectively.
It’s a bit of a finger-twister and it’s pretty fast. So it’s well worth slowing right down when you’re learning it.
Many of his parodies were understated (Let’s be Natural could have passed for a Beatles outtake). But “understated” is not a word I’d use for Brave Sir Robin which Innes performed in The Holy Grail and wrote with Eric Idle.
I’m using the chords from the source himself and tidying them up a bit and adding the intro from the Spamalot version. I’d suggest playing the B7 the no hassle way (i.e. 4320) which makes a much easier transition from and to Em.
Suggested Strumming Pattern
Really simple strumming. You can play just one strum per chord. Although you want might to do two when a chord lasts a whole bar.
The accompaniment for the song fits very nicely onto uke. My version (at the top of the video) starts with the intro to the Spamalot version, it then moves into very sparse accompaniment before sticking very closely to the melody.
Here’s a tab of the melody. Which did need a bit of adjustment for ukulele. I’d recommend using alternate picking or using a pick as the notes are speedy.
This song has quite a story behind it. When working on the MASH movie Robert Altman attempted to come up with, “the stupidest song ever written,” for the funeral scene. But failed to come up with something suitably idiotic. But told the movie’s composer Johnny Mandel, “All is not lost. I’ve got a 15-year-old kid who’s a total idiot.”
So his son poured his heart into a dark poem about how suicide is the answer to a life full of pain. To which his dad presumably chortled, slapped him on the back and said, “This trash is absolutely perfect, you tiny moron.”
But the joke is on Robert Altman. His son made far more money from the song than Altman did for directing the movie thanks to it being used in the TV show and being covered by acts as diverse as Bill Evans and the Manic Street Preachers.
I’ve kept my arrangement pretty straightforward. There are lots of familiar chord shapes and it’s one finger per string picking all the way through. The only tricky part is the big leaps up the neck in bar 18. Also, watch out for the bar of 2/4 on D7 chord in bar 13. That D7 chord lasts for a bar longer in the original version but it feels a bit over the top to me so I cut it short (as the Manics did in their version).
I decided to write up this song after it cropped up in my post on augmented chords. And it quickly became obvious it would have to be a group arrangement. It’s impressively constructed. For most arrangements I can remove a few bits without losing too much. But all the parts here seem essential to the song.
Nothing too challenging in the vocal part (top left of the video). I’m using fingerpicking but you could easily use a pick for the same arrangement. And a pick would help this part stand out if you’re playing in a group.
This is the most challenging part (top right of the video) and uses both fingerpicking and strumming. You fingerpick in the quieter sections and switch to strumming in the loud bits. Tip: if all four strings are played at once it’s strummed, if it’s three or less it’s picked.
My favourite part to play (bottom left of the video). As well as the great lick in the intro, it gives you a chance to rock out on the big chords in bridge section. To fill out the sound, I’ve used different inversions of the chords.
This part (bottom right of the video) starts and ends harmonizing the opening guitar riff. Between that it’s based on the marimba part in the song. Playing the piano riff an octave higher in the bridge and partially following the vocals in the chorus. There’s a lot of empty space in this part. So if you’re playing as part of a group this part could join in with the chords in the bridge section.
A double bill of classic British comedy themes today. Starting with the Fawlty Towers them by Dennis Wison. Not the Manson loving Beach Boy. The composer of music for many British sitcoms including Till Death Us Do Part and Rising Damp.
My arrangement has two parts: the lead part in standard tuning and a baritone part playing the backing. I’m having fun with this set up at the moment so don’t be too surprised if you see more of it.
The backing is mostly arpeggios with a couple of runs thrown in. Here’s a recording of just the backing if you want to play along. The metronome taps out a full bar for the intro and you start playing on the third beat of the second bar.
Dennis Wilson also wrote music for Steptoe But the theme tune, called Old Ned, was by Ron Grainer. Most famous for the Doctor Who theme. I was prompted to put together this short version by the recent death of the Simpson half of Galton and Simpson who created the show.