Ukulele Hunt

Tag: 80s

  • Koji Kondo – Zelda Medley (Tabs)

    Koji Kondo – Zelda Medley (Tab)Download

    Shamefully, I haven’t played a Zelda game since A Link to the Past. So these arrangements are heavily influenced by that era.

    Zelda’s Lullaby: A chill start to the medley with gentle picking and a soft Cmaj7 chord. There is a big leap up the neck in bar 6. But this part is slow enough that it’s not a big challenge.

    Main Theme: Ramping up the pomposity and changing the key to F. There’s another big jump in 16. This one is at a quicker tempo so it’s more of a challenge. From there, you get the descending note until you hit the C.

    Ilia’s Theme: Back to a more relaxed feel. This time, the challenge is a big stretch between the 4th and 10th fret in bar 23. If you’re struggling there, you can change the A-string, 10th fret to A-string, 7th fret in bars 22 and 23. It changes the feel a little but it still sounds nice.

    Kakariko Village: The challenge here is to emphasise the melody notes so it doesn’t just sound like a melody-less picking pattern. Otherwise, nothing too difficult.

    Hyrule Castle: Switching to C minor and more pomposity. Where the Main Theme is grand, this one has some menace with the chromatic notes on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th frets. 8-Bit Music Theory did an excellent video on this tune.

    Song of Storms: A final key change to E minor and the trickiest section of the piece.

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  • Kung Fu Master (Arcade Game Theme) (Tabs)

    Kung Fu Master (Arcade Game Theme) (Tab)Download

    A recent nostalgia trip compelled me to knock up a version of Masato Ishizaki’s music from the 80s arcade game Kung-Fu Master.

    The tune is very quick. Even slowed down, it’s still a challenge. In order to cut the finger movement to a minimum, it’s arranged campanella style so the work is done with the picking hand and fretting hand doesn’t have to move much.

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  • Culture Club – Karma Chameleon (Tabs)

    Culture Club – Karma Chameleon (Tab)Download

    In keeping with the theme of the song, Culture Club’s Karma Chameleon is a mish-mash. Including some country harmonic, funky bass, cheesy 80s keyboards and a catchy pop chorus.

    Intro: A bit of everything here: the guitar riff, muted strums for the drums and a bit of harmonica.

    Verse and Pre-Chorus: A fair bit of sliding up and down here but nothing too challenging.

    Chorus: This is where it gets tricky. The melody notes here are very fast. You’ll need to use alternate picking to get them up to speed.

    Bridge: I forgot this section existed before I relistened to the song!

    Solo: A brief solo that I cobbled together based mostly on the chords.

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  • Billy Bragg/Kirsty MacColl – A New England (Tabs)

    Billy Bragg/Kirsty MacColl – A New England (Tab)Download

    A New England was originally by Billy Bragg and made more famous by by Kirsty MacColl. This arrangement starts with a riff inspired by Johnny Marr’s intro on Kirsty MacColl’s version. After that, it’s closer to the Billy Bragg version.

    I’ve reduced the tempo for my recording. There are a lot of fast notes in it. With the most challenging run being bars 59-60. If you can play that at the tempo of the MacColl version, you’re a way better player than me.

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  • Joan Jett – Bad Reputation (Tabs)

    Joan Jett – Bad Reputation (Tab)Download

    I first heard Joan Jett & the Blackhearts’ Bad Reputation as the Freaks and Geeks theme.It’s a very straightforward punk song that’s ideal for just bashing out.

    I’m using strumming the whole way through this. Including using strum blocking to strum the individual notes. You can pick these notes if you prefer, but you lose some of the energy and aggression of the strums.

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  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Theme (Tabs)

    Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Theme (Tab)Download

    Here’s an absolute banger from my childhood: the TMNT theme.

    The chorus is straightforward strumming. And it’s one of the rare occasions when the melody is all on the g-string.

    The verse is much more challenging. The melody is very fast so I’ve skipped a few notes to make it more playable. Even so, it’s a bit of a finger-twister.

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  • Spandau Ballet – True (Tabs)

    Spandau Ballet – True (Tab)Download

    Spandau Ballet’s True is a real new romantic cheese-fest. Despite (or maybe because of) that, I had a lot of fun playing this. There are some tasty chords and runs in there.

    Cheesiest and funnest of all is the sax solo. I’ve kept this as close to the original as I could manage. The chord progression switches to a simple Eb – Ab vamp. So there’s plenty of scope to throw your own ideas in there. The trickiest part of the whole song comes in bar 60 with a quick descending run at the climax.

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  • George Michael – Careless Whisper (Tabs)

    George Michael – Careless Whisper (Tab)Download

    For this arrangement, I’ve stuck fairly closely to the George Michael original. But I’ve listened to the Ben Folds and Rufus Wainwright version more often so some of that version has snuck into this arrangement. And, of course, the Sexy Sax Man version is definitive.

    The chords are the same the whole way through: Dm – Gm7 – Bb – Am (the same key as the original). But things don’t get boring as you’ll be playing the chords in different inversions. And you can make things even more interesting by varying the dynamics as you’re playing.

    There is a note played on the E-string, 13th fret in bar 14. If you playing a soprano and don’t have a 13th fret, you can replace that note with A-string, 8th fret.

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  • The La’s – There She Goes (Tabs)

    The La’s – There She Goes (Tab)Download

    Here’s a tab for The La’s’s massive (and only) hit There She Goes. Despite their one-hit-wonder status, they were massively influential and were the template for the Britpop fad that kicked off a few years later.

    This arrangement kicks off with the riff moved up to the key of C. That makes things much easier because you can use the open g-string as the pivot note. Things get a little trickier in bar 5 when the chords come in. If you’re struggling with that, you can keep playing the single note version and no one will care.

    You can make the chorus easier with some forward-thinking fretting. If you fret the C chord at the start of bars 11 and 13 with your middle finger, you’ll be able to transition into the G chord much more smoothly. And at the start of bars 15 and 17, fret a Dm chord like you usually would and play the E-string third fret with your pinkie.

    Next it’s back to the riff with a short solo section. Then the song shifts to A minor in the bridge but keeps the same melody. From there, the arrangement switches to mostly strumming as it builds towards the end.

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  • Thank You for Being a Friend (Golden Girls Theme) (Tabs)

    Thank You for Being a Friend (Golden Girls Theme) (Tab)Download

    Here’s my take on the Golden Girls theme in tribute to Betty White.

    It’s a short and sweet tune with some nice chord moves. The only tricky part comes in the final few bars. Here you’re playing octaves on the C and A-strings while muting the E-string with the underside of your index finger. If you don’t fancy that, you can just play the notes on the C-string and ignore the rest.

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