Ukulele Hunt

Tag: 80s

  • Ghostbusters Theme (Group Tab)

    I’ve tackled Ray Parker Jr’s Ghostbusters theme once before way back in 2007. But I wanted to return to it to tidy it up and make it into a full instrumental version for a ukulele group. Also because it’s a stone-cold classic.

    This version has five different ukulele parts of differing levels of difficulty (including one that just involves smashing the strings in time) and each one can be simplified or fancied up as suits.

    Rhythm Ukulele

    Ghostbusters (Rhythm Tab)

    This part takes care of all the chord work. For almost all the song the chords are just C – Bb – F. You can choose whichever inversion of those chords suits your playing.

    Lead Ukulele

    Ghostbusters (Lead Tab)Download

    This part plays the riff for most of the song. For the intro and middle sections I make use of campanella style. Letting close harmony notes ring into each other makes them extra spooky.

    Melody Ukulele

    Ghostbusters (Melody Tab)

    It’s important to make this part as expressive as you can to give it the feel of a vocal melody.

    As well as handling the vocal melody, this part plays the guitar lick in bars 27-28 and 43-44.

    Extras Ukulele

    Ghostbusters (Extras Tab)

    My original plan was to combine this part and the melody part. In the end I split them off so I could have the vocal part more prominent than this one. But the two parts are never playing at the same time so you can easily combine the two into one part if you wish.

    The part starts of by plucking the strings with a pick between the nut and the pegs. It’s always high-pitched and out of tune up there so you’ll always get a spooky effect from it.

    The intro spooky noises do include one additional uke. I scrapped a pick along a wound low-G string to get a bit of a creaking effect.

    Percussive Uke

    No notes at all in this part. I’m just muting all the strings with my fretting hand. I’m using two main patterns. The first one in the video I strum down right in front of the bridge to create a thud. Then up again in that area. Then and other down-up where the fretboard hits the body.

    The next pattern is the same sort of idea. Start with the same down-up near the bridge. Then three down-ups at the fretboard.

    The bridge strums do give you a good sound but they’re a bit tough on the fingers and not essential. You can also emphasise beats just be strumming more forcefully.

    Links

    Buy the original on iTunes
    More Halloween tabs
    Uke Hunt Patreon

  • Back to the Future Medley (Tab)

    Back to the Future Medley (Tab)Download

    Back to the Future (Alan Silvestri): Alan Silvestri wrote the score to all the BttF movies but he was clearly channeling John Williams for the epic theme music.

    Mr Sandman (The Chordettes): This one is already a bit of ukulele standard thanks to the opening lick being perfectly suited to re-entrant tuning.

    Time Bomb Town (Lindsey Buckingham): This one is a bit more incidental than the others (it’s the tune on the radio when Marty wakes up before the first DeLorean scene) but I had to include it because if it’s not played on a ukulele it sure sounds a lot like one.

    Power of Love (Huey Lewis & the News): The first bit of this is just switching between different inversions of F and C. It shows how effective just changing up inversions can be.

    Doubleback (ZZ Top & Alan Silvestri): The only part of the medley that doesn’t crop up in the Part I. It’s the tune from the ZZ Top bit in Part III. It’s supposed to be the ZZ Top song of the same name although any resemblance is lost on me.

    Johnny B Goode (Chuck Berry. You know, Marvin’s cousin.): The climax of local rhythmic ceremonial ritual the Fish Under the Sea Dance and this medley.

    Links

    Back to the Future Soundtrack on iTunes
    More movie theme tabs
    Uke Hunt Patreon

  • Michael Jackson – The Way You Make Me Feel (Instrumental Tab)

    Michael Jackson – The Way You Make Me Feel (Tab)Download

    I was inspired to arrange this one by Brooke Pallson’s ukulele version and somehow it’s taken me two years to get from that to a finished version. That might suggest it’s a deeply complex arrangement but it’s pretty easy to play (although I still manage to jack it up at about 1:20 in the video).

    The trickiest bit is the solo section that starts in bar 31. The first four bars ape the keyboard solo and the next for the “ain’t nobody’s business” vocalising. It took me a bit of practice to be able to switch between those. They’re just similar enough and just different enough to make it tricky.

    Links

    Buy it on iTunes
    Michael Jackson’s ukulele song
    More 80s tabs
    Uke Hunt Patreon

  • 80′s Medley (Tab)

    80′s Medley (Tab)Download

    I was inspired by Action Bronson’s Contemporary Man from his latest mixtape to create a 80s medley of my own. And it’s a good opportunity to show how I intended the riffs posts to be used. And it means there’s plenty of scope to add your favourites to the medley.

    The first four songs are the same as Contemporary Man: Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer, Phil Collins’ Sussudio, John Mellencamp’s Jack and Diane, Phil again with Another Day in Paradise. Then a couple of my favourites I’ve done before in the riffs series: Harold Faltermeyer’s Axel F and Jump by Van Halen.

    More 80′s tabs.

    Buy the Originals

    Sledgehammer
    Sussudio
    Jack and Diane
    Another Day In Paradise
    Axel F
    Jump

  • The A-Team Theme (Tab)

    Mike Post and Pete Carpenter – A-Team Theme (Tab)Download

    Part of my sworn duties as a ukulele blogger is peruse the YouTube uploads and check out anything interesting. Recently that has involved clicking on everything titled “A Team Ukulele Cover” hoping it would be the theme tune to the superior 80s TV show. And every single time I’ve been distraught to find it’s another cover of that Ed Sheeran song. Never again let it be said I don’t make sacrifices for my art.

    So in the spirit of “If you want something doing properly don’t ask an Ed Sheeran fan” I’ve done my own version.

    I can’t really blame them though. It was a trial getting it to sound right on the uke. I cropped out the boring bit in the middle but I kept all the exciting bits.

    Technique-wish it’s a mish-mash. The first ten bars are played with strums (including roll strums for extra emphasis). Then there are octaves plucked with thumb and index finger in bar 10. That’s followed by the fifths in bar 13 again plucked with thumb and index.

    Links

    Buy the MP3
    More TV theme tabs
    Uke Hunt Patreon

  • Elvis Costello – Shipbuilding (Instrumental Tab)

    Elvis Costello and Clive Langer – Shipbuilding (Tab)Download

    This is easily one of the best protest songs ever written. And one of the best songs of any sort. The lyrics are as nuanced and thought-provoking then any other. But it’s the music – written by Clive Langer – that really makes it shine.

    The song is in the key of E minor but you’re hardly ever using the Em chord. In my arrangement there’s a grand total of three bars of it. So the song never feels relaxed or settled. It’s always shifting. The jazzy elements unsettle the tune. All that is added to in Robert Wyatt’s version with his vocal wobbles.

    I could keep rambling on but I’ll let you play it.

    Links

    Buy the Elvis Costello version.
    Buy the Robert Wyatt version.
    More 80s tabs
    Uke Hunt Patreon