Ukulele Hunt

Tag: 90s

  • R.E.M. – Shiny Happy People (Tabs)

    R.E.M. – Shiny Happy People (Tab)Download

    It’s crazy it’s taken me this long to cover R.E.M.’s Shiny Happy People given how perfectly it captures my personality.

    Intro: For such a light-hearted song, there’s a bunch going on musically. There are three key changes and a change of time signature before the vocals kick in.

    The song starts in 6/8 time in the key of G# (G in the original) for a relaxed intro before it kicks into 4/4 in bar 4. That shifts into the riff in the key of Bb. The riff is very fun to play. Worth learning even if you’re not bothering with the rest of it.

    Verse: The verse moves into the key of G minor. A less abrupt key change since Gm is the relative minor of Bb. The verse bounces up and down the fretboard. But it’s not too challenging to play.

    Chorus: Things are a bit more difficult in the chorus with the three, slightly overlapping, voices covering a large range.

    Outro: This is made up of the main riff and Kate Pierson’s “Happy peeepooooooole” bit. There’s room to play around with the chorus melody here if you fancy stretching out a bit.

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  • Alice in Chains – Down in a Hole (Tabs)

    Alice in Chains – Down in a Hole (Tab)Download

    Down in a Hole by Alice in Chains fits on uke better than I was expecting. There’s a nice mix of fun bits and challenging bits.

    Intro: This sets up the Gm – F – C chord progression that runs through the verse and pre-chorus. I’ve thrown in a few twiddles based on the acoustic and electric parts in the original. Definitely room for your own ideas here.

    Verse: I played around with just doing one of the vocal parts here (first heard in bar 9). But I think the vocal harmony is too good to ditch.

    Pre-Chorus: This is the hardest part of the song by some distance. It’s high up the neck and fiddly. You could get away with simplifying the section. Either by repeating parts or moving notes around. But I’d be reluctant to get rid of the dissonant C# (E-string, 9th fret).

    Chorus: Mostly bashing out the chords in the chorus. Things get tricky towards the end though with a trip up the neck and a short lick.

    Outro: A reprise of the intro but with the baffling choice of ending on an A major chord (despite the whole song being gloomy and minor).

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  • Pearl Jam – Yellow Ledbetter (Tabs)

    Pearl Jam – Yellow Ledbetter (Tabs)Download

    Pearl Jam’s Yellow Ledbetter. startuh out on the B-sahhh but thuh words don’t quite line up now, an’ the song jus’ sorta rolls, on a wizard on a whale, an’ nowah suddenly it’s a fan faverrrrah. Ohahnahha.

    This one took a fair bit of knocking around to fit onto uke. There are only three chords in it (C, G and F) but there are many jumps up and down the neck and some stretches to deal with. The intro in particular is fiddly but a lot of fun to play.

    Intro/Outro: A Little Wing/Lenny-style intro with plenty of flying up and down the neck. Make sure you include plenty of silences and changes in dynamics to keep things interesting.

    Verse: Nothing difficult to play here. Just a few slides and many pull-offs.

    Chorus: A little increase in difficulty with a stretch up to the 6th fret in bar 26.

    Solo: Some tricky stuff here too. I’ve included elements from the original. But you can adapt it however you feel. I’d recommend sticking fairly close to the C major pentatonic scale. But you can include some C minor pentatonic for a more bluesy feel.

    Bridge: This section is very sparse. But it demonstrates how effective just changing the order of the chords can be. It still uses the C, G and F chords but this section has a very different feel.

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  • Sixpence None the Richer – Kiss Me (Tabs)

    Sixpence None the Richer – Kiss Me (Tab)Download

    Here’s the ultimate 90s one hit wonder: Sixpence None the Richer’s Kiss Me.

    Intro: A simple start. Just strumming out a G chord with the note on the E-string moving down and back up chromatically.

    Verse: That chord progression continues into the verse. The melody here is very contained. It’s almost all going between the open g-string and open A-string until bar 12 , which builds into the chorus.

    Chorus: The chords get busy in the chorus. I found it a bit of a challenge to memorise all the changes. But once it’s under your fingers, it’s not hard to play.

    Solo: The first half of the solo is very relaxed. But there’s a lot more to do in the second half. This arrangement is only loosely based on the original. So feel free to change it however you like.

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  • Stone Temple Pilots – Plush (Tabs)

    Stone Temple Pilots – Plush (Tab)Download

    Here’s my take on the most 90s song there is: STP’s Plush.

    Intro: Starting off with a simple chord riff with chromatically descending notes on the C and A-strings.

    Verse: Nothing too tricky in the verse. The transition between bars 7 and 8 was the bit I needed to practice most. Once you get to the, “And I feeeeeeel it,” section, you can just blast it out.

    Pre-Chorus: More of challenge. It’s all barre chords until the last few notes. And so is the chorus, so you’ll need some finger stamina to get through it. There are also some big stretches in bars 19 and 21.

    Chorus: The trickiest part. There’s some quick moving around the neck. I’ve included a fingering suggestion in bar 23 to make the transition easier.

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  • Eagle-Eye Cherry – Save Tonight (Tabs)

    Eagle-Eye Cherry – Save Tonight (Tab)Download

    I hadn’t thought about Eagle-Eye Cherry’s Save Tonight since the Cretaceous period until it was requested on Patreon. But the chorus is still buried in the back of my brain.

    Intro: Just strumming out the chords with a few hammer-ons. Don’t feel you have to slavishly follow the tab here. So long as you keep the feel of the original

    Verse: A few challenges here. There’s a lot of movement up to the fifth fret and back, some quick chord changes and some pull-offs to deal with.

    Chorus: The chorus is much easier to get in a groove with. Be sure to keep the strums on the second and fourth beats of each bar percussive. I’m almost moving into the range of them being chnks.

    Solo: I kept the solo short and strummy. If you want to stretch out, you can double the number of bars (to make it the same length as the original) and introduce your own ideas.

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  • They Might Be Giants – Doctor Worm (Tabs)

    They Might Be Giants – Doctor Worm (Tab)Download

    Doctor Worm is my favourite TMBG song. And it has been dusted off to promote their latest live album. It’s a lot of fun to play but has some challenging sections.

    Intro: I tried a few different ways to play this horn riff. And three of them crop up in this arrangement.

    The version in the intro is by far the trickiest but also the truest to the original. If you’d rather avoid playing it (and that’s the sensible choice), you can replace the first four bars with bars 69-72. Or, if you have the chops of Rabbi Vole, you can make the opposite substitution.

    Verse: The verses are much simpler. The third verse is especially simple, as it’s just the melody without chords.

    Chorus: The chorus starts with just blasting out the strums with the melody alternating between B and C on the A-string.

    The chorus ends with the horn riff transposed to Bb.

    Middle: The trickiest section of the whole song. You have to deal with the melody whilst the chords alternate between G and C. I highly recommend slowing this section right down when you’re learning it before attempting it anywhere near full speed.

    Bridge: A nice, simple section to recover after the middle.

    Solo: A very easy solo too. It starts off mirroring the verse melody then descends from there. The bass has much more room to descend than the uke, so I had to cheat it a little.

    Outro: Another variation on the horn riff. This time heading up the neck for the crescendo.

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  • Nirvana – In Bloom (Tabs)

    Nirvana – In Bloom (Tab)Download

    Nirvana’s In Bloom is a nice, easy one. It’s almost all strumming. There’s just a bit of fingerpicking in the first half of the verses. The rest is just blasting out chords with a few extra notes here and there.

    The only challenging part is the second half of bar 2 (repeated in bar 30). There’s a quick walk-up on the g-string that’s played with all down strums. If you’re finding that too hard, you can switch to just strumming out the Bb chord.

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  • R.E.M. – Find the River (Tabs)

    R.E.M. – Find the River (Tab)Download

    Here’s my take on a track from R.E.M.’s massive Automatic for the People: Find the River.

    Intro: Easing into the song with a very straightforward four bars. Then into some tricky fast picking in the next four bars. Be sure to play the G chord in bars 5 and 7 by barreing the second fret. That’ll make for a smooth transition up the neck for the Gm7.

    Verse: The verse is fairly simple. It’s all first position chords and almost all strummed.

    Chorus: The chorus is more challenging as it moves up and down the neck. Although it’s still just strumming. The trickiest part comes in the second half of bars 19 and 21. If you’re finding that tricky, Here’s an alternative version that’s easier to play. Although it does require a quicker move down to the G chord.

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  • Pearl Jam – Better Man (Tabs)

    Pearl Jam – Better Man (Tab)Download

    I don’t think I’ve ever anticipated an album more than I did Pearl Jam’s Vitalogy. At the time, I was disappointed it wasn’t as exciting as Ten and Vs. But in hindsight, it’s clear they were transitioning into being a band that would be around for decades. And that’s reflected in Better Man, which wasn’t even released as a single but has become one of their most enduring and popular songs.

    This one is pretty straightforward. Even the riff and the verse are almost identical. But I have shifted a couple of notes from the g-string to the A-string to create a bit of contrast.

    The first half of the song is all fingerpicking. After bar 44, there’s a lot more strumming going on. And it’s after that change that the biggest challenge of the song crops up: the transition from C to D at the end of bar 46. I found it tricky to barre across the second fret and hit the E-string, 3rd fret.

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