Ukulele Hunt

Tag: 90s

  • Radiohead – Karma Police (Tabs)

    Radiohead – Karma Police (Tab)Download

    I’ve written up quite a few Radiohead songs in the past. Now it’s time for the OK Computer track Karma Police.

    Intro: Mostly picking out the chords with the thumb on the C-string and the middle and index on the E and A, respectively.

    On the Eb chord there’s a nice addition of an F note making it an Ebsus2. To prepare for the change to that, fret the E-string, third fret in the first half of the bar with your little finger.

    Verse: Sticking with the same picking for the verse. The only slightly tricky part here is the run down from the fifth fret in bar 12.

    Bridge: I’m mostly using one-finger-per-string picking in this section until the last two bars. There’s a lot more moving around the neck in this section, with the transition between bars 17 and 18 being tricky (I flubbed that bit in the video). Which is the most Radioheady part of the song.

    Chorus: Even more moving around here, but it’s less intense.

    Solo: The solo takes its inspiration from the bass line. There’s lots of scope for your own ideas here.

    After that, it’s another run through the chorus and a fade out with a little of Freakshow Industries’ Backmask added.

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  • TLC – Waterfalls (Tabs)

    TLC – Waterfalls (Tab)Download

    Here’s my attempt at TLC’s heartbreaking tale of Jason Waterfalls.

    The intro is by far the trickiest part of the song. There are a bunch of chord stabs and some tasty licks.

    The melody line is exceptionally straight-forward and easy to play. The only interesting part is the bluesy “Listen to me” at the end of the verse (bar 28). And I’ve thrown in a couple of licks inspired by the bass in bar 20 and at the end of the choruses.

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  • R.E.M. – Man on the Moon (Tabs)

    R.E.M. – Man on the Moon (Tab)Download

    I tabbed R.E.M.’s Losing My Religion a while back. So high time I did a song from their follow-up Automatic for the People.

    Intro: Plenty of room to play around with ideas in the intro. I’m just picking out notes from a few chord inversions.

    Verse: Just two chords (C and D), a stately pace and a contained melody.

    Pre-Chorus: A classic pre-chorus, building up the energy into the chorus. So it starts at the same level as the verse, builds complexity and moves up the neck in bars 26 and 27. Then switches from picking to strumming in bar 28.

    Chorus: The trickiest part of the song with chord changes coming thick and fast.

    Solo: Another place you can introduce your own ideas. Mine is a similar idea to the intro with notes coming mostly from the chords. I’m also doing plenty of sliding around to emulate the slide guitar in the original.

    This arrangement goes straight from the solo in the chorus. So I’ve taken a hint from the pre-chorus and ending the solo with a move up the neck and then some strumming.

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  • Joe Hisaishi – Summer (from Kikujiro) (Tabs)

    Joe Hisaishi – Summer (from Kikujiro) (Tab)Download

    Joe Hisaishi is a prolific film composer (I only realised while researching this post that he scored a movie I watched while working on this piece). But he’s best known for his scores for the Studio Ghibli films and for Takeshi Kitano. Summer comes from one of Kitano’s gentler movies: Kikujiro.

    This arrangement starts with some palm muted arpeggios before moving into the main melody. In this section, I’ve used the open g-string as a melody note in a number of places. You can replace any of these with E-string, 3rd fret if you prefer.

    The arrangement goes full campanella mode in bar 18. Playing one note on each string means you don’t have to move your left hand at all for this quick section. Once you’ve got the picking pattern under your fingers it’s very easy.

    Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the rising bass line here to fit with the higher pattern. So I’ve divided them up. So you play the pattern in G, then the lower bass part in bars 20-21, the high pattern in C in bars 22-23 and the bass pattern in C in bars 24-25.

    After a reprise of the A section, the outro closes out with some notes up the neck. Which I manage to flub in bar 39. So play what’s written rather than my screw-up. I manage it second time around in bar 41 if you want to hear how it’s supposed to sound.

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  • Foo Fighters – My Hero (Tabs)

    Foo Fighters – My Hero (Tab)Download

    In tribute to Taylor Hawkins.

    The song starts off with a bit of dissonance between the Ab on the E-string and the open A string. The Ab also provides dissonance as the first note in the chorus melody (bar 16).

    My first arrangement contained strumming almost all the way through. So in the intro I was strumming the second half of bars 1 and 2. And also strumming in the gaps at the end of every other bar in the verse. If you want to do it that way, go for it. But I decided to create a bit more of a contrast been the sections by picking adding picking to the quieter sections.

    For the “solo” section of the tab is more in keeping with the spirit of that section rather than the actual notes. It’s really just a breakdown cooling things off before bringing the rock back. So as long as you build up at the end, you’re free to do whatever you like with this section.

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  • Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit (Tabs)

    Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit (Tab)Download

    I’m still tied to the 90s but for once it’s not a one hit wonder but Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit.

    Teen Spirit has Nirvana’s traditional quiet-loud-quiet-loud dynamics. In this arrangement, the loud bits are done with strumming and the quiet bits are fingerpicked.

    I’ve shortened a couple of sections to stop things getting too repetitive. The strumming part of the intro is halved. As is the pre-chorus. If you want to make it even tighter, you could also drop four bars of the chorus.

    In case you’re not familiar, the arrows above the notes in bars 5 and 7 are telling you to emphasise those notes. Those are intended to be the “bow-now” notes on the guitar in the quiet bit.

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  • Marcy Playground – Sex and Candy (Tabs)

    Marcy Playground – Sex and Candy (Tab)Download

    Following on from No Rain with another 90s one-hit wonder: Marcy Playgraound’s Sex and Candy.

    The song only has verses and choruses but they still manage to sneak in three key changes. The verses are in G and the choruses in Bb.

    The key change from the verse to the chorus is very smooth. Although the Bb note (A-string, 1st fret) isn’t in the key of G, we’ve heard it a lot in the Eb chord and the melody. So the transition that occurs during the “I smell sex and…” part is seamless.

    The key change back at the end of the chorus calls attention to itself though. In bar 20 the chords shift down half a step to D to set up the key of G. A bit of theory: the most common way to change key is to play the V chord of the key you’re changing to. This sets up the new key rather than diving straight into it. In this case, D is the V chord of G.

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  • Blind Melon – No Rain (Tabs)

    Blind Melon – No Rain (Tab)Download

    Here’s my take Blind Melon’s massive 90s hit (at least partly thanks Bee Girl).

    The arrangement starts off with the iconic guitar riff. It’s a little challenging but sounds great on uke. I recommend learning this bit even if you don’t bother with the rest of the song.

    The verse is nice and easy before the chorus moves things back up a notch.

    But it’s the solo where things get lemon difficult. So I drop the chords all together for this arrangement. Which does leave things sounding a little sparse. But the solo does a great job of playing with tension so I think it just about works. The repeated pull-offs in bars 33 and 34 build up the tension which gets released with the slides down and up the neck in bar 35. That’s followed by a bluesy section with a rapid descending line finishing it off in bar 38.

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  • Radiohead – Fake Plastic Trees (Tabs)

    Radiohead – Fake Plastic Trees (Tab)Download

    A song from the more ukeable end of Radiohead’s career (although Dani Joy does a great There, There).

    The arrangement is pretty straightforward. The trickiest part is the signature Jonny Greenwood ascending line in bars 24-25. Make sure you play the first verse nice and softly so you can create a juxtaposition with the second verse by blasting it out.

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  • The Cranberries – Linger (Tabs)

    The Cranberries – Linger (Tab)Download

    Following up the Zombie tab with another of The Cranberries’ most loved songs.

    The intro has a fingerpicking figure switching between Cmaj7 and G that reminds me of Tonight, Tonight. After that, the original has a jarring fade into the main body of the song. I’ve smoothed that out so it’s closer to the acoustic version.

    The other part to look out for comes in the bridge. Because the melody goes below the C on the uke, I’ve had to shift the melody in bars 35 and 36. The transition back down in bar 37 needs to be played confidently to get away with it.

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