Ukulele Hunt

Tag: indie

  • 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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  • The Smiths – There is a Light That Never Goes Out (Tabs)

    The Smiths – There is a Light That Never Goes Out (Tab)Download

    Intro: A quick intro previously used by Marvin Gaye, The Rolling Stones and The Velvet Underground. It uses one of Marr’s favourite tricks: letting open strings ring through chord changes.

    Verse: The verse is all in the first position. Mostly just switching between Dm and Csus4. There’s a little lick in bars 25-26 which I play first time round but not second time (where I substitute in bars 9-10).

    Chorus: The chorus is a step up in difficulty. In bars 39 and 47, there’s a big stretch to the fifth fret while playing Bb. If you want to make it easier, you could just play the A-string, 5th fret by itself. Or play the C-string open if you want a fuller sound.

    In bar 43 of the second chorus (“heavenly way to dieeeee”), I accidentally played bar 51 (“Pleasure and the privilege is mine”). So play what’s written rather than my screw up.

    Outro: A nice, easy strummed outro.

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  • Joy Division – Love Will Tear Us Apart (Tabs)

    Joy Division – Love Will Tear Us Apart (Tab)Download

    Don your Joy Division oven gloves for a round of Love Will Tear Us Apart.

    Intro/Outro: This section ramps up the tension and anticipation. In the original, the bass plays an A power chord, and the guitar plays an Em chord. Combined, these produce an A9 chord.

    This arrangement moves the song down a step. So the G5 and Dm create a G9 chord. The intro chord also includes a 4th (the C note on the A-string) for an extra bit of tension.

    Chorus: This section flows so smoothly on ukulele. I love playing it. Which is handy because it makes up most of the song.

    Verse: The verse I found less natural to play. The melody here fits more awkwardly against the chords to fit the song’s lyrical theme.

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  • Blur – Tender (Tabs)

    Blur – Tender (Tab)Download

    Here’s a tab of a song that featured in Aftersun, my favourite movie of the last few years:
    Blur’s Tender.

    Intro: Starting off with the trickiest bit. The quick hammer-on to pull-off to slide at the start of bar 3 is a finger-twister.

    When this riff repeats at the end of the chorus, there is a slight change in bars 21 and 22 to watch out for.

    Verse: Just a G – F – G chord progression and nothing too tricky in the melody.

    Chorus: In the second and third choruses, I’ve included the high “fee-ling” part the choir sings (bars 33 and 46). This involves a slide up to the 14th fret. If your uke doesn’t have that many frets (or you just don’t fancy it) you can just repeat the first chorus.

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  • The Cure – Friday I’m in Love (Tabs)

    The Cure – Friday I’m in Love (Tab)Download

    I had to break protocol for this one so I could post The Cure’s Friday I’m in Love on a friday.

    Intro: There’s an odd start to the song with the first note coming in on the “and” of 1. If the listener is unfamiliar with the song, it can throw them off.

    After the opening lick, it’s into some straight-forward strumming with a few picked notes thrown in.

    Verse: The first two verses are simple, with all familiar chord shapes in the first position. The third and fourth verses are a bit more tricky since they incorporate a high note on the A-string, fifth fret.

    Chorus: The trickiest part is going from the riff at the end of the verse to G chord with the high D note. If you’re struggling, you can just strum out the A chord in bar 17.

    Solo: The solo has a lot of moves up and down the neck. But there’s nothing too fancy to trip you up.

    Bridge: This is the hardest section to play. You’re up at the fifth fret and it gets a bit fiddly. That’s one reason I halved its length.

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  • The Flaming Lips – Do You Realize?? (Tabs)

    The Flaming Lips – Do You Realize?? (Tab)Download

    There’s nothing too difficult to play in Do You Realize?? . But it is constantly shifting. There are slight changes in chord progressions, melodies and time signatures. Not much is a direct repeat. I found keeping track of everything a bit taxing on the noggin.

    Intro: I’ve tabbed the emphasised strums (the little arrows above the tab) for the first two bars. But the same pattern continues.

    Verse: This is a good example of what I was talking about. It feels like the chord progression should repeat in the first verse. But it’s slightly different every time. Although the two verse fragments later in the song are direct repeats.

    Chorus: Two entirely different choruses. The first has a lot of strums and is in G. The second is more delicate and is in Em.

    Break: A brief key change to Bb before heading back to G.

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  • Blur – The Universal (Tabs)

    Blur – The Universal (Tab)Download

    Here’s a tab of Blur’s The Universal. Real horrorshow.

    Intro: Thumb and two finger picking for the intro. PARKLIFE

    Verse: Switching to one finger per string picking in the verse (with a few strummed chord stabs thrown in). PARKLIFE

    Chorus: And full on strumming for the chorus. The action moves high up the neck in this section and it gets fiddly. PARKLIFE

    Solo: Still high up but not as frantic. I found the phrasing here a little difficult to get the hang of. PARKLIFE

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  • The Cure – Lullaby (Tabs)

    The Cure – Lullaby (Tab)Download

    Get ready to be freaked out of your gourd by The Cure’s spooky Lullaby

    Intro: The original intro is unusually long, lasting more than a minute. I’ve chopped it down a little for this arrangement.

    The intro (like the whole song apart from the bridge) is just Dm-Bbmaj7. The first 8 bars have the guitar line on top of that. And the next four focus on the bass line.

    The final 8 bars focus on the string line. With long notes on the Dm and pizzicato notes on the Bbmaj7. To imitate the pizzicato, I’m muting the strings by gently resting the side of my picking hand on the strings near the bridge.

    The transition into bar 17 is made easier by muting the g-string with your thumb instead of playing the whole chord. But you can always add in the g-string, 2nd fret if you’re fast enough.

    Verse: The wispy and whispery vocals make the melody a little hard to discern. I’ve tried my best but I’ve taken a few liberties with it. Nothing too tricky to deal with here. Just a trip up to the fifth fret at the end.

    Bridge: They go all jazz with it and add a third chord. Still straightforward, though. Just a couple of quick pull-offs to deal with.

    Outro: This is where things get tricky. There’s a flurry of notes in bars 46 and 50. I’ve gone campanella with it and involved the g-string in the melody to spread out the notes a little.

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  • Pixies – Here Comes Your Man (Tabs)

    Pixies – Here Comes Your Man (Tab)Download

    ntro: The classic Here Comes Your Man riff. Played with a few extra supporting notes to beef it up.

    Verse: Nothing too challenging here. Just open chords until the build up into the pre-chorus.

    Pre-Chorus: Bars 24-25 are the trickiest part of the song. There’s a big leap up to a bend at the tenth fret for the, “so long, so long,” backing vocals. That makes for an easier transition into bar 25.

    Chorus: Back to the riff mixed in with the melody. There’s plenty of jumping up and down here but I find this section fun to play.

    First Solo: A nice little melody for the transition back to the verse.

    Second Solo: Much less melodic. The original is mostly bashing out chords with a few bends. For this take, I’ve shortened it down but there’s still a lot of bashing.

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  • The Magnetic Fields/Peter Gabriel – The Book of Love (Tabs)

    The Magnetic Fields – The Book of Love (Tab)Download

    The Magnetic Fields were one of the bands that got me to take the ukulele seriously. So it’s long past time I did a version of The Book of Love. It seems that (thanks to its use in the finale of Scrubs) Peter Gabriel’s version is the best known. But, on this occasion, the original remains my favourite.

    This arrangement uses a few elements of the Gabriel version (including the slower tempo and a few bits of filigree) but mostly sticks to the original.

    It’s a very simple song with the same chords the whole way through: G – C – D11 – G. D11 is just a standard D chord with the g-string left open.

    The intro and solo are just me noodling around with the melody and chords. With the intro in the first position and the solo higher up the neck. Lots of scope for your own take on these.

    I’m using one finger per string picking for this up to the last bar of the solo. There I switch to strums for the final chorus.

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