There’s nothing massively challenging in this arrangement but there are a few leaps up and down the fretboard. You can make things a easier with a bit of planning though. In bars 10 and 12 moving your hand up so you play the 3rd fret with your index finger makes it a much easier transition into the next bar.
It wasn’t until embarrassingly recently that I found out Bang Bang was written by Sonny Bono and first recorded by Cher. But it’s the sparse and haunting Nancy Sinatra version that is the most famous. But I don’t think any cover has eclipsed the original since Oasis’s version of Mike Flowers Pops’ Wonderwall
For my version, I’ve taken cues heavily from the Sinatra version. Keeping the timing and the phrasing very loose.
In the tab there are a few repeat symbols you’re unfamiliar with. The first repeat comes at the end of bar 16 with the familiar double bar and dots. That sends you back to bar 5. From there you play through to bar 20 where it says D.S. al Fine (Da Segno al Fine). That sends you back to the squiggle at bar 5 and tells you to stop where it says Fine in bar 16.
Okay, campers, rise and shine, and don’t forget your booties ’cause it’s cooooold out there today.
Like Tuesday’s post, this one uses the slightly unusual 6/8 time signature. That means each bar is two sets of three beats. I like to count the bars 1,2,3,2,2,3. But 1,2,3,1,2,3 and 1,2,3,4,5,6 will also work. Or you could just clap along in an awkward, flat-handed manner.
This arrangement starts out with one finger per string. Then switches to thumb and two finger from bar 17. Then as the song builds you start strumming in bar 23 with occasional picked notes.
To keep things simple, I’ve skipped the key change in the song. If you’re feeling ambitious you can do it by moving everything from bar 37 onwards up a fret. You’ll also need to rejigger bars 41, 45 and 46 to 10-8-9-11.
Following on from ABBA, my other favourite Eurovision song is France’s 1965 winner: France Gall’s Poupée de cire, Poupée de son (written by Serge Gainsbourg).
The only tricky part in this arrangement is the intro. Here I’m picking the A-string with my middle finger and everything else with my thumb.
From there on it’s all pretty simple. Everything is plucked with the thumb apart from a few bits of strumming (indicated by the arrows on the tab).
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.
Here’s one if you’re looking for a challenge. There are lots of jumps around the neck, syncopated rhythms, twists and turns, and tricky strum blocking to get to grips with.
On part that isn’t too difficult is the strumming hand. Most of the song my right hand is just strumming sixteenth notes. The rhythm is created by muting and playing strings with the left hand.
For example, in the intro you play a constant strum, hold down the chord stabs and mute the g-string (I use the thumb of my fretting hand), otherwise mute all the strings.
The verse is done in a similar way. Strum constant sixteenth notes and mute the strings when nothing is played. The difference is you also have to mute all but one string. That can get tricky and it takes a lot of practice. I call this strum blocking and I did a tutorial on it here. It’s a great way to give a piece lots of attack and a strong rhythm.
In this song I mostly mute the g-string with my thumb, C-string with my middle finger, E-string with my ring finger and the A-string with the underside of my index finger. But you’ll need to play around with it and see what works best for you.
For the most part I’m playing the verses and the middle picking and the chorus with strums.
In the chorus I’m using a triplet technique (although I’m not actually playing triplets) by strumming down with my index finger, then flicking my index finger up, then my middle finger up. But that’s very much optional. You can strum it however seems appropriate to you.
In the middle section I’m recreating the soul-claps by playing muted notes on the g-string.
The muted notes in the middle section are very tricky. So you can just drop those in that section and play it with just the sparse melody.
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.