Ukulele Hunt

Tag: Rock

  • Blink-182 – All the Small Things (Tabs)

    Blink-182 – All the Small Things (Tab)Download

    Here’s a fun version of Blink-182’s infectious (in the good sense and the bad sense) earworm All the Small Things.

    Intro: All strums. I’m using my index finger a bit like a pick here (and in most of the song).

    For all the strumming parts in the song, don’t worry about hitting the exact strings so long as you’re holding down the chord.

    Verses: I’m using a bit of palm muting on the strings during the strums (i.e. resting the side of my strumming hand lightly on the strings). That allows the melody to stand out more.

    The only tricky part here is in bar 17. I like the harmony on “At my show” so I’ve included that with the lower note picked by the thumb and the higher note by the index finger.

    Pre-Chorus, Chorus and Outro: All very simple strumming on standard chords.

    Solo: Similar to the intro but with a little melody on the g-string. So try to emphasise that as much as you can.

    Break: Starts of with strumming then switches to fingerpicking which builds into the outro. The picking isn’t complicated but it is fast. If you’re only it for the strumming, you can skip this bit entirely and just play the first four bars of the break.

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  • Hozier – Take Me to Church (Tabs)

    Hozier – Take Me to Church (Tab)Download

    I can’t say Hozier’s massive hit Take Me to Church fits nicely on the uke. But it is well worth learning if you’re up for a challenge.

    Verse: No mucking around with an intro. The verse starts in 3/4 time and switches to 4/4 at the end. If you know the song, it shouldn’t trip you up.

    Pre-Chorus: Back to 3/4 for the “Amen” section. And again switching to 4/4 at the end.

    This is the most sparse section of the song. Creating contrast with the chorus.

    Chorus: Staying in 4/4 for the most challenging section of the song played high up the neck. Reaching the 14th fret for the falsetto on “death”.

    Bridge: Some movement up and down the neck in this section, but it’s still easier than the chorus. And it stays in 4/4 time but with a cheeky bar of 2/4 that threw me off when I was first learning the song.

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  • Ozzy Osbourne – Mama I’m Coming Home (Tabs)

    Ozzy Osbourne – Mama I’m Coming Home (Tab)Download

    Intro: Starting off with an incongruous country lick. Then moving into a descending line played on the g- and C-strings with the thumb. Set against static notes on the E- and A-strings (plucked by the index and middle fingers respectively).

    It fits nicely on the uke and sounds more intricate than it actually is.

    Verse: Carrying on the descending line but now played with one finger per string picking.

    Pre-Chorus: Building up the tension with a strum each time there’s a chord change.

    Chorus: Bringing in more strums, slides and ventures up the neck. Stepping things up in terms of intensity and difficulty.

    Break: This little acoustic break is my favourite part to play. It’s a challenge to play at speed but it suits the ukulele very well.

    Solo: The big electric solo is less suited to the uke but still fun to play. I haven’t been particularly faithful to the original, so feel free to adjust it to your own taste.

    Coda: The coda is just like the end of the chorus, but there are an extra couple of beats on the F chord that add a little suspense.

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  • The Smashing Pumpkins – Cherub Rock (Tabs)

    The Smashing Pumpkins – Cherub Rock (Tab)Download

    At first, I thought there’s no way Cherub Rock would work on the uke. But I found it a fun song to play that you can blast out with strums.

    Intro: Starting out at full pelt building up a C chord and breaking into the intro riff.

    If you don’t have the space on your uke to play the riff high up the neck, you can move the E-string notes on the A-string. Just lower each note five frets and let the E-string ring open. You can do the same with the melody in the verse.

    Verse: Staying high up the neck for the verse and continuing to blast out the strums with just a few picked notes.

    Chorus: All strums here too. Be sure to mute the g-string with your thumb for everything but the Eb chord.

    Bridge: Adding a C chord to the chord progression from the chorus.

    Solo: The trickiest part of the song. I’ve changed it significantly from the original. So feel free to make adjustments of your own.

    Bridge 2: Similar to the chorus, but watch out for the A-string, 5th fret at the start of the F chord (first in bar 39).

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  • Tom Odell – Another Love (Tabs)

    Tom Odell – Another Love (Tab)Download

    Tom Odell’s Another Love managed to amass 900 million views on YouTube without me ever having heard it. Luckily, my Patreons are more on the ball than I am and requested it. And it’s a catchy song that fits nicely on ukulele in the original key.

    Technique-wise, it’s a song of two halves. For the first half, it’s all fingerpicking. The intensity picks up in the first midtro with the strums coming in during bar 42. Don’t worry about hitting every note exactly as it’s tabbed in the strumming section. It’s more important to keep up the intensity and the feel.

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  • Arctic Monkeys – Fluorescent Adolescent (Tabs)

    Arctic Monkeys – Fluorescent Adolescent (Tab)Download

    After tabbing Do I Wanna Know? in January, I hope it’s not too soon to cover another Monkeys track: Fluorescent Adolescent

    The biggest challenge here (after spelling the title) is the very rapid delivery of the verse melody. These bits are played with a long succession of hammer-ons and pull-offs. Make sure you pull-off downwards rather than straight off the string. That’ll give it an extra pluck to keep the notes sounding.

    Other than that, it’s a fun song to blast through.

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  • The Beatles – Now and Then (Tabs)

    The Beatles – Now and Then (Tab)Download

    The Beatles aren’t going to let a little thing like half the band being dead stop them making hits. And their latest is the earworm Now and Then.

    Intro: Some simple strumming to start with.

    Verse: There’s a lot of barreing going on in the verses. Which makes it a bit of stamina test for the fretting hand. But nothing difficult to play.

    Chorus: The “Now and then” bit is played on the g-string. So make sure you emphasise it enough for it to register as the melody.

    Watch out the second time around as the solo cuts the chorus short.

    Solo: For once, the solo is very easy. A few notes sliding around but mostly strumming chords.

    Outro: A change in time signature and descending chords against a pivot (A-string, 5th fret). My favourite part of the song.

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  • Green Day – Boulevard of Broken Dreams (Tabs)

    Green Day – Boulevard of Broken Dreams (Tab)Download

    Intro: The verse of Boulevard uses the same chords as the verse of Wonderwall so I went extra Wonderwally for the intro.

    Verses: Nothing too tricky here. Just fingerpicking around first position chords.

    Chorus: Switching to strums and moving up and down the neck much more.

    Solo: This is where it gets challenging. It’s a series of chord stabs with octaves between them. The upside is that it’s very repetitive, so there’s not a lot of it to tackle.

    Outro: A completely new chord sequence here using chromatic moves. It’s just bashed out with strums.

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  • Arctic Monkeys – Do I Wanna Know (Tabs)

    DArctic Monkeys – Do I Wanna Know (Tab)Download

    Starting off 2024 with a track from Arctic Monkeys’ last good album: Do I Wanna Know?

    Intro: The funnest part of the song. The original is just single notes. But I’ve beefed it up for the uke with doubled notes and chords wherever I get the chance.

    Verse: The melody is very rambling and conversational even before he does his club singer act on it. I thought I knew this song well, but it took a lot of work to get the timing somewhere near right. The biggest challenge of the song.

    Pre-Chorus: The only thing to worry about here is a quick jump down the fretboard in bar 27. If you prefer, you can play the A-string, 2nd fret to the E-string, 7th fret. All you’re losing here is the open E-string ringing.

    Chorus: Other than the “Crawling back to you,” part, it’s exactly the same as the intro.

    Outro: A simple little riff to finish off.

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  • Greg Lake/ELP – I Believe in Father Christmas (Tabs)

    Greg Lake/ELP – I Believe in Father Christmas (Tab)Download

    Just enough time before the big day to work up a version of Greg Lake’s I Believe in Father Christmas. Later recorded by the whole of Emerson, Lake and Palmer as well as U2, Mark Kozelek and many others. But it’s the original I worked from for this arrangement.

    Intro: The trickiest part of the song. There are a few switches in the picking pattern which can get you in a jumble. The best way to get these down is to practice them very slowly (slow enough you don’t make any mistakes). So when you speed up, you can just play them on auto-pilot.

    There’s also a bar of 2/4 (bar 8) followed by a big jump up the fretboard. Give yourself a little extra time by not holding the 23 notes and moving up during the open g-string.

    Verse and Chorus: Much simpler. All done with basic chord shapes and a melody that fits in the first three frets.

    Solo: The solo is adapted from Prokofiev’s Troika. It’s a nice, little Christmas ditty that fits well on the uke. Worth learning this section even if you’re not bothered about the rest of the song.

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