Ukulele Hunt

Tag: Tricky

  • Stephen Sondheim – Send in the Clowns (Tabs)

    Stephen Sondheim – Send in the Clowns (Tab)Download

    Here’s my take on Send in the Clowns in a belated tribute to Stephen Sondheim. The most well known versions are the song are by Judy Collins, Frank Sinatra and, of course, Krusty the Clown. Although my favourite is by, occasional ukers, The Tiger Lillies.

    Intro: I couldn’t resist referencing Entry of the Gladiators for this intro. Feel free to replace it with something more sensible.

    Verses: The verses switch between 12/8 and 9/8. But it all flows nicely, so it’s not tricky to keep track of.

    There is a brief pause in bar 5 where the tune hangs in mid-air (indicated by the frown with a dimple over the tab). That pause gives you a chance for that slide up to the seventh fret. When this bar happens a second time (bar 11) without a pause, it’s played on the A-string, 2nd fret so you don’t need to jump down to the C-string, 2nd fret.

    Chorus: My favourite part of this song is the long descending line in bars 18 and 19. With the run starting at the E-string, 3rd fret and going almost chromatically to the open C.

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  • Phil Phillips/Cat Power – Sea of Love (Tabs)

    Phil Phillips/Cat Power – Sea of Love (Tab)Download

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  • Bill Withers – Grandma’s Hands (Tabs)

    Bill Withers – Grandma’s Hands (Tab)Download

    Grandma’s Hands by Bill Withers. You might recognise the riff as the sample in Blackstreet’s fantastic No Diggity. Or maybe James Corden’s terrible England song.

    This arrangement is very simple and the tempo is slow, so this is a very approachable tab to take on.

    Intro: I hadn’t realised until starting on this arrangement that the No Diggity riff isn’t a straight sample of the original. In his version, Bill Withers has an Esus4 chord missing from that version. I went with the No Diggity version for this arrangement (and so did Gregory Porter’s guitarist).

    Verse: A couple fingerings to help with the chord changes here. At the end of bar 5, play the A-string, 2nd fret with your index finger barred over all the strings. That’ll set you up for the B7 chord in the next bar.

    In bars 10 and 11 (and in the repeats), play the A-string, 2nd fret with your middle finger so you have your index and ring fingers ready for the A7 chord.

    Outro: A little minor pentatonic lick to finish things off.

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  • Willie Nelson – Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain (Tabs)

    Willie Nelson – Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain (Tab)Download

    Intro: Matching the Willie version by following the bass notes using the thumb on the g- and C-strings. Followed by strums. 

    Verse and Bridge: Continuing the thumb-plucking and strums, and adding the melody line. Most of the melody line is picked with the fingers, but some notes are part of the strummed chords. 

    There’s a simple lick in bar 11 and a couple of lines inspired by the walking bass in bars 12 and 20.

    Solo: With Willie playing a nylon string guitar, his solo suits the ukulele fairly well. 

    The one problem is the bends. It is much easier to do bends on a uke in the middle of the fretboard. So I’m bending the E-string at the 7th fret rather than the A-string at the second fret. That does require some shifts up and down the fretboard. 

    Although the song is in swing time, the descending line at the end of the solo (bars 43-44) is played straight. 

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  • KT Tunstall – Black Horse & the Cherry Tree (Tabs)

    KT Tunstall – Black Horse & the Cherry Tree (Tab)Download

    This is a very propulsive song even in the very sparse sections. So in the verses, where it’s just the melody line, I’m using strum blocking to keep the energy up. The verse melody is busy. But it’s fine to miss a couple of notes so long as you keep the song moving along.

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  • Joni Mitchell – Big Yellow Taxi (Tabs)

    Joni Mitchell – Big Yellow Taxi (Tab)Download

    Intro: A cool strummy riff to start off with.

    Verse: Like a lot of Joni’s songs, there are a lot of words crammed in. So you’ll need some quick alternate picking to fit them in. I have cropped out a few notes here and there to make it more playable.

    Chorus: A rare case of a song getting softer at the start of a chorus. Tone it down for the first half of the chorus, then start blasting for the second.

    In the second chorus at the end of the song, there’s a brief pause added on “gone” to look out for.

    Outro: I love the goofy ending. She knocks it up an octave for “they paved paradise,” then drops below the original melody for the rest (sadly, not room for that on the uke).

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  • Queen – Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon (Tabs)

    Queen – Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon (Tab)Download

    Intro: The hardest part of the whole song is the chromatic run between bars 3 and 4. I spread the notes between the strings to make it a bit easier to play but it’s still a big challenge.

    Verse: Lots of jumps up and down the neck to deal with. Bars 9-12 are fun to play (once you’ve practiced it enough not to have to think about it).

    Bridge: The tempo slows right down here which helps to make it easy to play.

    Solo: Another section that’s difficult to play. But I mostly ditched the chords for this section so it’s just single notes.

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  • Bob Dylan – You Belong to Me (Tabs)

    Bob Dylan – You Belong to Me (Tab)Download

    You Belong to Me was originally written by Price, King & Stewart in 1952. But I first heard the Bob Dylan cover on the Natural Born Killers soundtrack. And it’s the Dylan version this arrangement is based on.

    Intro: A very brief intro just to establish the key and feel. There’s plenty of room to expand this to the whole chord progression if you fancy stretching out.

    Verse: There are a couple of jumps up and down the fretboard to deal with here. But the tempo is slow and it’s straightforward to play. I am very loose with the timing and phrasing in the video.

    The second time around, there are a few extra twiddles to keep things interesting.

    Solo: The solo is heavily based on the melody. It’s a very sentimental song, so I went a bit cheesy with it. You’re free to dirty it up in your own version.

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  • Brandi Carlile – You and Me on the Rock (Tabs)

    Brandi Carlile – You and Me on the Rock (Tab)Download

    Here’s my take on Brandi Carlile’s Joni Mitchell influenced and very catchy You and Me on the Rock.

    Intro: The Mitchell influence kicks in right away with a Big Yellow Taxi-esque strumming riff.

    Verse: And continues with a wordy verse. It’s tricky to hit every note in the melody. So I’ve taken a few liberties. Don’t stress to much about hitting every note and string exactly.

    Chorus: Things calm down a bit in the chorus. And I move from strumming only to include more picking. Even with the picking I’m doing a bit of “flick up” motion so I stroke the next string along. Making the note softer but still supporting the main melody.

    The chorus ends with a bar of 2/4 but it flows naturally.

    Bridge: There’s a short bluesy lick leading into the bridge introducing the more minor feel with the addition of Eb (the first chord outside the bog-standard I-IV-V in the rest of the song).

    Outro: The outro is cut down from the original so it’s just the second half of the chorus.

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  • Willie Nelson – Stardust (Tabs)

    Willie Nelson – Stardust (Tab)Download

    A tab of Willie Nelson’s version of Stardust (written by Hoagy Carmichael) for everyone who likes a bit of Willie. In thanks for his contributions to ukeing as father of Amy Nelson of Folk Uke and grandfather of Raelyn Nelson.

    There are loads of less common chords in the song. And a fair amount of hopping around the fretboard. But the tempo is very slow and there’s plenty of room for changing the phrasing of the melody. So this one is fairly straightforward to play.

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