Ukulele Hunt

Tag: Tricky

  • The Band – The Weight (Tabs)

    The Band – The Weight (Tab)Download

    A version of The Weight in tribute to Robbie Robertson. Robertson appeared on the Playing for Change version alongside some uke from Taimane.

    Intro: Usually, you’re free to play around with the intro. Not in this case. Robertson’s intro is iconic and doing anything other than playing it as close to the original as possible is sacrilege.

    Verses: The melody in the verses is a little fiddly, but it’s the third verse that’s most challenging. There’s an extra campanella bit in bar 37 (“Waitin’ on Judgement Day”) and a trickier ending to the verse.

    Chorus: I haven’t tried to cram in all the vocal lines in the chorus in order to keep things clear. Most obviously, the arrangement doesn’t include the overlapping “you put the load…” lines (bar 46).

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  • Rod Stewart – Maggie May (Tabs)

    Rod Stewart – Maggie May (Tab)Download

    Intro 1: The album version of the track starts with Martin Quittenton’s (completely out of place) little contrapuntal piece in 3/4 time. I almost skipped it but it’s a fun tune that’s worth learning by itself.

    Intro 2: The second intro is much more in keeping with the song’s melancholy mood.

    Verses: The verses are fairly straightforward. It’s mostly strummed with a few notes picked out here and there.

    Solo: Loosely based on the original with lots of sliding around the fretboard. As always, throw some ideas of your own in here.

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  • The Velvet Underground – Sunday Morning (Tabs)

    The Velvet Underground – Sunday Morning (Tab)Download

    Sunday Morning is the poppiest song The Velvet Underground’s debut album. It has a laid back, easy going vibe. And you have two days to learn it so get to work. Watish!

    Intro: Played high up the neck to give a music box feel. But if it’s too cramped up there or your uke doesn’t have enough frets, you can play the same picking pattern with any inversion of F and Bb and it’ll work.

    Verse: Switching from thumb and two finger picking in the intro to one finger per string for the start of the verse. It’s tricky to bring out the melody in bars 13-16 with the melody switching from the A-string down to the C. So emphasise those as much as you can while keeping the chill vibe.

    Back to thumb and two finger picking from the Fmaj7 in bar 17 to bring out the descending low notes.

    Chorus: Bringing in a few strums in the chorus for contrast.

    Solo: The original solo has a bunch of hammer-ons, pull-offs and double stops. So I’ve used that concept for this solo rather than recreating it note for note.

    Outro: Similar to the first bars of the verse. But here there’s a slide up to the fifth fret instead of the open A-string. I toyed with playing it this way in the verse and decided to hold it back for the outro. But give it a go in the verse and see how you feel about it.

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  • Green Day – Good Riddance (Tabs)

    Green Day – Good Riddance (Tab)Download

    This arrangement of Green Day’s Good Riddance is played with fingerpicking the whole way through (one finger per string picking style). I love the way the intro sounds played that way and fingerpicking brings out the melody.

    But I originally arranged it strumming so it’s closer to the original and it works well. Plus it’s easier to play that way. So you have my full permission to play it that way (not that you need it).

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  • Paul Simon – Graceland (Tabs)

    Paul Simon – Graceland (Tab)Download

    I’ve already (inevitably) covered Call Me Al from Paul Simon’s Graceland. So it’s a good time to follow up with the title track.

    Intro: The original starts with a bit of strumming before the picking riff. But on the uke there’s a drop in the energy when you go from strumming to picking. So this arrangement starts with the picking (with a touch of Stone Roses) and the opening C is much shorter.

    Verse: The verse melody is loose and conversational, so there’s plenty of room to rephrase it so it flows naturally for you. Which I’ve done plenty of.

    Chorus: The start of the chorus uses a bunch of techniques: slides, pull-offs, muting. Which makes it fun to play. The mutes in this section (e.g. bar 19) are done by playing a standard chnk (the one with x’s on all the strings), then leaving your strumming hand muting the strings, and plucking the g-string with your thumb (for the x on the g-string).

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  • Wheatus – Teenage Dirtbag (Tabs)

    Wheatus – Teenage Dirtbag (Tab)Download

    Wheatus’s Teenage Dirtbag has become a bit of a uke favourite with the UOGB’s version. I haven’t entirely decided if it’s an irresistible earworm or an irritating song with terrible lyrics. But I did have fun playing it.

    Intro: Muted strums on the g and C-strings, then extra emphasis on the E and A-strings.

    Verse: One finger per string picking with a few supporting strums where there’s no melody.

    Chorus: The first chorus is full on strumming. It finishes off with a bar of 2/4 then a little riff (that’s my favourite part of the song).

    The second chorus in this arrangement (the third in the original) has constant thumb picking on the C-string while the melody notes are picked on the E and A.

    Bridge: A bit of stretch up to the seventh fret here. But the big challenge is the “She doesn’t know…” bit which first crops up in bar 27. It gets pretty fiddly in the cramped higher frets.

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  • Tina Turner – Proud Mary (Tabs)

    Tina Turner – Proud Mary (Tabs)Download

    A version of Proud Mary in tribute to Tina Turner. It’s one of those covers that completely eclipse the original version. It’s so perfect it’s hard to believe it wasn’t written for her.

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  • The Smiths – Panic (Tabs)

    The Smiths – Panic (Tab)Download

    A version of Panic tribute to Smiths bassist, Andy Rourke.

    Intro: A short jingle-jangle intro. I originally played it an octave up to accommodate the original. But this version is much easier to play and keeps the vibe of the original.

    Verses: The verses are all very slightly different. The trickiest part comes in bar 17-18 with some quick triplets. The first will require a bit of alternate picking. The third verse starts using the g-string to play melody notes (beginning in bar 38).

    Bridge: Keeping the barre across the strings even when you don’t need to makes this section easier to play.

    Chorus: Even more melody notes on the g-string in this section to keep it rocking. Plus the chords are a little more filled out with a G between the C and D.

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  • The B-52’s – Love Shack (Tabs)

    The B-52’s – Love Shack (Tab)Download

    Love Shack isn’t the most uke-friendly song but it is a ton of fun to play.

    Intro: Playing the melody using strum blocking i.e. strumming but muting everything but the string that’s playing the melody. That means you can play single notes but still keep things energetic and forceful.

    Verse 1: Starting with Kate Pierson’s part played high up the neck before switching to Fred Schneider’s part lower down the neck. Schneider’s part is very talky so the melody here is somewhat created.

    Pre-Chorus: A nice easy little section.

    Chorus: The section I had most trouble playing. It’s tricky to combine the guitar riff and the vocal line smoothly. The second chorus is a little different from the first and third.

    Verse 2: Four bars of talky section, four bars of strum blocking then some simple strumming to finish with.

    Bridge: The section that works least well on the uke. I thought about leaving it out but it’s too iconic. It’s starts with a reworking of the bass riff then goes into a shortened version of the “Bang, bang, on the door” bit. I’ve even included an attempt at the “Tin roof, rusted” bit. Although I wouldn’t blame you for missing any of this out.

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  • Koji Kondo – Zelda Medley (Tabs)

    Koji Kondo – Zelda Medley (Tab)Download

    Shamefully, I haven’t played a Zelda game since A Link to the Past. So these arrangements are heavily influenced by that era.

    Zelda’s Lullaby: A chill start to the medley with gentle picking and a soft Cmaj7 chord. There is a big leap up the neck in bar 6. But this part is slow enough that it’s not a big challenge.

    Main Theme: Ramping up the pomposity and changing the key to F. There’s another big jump in 16. This one is at a quicker tempo so it’s more of a challenge. From there, you get the descending note until you hit the C.

    Ilia’s Theme: Back to a more relaxed feel. This time, the challenge is a big stretch between the 4th and 10th fret in bar 23. If you’re struggling there, you can change the A-string, 10th fret to A-string, 7th fret in bars 22 and 23. It changes the feel a little but it still sounds nice.

    Kakariko Village: The challenge here is to emphasise the melody notes so it doesn’t just sound like a melody-less picking pattern. Otherwise, nothing too difficult.

    Hyrule Castle: Switching to C minor and more pomposity. Where the Main Theme is grand, this one has some menace with the chromatic notes on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th frets. 8-Bit Music Theory did an excellent video on this tune.

    Song of Storms: A final key change to E minor and the trickiest section of the piece.

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