Ukulele Hunt

Tag: Folk

  • Norma Tanega – You’re Dead (What We Do in the Shadows) (Tabs)

    Norma Tanega – You’re Dead (What We Do in the Shadows) (Tab)Download

    For spooky season, Norma Tanega’s You’re Dead aka the What We Do in the Shadows theme.

    The biggest challenge with this piece is getting the rhythms right. There are a bunch of time signature changes and even within the bars things get weird.

    Intro: In straight 4/4 but the rhythmic weirdness starts right away. You’d expect the initial riff to be played four times but it’s only played three times before switching to the slightly different second riff.

    Verses: These are made up of three bars of 5/4 and one bar of 3/4. Tricky to get the hang of but once you do the rest is fairly easy. It’s just strumming and occasionally picking the g-string. Other than that, there’s just a little lick at the end to deal with.

    Breaks: After each verse there’s an instrumental section of varying length. You can do pretty much whatever you like in these sections. I’d recommend not following exactly what I’m doing and just use it for ideas for your own version.

    I’m using mostly notes from G major and G minor scales with a few extra notes for a discordant sound. The only rule is to keep up the propulsive force of the tune.

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  • The Foggy Dew (Tabs)

    The Foggy Dew (Tab)Download

    The Foggy Dew is a traditional Irish tune that gathered lyrics in 1919. It’s usually sung slowly but my version is closer to the tempo The Dubliners play it at.

    The arrangement starts of with a bit of campanella playing before beefing things up with chords. It’s also worth varying the dynamics of repeated sections so it doesn’t get same-y.

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  • What Shall We Do with a Drunken Sailor? (Tabs)

    What Shall We Do with a Drunken Sailor? (Tab)Download

    I recorded the video for this ages ago and never got around to posting it. But International Talk Like a Pirate Day seems like a good occasion to get it up at last.

    This arrangement of Drunken Sailor includes one of my favourite tricks: playing the same note on multiple strings. The first bar has consecutive A notes on the g, E and A strings. Followed in bar two by consecutive G notes on the g, C and E strings.

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  • Jim Croce – Time in a Bottle (Tabs)

    Jim Croce – Time in a Bottle (Tab)Download

    Jim Croce is an artist that past me by. He never get much attention in the UK. But after Time in a Bottle was a popular request on Patreon and it’s given me an appreciation of the song.

    Intro: With this song, the more impressive sounding parts are easier to play and the less impressive sounding parts are more a challenge.

    Despite how it sounds, the intro is fairly easy. Just make sure you’re fretting the A-string, 4th fret in bar 5 with your middle finger. Everything else falls into place.

    Verse: This is the part I found to be more of a challenge. Bars 9-12 feel cramped with the descending chromatic line on the C-string and the melody on the A-string.

    Things go back to being simple and effective in bars 14-16 with a walking bass line set against the melody.

    Chorus: A change from F minor to F major for the jaunty chorus. Some fun sliding around in this section.

    Outro: Closing out with some artificial harmonics to emulate the original. Made even more tricky than usual as you’ll probably have to estimate where the 20th fret would be. If you’re struggling, you can just play these without the harmonics and it’ll sound great.

    And don’t be a moron like me, fret the C- and E-strings with your middle and index fingers respectively for an easier stretch.

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  • Nico/Jackson Browne – These Days (Tabs)

    Nico/Jackson Browne – These Days (Tab)Download

    This arrangement is based on Nico’s version rather the more laid-back Jackson Browne version. I couldn’t resist playing the Cotton picking guitar of the Nico version (played by Browne himself) on the ukulele.

    Intro: Setting up the cotton picking pattern along with the thumb alternating between the g- and C-strings, the index finger picking the E-string and the middle A.

    Except in bars 1 and 3 you start on the g-string and in the others you’re starting on the C-string. I’ve done to complete the descending line on the g-string. That run goes C-B-A-G in the first bar and needs the F on the C-string to finish it off.

    Verse: Some more switching of the pattern in this section. This time it’s because some of the melody notes go low enough to fall on the C-string e.g. the final C note in bar 6 and the C-string, second fret in bar 8.

    There’s a break from the alternating picking when you switch to one-finger-per-string picking in bar 12. That continues until you ease back into the alternating style in bar 16.

    Solo: My take on the solo is a bit more in the Jackson Browne style. Particularly with the country bend in bar 26. I’ve also taken a hint from the descending bass-line and used a descending line harmonised with thirds in bars 24 and 34. The rest is plucking the chords with a few references to the melody thrown in.

    Of course, you’re allowed and encourage to do whatever you fancy in this section and make it your own.

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  • Joni Mitchell – Both Sides Now (Tabs)

    Joni Mitchell – Both Sides Now (Tab)Download

    This has to be one of the most beautiful melodies of all time. Which makes for a perfect transition to the uke. The arrangement is based on the sublime acoustic version rather than the not so great later version.

    Like many of Mitchell’s songs, the guitar part in Both Sides Now is a strummed open tuning with a few notes added on. That style doesn’t translate well to the uke. So I’ve taken it as licence to do whatever I like with the chords.

    There’s nothing too challenging in the arrangement, so there’s plenty of room for interpretation. Be sure to play around with dynamics and timing to keep things interesting.

    I came up with an intro/outro of my own so I encourage you to do likewise.

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  • Warren Zevon – Keep Me in Your Heart (Tabs)

    Warren Zevon – Keep Me in Your Heart (Tab)Download

    Warren Zevon’s Keep Me in Your Heart is one of the emotional songs I know of. It was the final track on his final album The Wind released shortly before his death. It was used recently by Jimmy Carr to pay tribute to Sean Lock.

    It’s a straight-forward one to play. Nothing too tricky and one finger per string picking all the way through.

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  • Sufjan Stevens – Casimir Pulaski Day (Tabs)

    Sufjan Stevens – Casimir Pulaski Day (Tab)Download

    Here’s my take on, part-time uker and full time Belieber, Sufjan Stevens’s heartbreaking Casimir Pulaski Day. I also love Mikaela Davis’s harp cover, so a bit of that has snuck into the arrangement too.

    The song gets much of its power from being blunt and straightforward. So I’ve kept the arrangement stark and tried to play it directly without too much emotion.

    The picking is mostly thumb on the g- and C-strings and the index and middle on E and A respectively. The big exception is the rapid notes on the C-string at the end of each stanza e.g. bars 9 and 17. For those, I recommend using alternate picking as it’s too quick to comfortably play with your thumb.

    The other big exception is the trumpet solo, where I switch to strumming to give things a lift.

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    Tab for Sufjan’s Death with Dignity

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  • Bob Dylan – Tangled Up in Blue (Tabs)

    Bob Dylan – Tangled Up in Blue (Tab)Download

    There are at least five options when it comes to the best Bob Dylan album. And I’ve cycled through all of them. But currently it’s Blood on the Tracks. So here’s an arrangement of the opening track.

    This tab is very straightforward. It’s mostly strummed with a few notes picked out here and there. The only big challenge is the stretch up to the 7th fret in bars 11 and 13. If you’re struggling with that, you can just play the note at the 5th fret and no one will notice.

    The arrangement plays through the verse twice and ends with a solo. The solo is very loosely based on the harmonic part at the end of the original but is mostly just me bashing out whatever I feel like.

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  • Joan Osborne – One of Us (Tabs)

    Joan Osborne – One of Us (Tab)Download

    Back when I spent entire days watching MTV, this song and More Than Words made up a good 30% of the airtime. I got heartily sick of it at the time. But I’ve mellowed on it.

    The tune is very simple. Four chords and the melody doesn’t go higher than the third fret. The only slightly unusual part is on the “Yeah, yeah”s in bars 13, 15 and 17. If you want to make that super-simple, you can replace 5500 with 2000 and 543x with 003x and it won’t sound much different.

    The original starts with an instrumental version of the chorus. But, since we’re playing that later, I came up with an intro based on the chords. Feel free to ditch it and come up with your own.

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