I’ve covered a lot of Halloween songs over the years and I’ve always avoided Monster Mash. It’s delivered in a talk-singing voice, so there’s no real melody to transport to uke. So the melody in this arrangement is largely fictional. I’ve tried to follow the contours of the vocals and match the vibe of the original. But feel free to change anything you don’t like. Either way, I’m sure Pam would hate it.
Tag: Halloween
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Dusty Springfield – Spooky (Tabs)
Apologies to anyone who tried to use the site in the last couple of weeks and couldn’t. I’ve been having some tech problems. It should be fixed now. Just in time for a Halloween themed tab. Spooky was originally by The Classics IV, but best known for Dusty Springfield’s version. And it’s the Dusty version I based this arrangement on.
Intro: Just a two chord vamp with a bit of a 60s bossa feel to it.
Verses: The biggest challenge in the verses is quickly getting down from the A-string 5th fret to the C-string second fret. Other than that, it’s fairly smooth sailing. I love the discordance of the A7#9 at the end of each verse. The chord has both the major third (C#) and the minor third (C) of the chord. Which is the spookiest part of the song.
Solo: The first bar is the only one that is based on the solo in the Dusty version. Everything else is just me noodling on the D blues scale. So I recommend building your own solo here.
Links
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The Cure – Lullaby (Tabs)
Get ready to be freaked out of your gourd by The Cure’s spooky Lullaby
Intro: The original intro is unusually long, lasting more than a minute. I’ve chopped it down a little for this arrangement.
The intro (like the whole song apart from the bridge) is just Dm-Bbmaj7. The first 8 bars have the guitar line on top of that. And the next four focus on the bass line.
The final 8 bars focus on the string line. With long notes on the Dm and pizzicato notes on the Bbmaj7. To imitate the pizzicato, I’m muting the strings by gently resting the side of my picking hand on the strings near the bridge.
The transition into bar 17 is made easier by muting the g-string with your thumb instead of playing the whole chord. But you can always add in the g-string, 2nd fret if you’re fast enough.
Verse: The wispy and whispery vocals make the melody a little hard to discern. I’ve tried my best but I’ve taken a few liberties with it. Nothing too tricky to deal with here. Just a trip up to the fifth fret at the end.
Bridge: They go all jazz with it and add a third chord. Still straightforward, though. Just a couple of quick pull-offs to deal with.
Outro: This is where things get tricky. There’s a flurry of notes in bars 46 and 50. I’ve gone campanella with it and involved the g-string in the melody to spread out the notes a little.
Links
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Norma Tanega – You’re Dead (What We Do in the Shadows) (Tabs)
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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Black Sabbath – Paranoid (Tab)
I put a call out for Halloween-suitable songs on this month’s Patreon request thread and Sam requested Black Sabbath’s Paranoid album in celebration of the 50th Anniversary. Which was a great and also ridiculous idea.
It is, of course, entirely unsuited to ukulele. Which makes it all the more fun to play. It uses forceful picking almost all the way through. With just a few quieter sections to keep things chugging along.
And then there’s the solo. My take on it is pretty shambolic. So feel free to concoct your own. Or take then sensible option and leave it out entirely.
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