Ukulele Hunt

Tag: Nightmare

  • Rusted Root – Send Me on My Way (Tabs)

    Rusted Root – Send Me on My Way (Tab)Download

    Rusted Root’s Send Me on My Way was a bit of a flop when it was first released. But it’s jaunty nature and semi-comprehensible lyrics have given it success in soundtracks to Ice Age, Matilda and that millipede.

    There are a lot of rapid notes to get your fingers around in this one. Even at this slightly slowed tempo, it’s tricky to pull off.

    Intro: The classic riff. Making use of the high-g string to avoid moving up and down the neck.

    Verse: No avoiding moving up and down in this part. But it’s not too difficult until the end of bar 14 with the mabubadeesay mabubadeeum bit (lyric sheets claim he’s saying, “You know what they say about the young,” but there is no way). This includes my favourite trick: playing the same note on different strings (g and E) to allow for quicker picking.

    Chorus: Busting out the strums for the chorus. Nothing too difficult here.

    Bridge: The trickiest bit with the very quick “Send me on my way”s. I’ve cut down the number of notes in some of these to make them easier to play.

    Solo: The funnest bit. As long as you keep the strumming up, you can play around with this section as much as you like.

    Outro: Just strumming out the chords in the outro followed by a stripped down version of the riff.

    Links

    More 90s tabs
    Uke Hunt Patreon

  • Blind Melon – No Rain (Tabs)

    Blind Melon – No Rain (Tab)Download

    Here’s my take Blind Melon’s massive 90s hit (at least partly thanks Bee Girl).

    The arrangement starts off with the iconic guitar riff. It’s a little challenging but sounds great on uke. I recommend learning this bit even if you don’t bother with the rest of the song.

    The verse is nice and easy before the chorus moves things back up a notch.

    But it’s the solo where things get lemon difficult. So I drop the chords all together for this arrangement. Which does leave things sounding a little sparse. But the solo does a great job of playing with tension so I think it just about works. The repeated pull-offs in bars 33 and 34 build up the tension which gets released with the slides down and up the neck in bar 35. That’s followed by a bluesy section with a rapid descending line finishing it off in bar 38.

    Links

    More 90s tabs
    Uke Hunt Patreon

  • Dolly Parton – Jolene (Tabs)

    Dolly Parton – Jolene (Tab)Download

    Following on from I Will Always Love You with the song Dolly wrote on the same day. I don’t know how it’s possible to write two all-time classics in one day.

    The arrangement starts out with a very basic version of the chorus. You could play the verse in this style and create a nice arrangement.

    Next is an approximation of the intro riff from the original. The syncopated rhythm is tricky to get the hang of. Apparently, even the session musicians had trouble getting it down. I’ve made a close up video for just this section. If you want to play along to the original, you’ll have to tune down half a step to Gb B Eb Ab.

    The verse and chorus are based on an alternating thumb picking pattern (moving between the C and g-strings) like the original. Unfortunately, the melody sometimes strays onto the C-string which complicates matters. I found it a little tricky to switch in and out of the alternating pattern. But after starting super-low and gradually increasing the speed, it started to feel almost on autopilot after a while.

    Links

    More country tabs
    Uke Hunt Patreon

  • Guns N’ Roses – Patience (Tabs)

    Guns N’ Roses – Patience (Tab)Download

    Guns N’ Roses – Patience (Tab)

    While not quite in the league of November Rain, Guns N’ Roses’ acoustic lighter-swayer Patience is still a bit of an epic. So for this arrangement I’ve trimmed down the intro and outro and skipped the repeat of the verse and chorus.

    The intro follows Axl’s whistling for the first four bars before playing the first solo section. Just a bit of bending to deal with here.

    The main solo section starts in bar 28 with some sliding around. My favourite part is the lick in bar 32-33. I wasn’t sure if this bit was going to work on uke, but it ends up fitting neatly.

    Things switch up in bar 39 for the outro with some loose strumming and a fun sliding solo section.

    I found the melody in the outro (from bar 47 on) tricky to arrange. Usually, you’d have a G note over the G chord somewhere. But the melody sticks with the F# (E-string second fret) and A notes from the D chord. That makes it hard to pull out the chord changes in this section clearly. But if you keep the chord changes clear in your head you should navigate it okay.

    Links

    More rock tabs
    My tabs of Sweet Child O Mine and November Rain are both on the Uke Hunt Patreon for concert level backers and up.

  • Robert Schumann – Vanitas Vanitatum Mit Humor (Tabs)

    Robert Schumann – Vanitas Vanitatum Mit Humor (Tab)Download

    I’ve been getting into classical music much more over the pandemic. I’ve occasionally got the over-ambitious impulse to try something on the ukulele. And the first part of Robert Schumann’s Five Pieces in a Folk Style is the only to have made it through to this stage. 

    The piece is written for piano and cello. But this arrangement is almost entirely the cello part. The only time I dip into the piano part is bars 90 and 92.

    There are plenty of challenging sections in the piece, but the part that took the most practice was the C section (not it’s official name). There’s also a very rapid section in bars 49-56 but that doesn’t require any scooting up and down the fretboard. 

    Links

    More classical tabs
    Uke Hunt Patreon