Ukulele Hunt

Tag: Pop

  • Miley Cyrus – Flowers (Tabs)

    Miley Cyrus – Flowers (Tab)Download

    Hold on to you hairpieces, I’m covering a song while it’s still popular: Miley Cyrus’s recent hit Flowers.

    Intro: Just picking out a Cmaj7 chord.

    Verse: Nothing too difficult here. Mostly standard chords and a melody in the first position.

    Chorus: Here’s where it gets tricky with a lot of movement up and down the neck.

    Unusually, the chorus starts out with a rest. From there, it’s straight to the hardest bit of the piece with the hammer-on between bars 15 and 16 (I make a horlicks of it myself the second time around).

    Next in bar 16 is octave slide which is a nod to the song’s bass line.

    And another challenge in bar 22 with a hammer-on and pull-off run.

    Bridge: A mercifully easy section to recover from the chorus.

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  • Culture Club – Karma Chameleon (Tabs)

    Culture Club – Karma Chameleon (Tab)Download

    In keeping with the theme of the song, Culture Club’s Karma Chameleon is a mish-mash. Including some country harmonic, funky bass, cheesy 80s keyboards and a catchy pop chorus.

    Intro: A bit of everything here: the guitar riff, muted strums for the drums and a bit of harmonica.

    Verse and Pre-Chorus: A fair bit of sliding up and down here but nothing too challenging.

    Chorus: This is where it gets tricky. The melody notes here are very fast. You’ll need to use alternate picking to get them up to speed.

    Bridge: I forgot this section existed before I relistened to the song!

    Solo: A brief solo that I cobbled together based mostly on the chords.

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  • Billie Eilish – ocean eyes (Tabs)

    Billie Eilish – ocean eyes (Tab)Download

    Here’s a tab for Billie Eilish’s song about Dwight: ocean eyes.

    Intro and Verse: Based on a descending chord progression and a simple melody line. Nothing challenging here.

    Chorus: Here’s where the challenge starts. There’s an ascending riff on the C-string going along side the busier melody. I’ve used a bit of campanella style playing to deal with the quick notes.

    Solo: Heavily based on the verse with a few extra twiddles. A good place to play around with your own ideas.

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  • Harry Styles – As It Was (Tabs)

    Harry Styles – As It Was (Tab)Download

    I  hadn’t heard Harry Styles’s As It Was before it cropped up as a Patreon request and my hopes weren’t high. Turns out it’s a pretty great song. Very catchy with a melancholy edge.

    Intro: A bit of Take On Me action with this riff. Once the chords kick in at bar 2, prioritise keeping the energy up over hitting exactly the right strings. As long as you’re holding the chord, it’ll sound great.

    Verse: Mostly one finger per string picking here but I’m alternating index and middle finger to pick the C notes in bars 7 and 11.

    I snuck in a little lick at the end of bar 8 to fill up the bar. You’re welcome to use your own ideas here.

    Chorus: Just strumming for the chorus. The trickiest part is hitting the F chord just before the end of bars 15 and 19. Don’t worry if you hit some of the open strings when you play the A-string, 7th fret the note before.

    You could always extend that note at the 7th fret and hit the F chord at the start of bar 16/20. I doubt anyone will notice.

    Bridge: A whole mess of notes here. Definitely need some alternate picking to get through it.

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  • Dido – Thank You (Tabs)

    Dido – Thank You (Tab)Download

    Here’s my take on Dido’s very catchy but slightly annoying Thank You. Famously sampled in Eminem’s Stan.

    Intro: A nice little chord arpeggio section using one finger per string picking.

    Verse: From this point on, the picking is all over the place. There are a few tricky sections here. I found bars 7 and 8 required the most practice.

    Chorus: Things chill out a bit in the chorus. There’s a big slide up to the 8th fret to deal with. And some alternate picking required for the fast notes at the end of bars 12 and 16.

    Bridge: A slight variation on the verse with the Am-Gm ending from the chorus.

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  • Petula Clark – Downtown (Tabs)

    Petula Clark – Downtown (Tab)Download

    I was surprised to learn this song was written by Tony Hatch. Who is best known to me for writing the theme tunes to Neighbours, Emmerdale Farm and Crossroads.

    I was inspired to tab this one when it cropped up in Girl, Interrupted and I immediately lost interest in the movie and started working it out. This arrangement is based on the Petula Clark version. Although the Groundskeeper Willie version is definitive.

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  • The Weeknd – Blinding Lights (Tabs)

     Weeknd – Blinding Lights (Tab)Download

    Here’s a tab for one of the catchiest songs of the last few years: The Weeknd’s Blinding Lights.

    It’s not a song you’d immediately associate with the ukulele, but it works out pretty well. The big challenge is the speed. For my version, I slowed it down slightly from the original. But it’s still difficult at this speed. I think you could go slower and get away with it.

    There are plenty of percussive elements in the arrangements. Lots of chnks, lots of muted notes and I’m plucking harder than usual and giving the strings a bit of snap.

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  • Neil Diamond – Song Sung Blue (Tabs)

    Neil Diamond – Song Sung Blue (Tab)Download

    The chill organ intro is my favourite part of the song. I’m picking this using one-finger-per-string.

    The picking in the verse is a bit more haphazard. But the basis is the thumb alternating between the g- and C-strings with each followed by a strum. Then the melody sits of top of that.

    In the original, there’s a half-verse solo with an instrumental of the melody. Since we’re already doing that, I threw in a quick solo of my own making. Plenty of scope for your own ideas here.

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  • The Beautiful South – A Little Time (Tabs)

    The Beautiful South – A Little Time (Tab)Download

    The Beautiful South are one of those bands that are so British I can’t imagine them making it huge around the globe. Nevertheless, they have some great tunes so I wanted to tab A Little Time. Plus what remains of The Beautiful South recent toured with, Uke Hunt favourites, Keston Cobblers’ Club.

    There are a few tricky manoeuvers in this arrangement. But one simple thing is the chords. The intro, verse and solo all have just one chord: G.

    There are a few challenging aspects. First is the speed of some of the notes. I use a lot alternate picking to get up to speed. Plus my version is slightly slower than the original (I think you could go even slower and get away with it).

    The second bit that’s a challenge is using your pinkie to slide up from the 5th to the 7th fret. I definitely need more practice with that to be as confident as I am with other fingers.

    But the part I had most difficultly with was the switch between the verse and chorus. In the original, this is where Briana Corrigan interrupts David Rotheray mid-sentence. An effective way to represent an argument in a duet but challenging to create a separation on the uke.

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  • TLC – Waterfalls (Tabs)

    TLC – Waterfalls (Tab)Download

    Here’s my attempt at TLC’s heartbreaking tale of Jason Waterfalls.

    The intro is by far the trickiest part of the song. There are a bunch of chord stabs and some tasty licks.

    The melody line is exceptionally straight-forward and easy to play. The only interesting part is the bluesy “Listen to me” at the end of the verse (bar 28). And I’ve thrown in a couple of licks inspired by the bass in bar 20 and at the end of the choruses.

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