Ukulele Hunt

Tag: Tricky

  • The Beatles – Help! (Tabs)

    The Beatles – Help! (Tab)Download

    Intro: This is the trickiest part of the song. You’ve got the thumb providing a descending bass line on the C-string. Meanwhile, the E and A-strings play the melody (plus one note on the g-string in bar 3).

    The guitar line that finishes the intro (bars 7-8) doesn’t fit well on the ukulele. So this arrangement is more in keeping with the vibe rather than the actual notes. Even so, it’s a bit of a stretch to play.

    Verse: Things ease off in the verse. Just use some alternating picking with your index and middle fingers on the A-string to get the notes up to speed.

    Chorus: This returns to the descending bass line idea from the intro. For the second chorus, I threw in a bit of the vocal harmony at the end of bar 41.

    Outro: A big jump up the neck to mimic the high harmonies.

    Links

    More Beatles tabs
    Uke Hunt Patreon

  • Bob Marley and the Wailers – Is This Love (Tabs)

    Bob Marley – Is This Love (Tab)Download

    There are some tricky sections to get to grips with here. The verses in particular have a few oddities that I hadn’t even noticed before trying to play the song.

    Intro: A great little riff in the intro. Well worth learning even if you’re not attempting the whole song.

    Verse: This is where you’ll find the oddities. In most of the verse, the Am7 chord lasts two bars. But in the opening verse, the first Am7 chord lasts only one bar.

    The second verse (bar 52) is even stranger. The first Am7 is just one bar. But the following F is extended to two bars. Then the second Am7 is also shortened to one bar.

    Chorus: The chorus is much more regular. Even so, the second set of “Is this love?”s is slightly different to the first.

    Bridge: Nothing too challenging here. Just be sure to keep the strummed Dm chords tight rather than letting them ring out.

    Links

    One Love tabs
    Uke Hunt Patreon

  • Scissor Sisters – Take Your Mama (Tabs) and Jurassic Park

    Scissor Sisters – Take Your Mama (Tab)Download

    Intro: Kicking off with strums and a lot of muting (just relax your fretting hand so the notes don’t ring).

    Verse: A quick campanela lead into the verse. From there, it’s all open chords and a compact melody. Just a long string of pull-offs in bars 13 and 15 to deal with.

    Pre-Chorus: An even longer stretch of campanela notes starting out the pre-chorus. All played on open strings. Even though the song is in C major, the minor third (Eb) crops up here. Giving it a bluesy feel.

    Chorus: The falsetto means a big jump up the neck. Other than that, it’s just bashing out chords all the way.

    Solo: The solo is only loosely based on the original. So you’re free to use your own ideas. For my take, I’m mostly noodling around the chords and throwing in some bends.

    Links

    More pop tabs
    Uke Hunt Patreon

    Jurassic Park (Tabs)

    Here’s a quick tab of the main section of the Jurassic Park theme in tribute to, enthusiastic uker, Sam Neill.

  • Cab Calloway – Minnie the Moocher (Tabs)

    Cab Calloway – Minnie the Moocher (Tab)Download

    Intro: I love the way the Em6 here gives the song a heavy, brooding feel. There are a couple of challenging bits here. First, the slide up to the 7th fret in bar 6. Second, the fast picking on the triplets in bar 10.

    Verse: The verses are nice and simple. If you like, you can use the Em6 here as well in place of the Em. I chose the Em here to make the harmony clearer to the listener.

    Chorus: It’s important to create as much contrast as possible between the call and the response here. So this arrangement has the call in single notes high on the neck. And the response is low on the neck and in a chord.

    Double Time Chorus: This section is a burst of anarchy in the song. It’s also the most difficult to play. So I embraced the chaos and did whatever I felt like in this section.

    Outro: A very effective descending chord run to end on.

    Links

    More jazz tabs
    Uke Hunt Patreon

  • Pink Floyd – Time (Tabs)

    Pink Floyd – Time (Tab)Download

    Pink Floyd’s Time is a real epic so I’ve done the most un-Pink Floyd thing of all time and shortened the song by trimming the solo and cutting out the more atmospheric parts.

    Intro: Starting off with the ticking sound. Made by muting the strings high up the neck and plucking close to the bridge. Then a lick to lead into the verse.

    Verse: This section is forceful and confrontational so keep the chords short and stabby.

    Chorus: The chorus switches from the brooding G minor section to a blissed out Ebmaj7. Let the chords ring out in this section to match the mood.

    Solo: I’ve changed this considerably from the original. So feel free to make changes for your version. I’m using the G minor pentatonic for the solo plus the occasional A note.

    Outro: The outro throws in a few curve balls. It throws in a Gb and modulates to Bb. Then ending on a glum sounding Ebm – E – Cm.

    Links

    More 70s tabs
    Uke Hunt Patreon

  • R.E.M. – Shiny Happy People (Tabs)

    R.E.M. – Shiny Happy People (Tab)Download

    It’s crazy it’s taken me this long to cover R.E.M.’s Shiny Happy People given how perfectly it captures my personality.

    Intro: For such a light-hearted song, there’s a bunch going on musically. There are three key changes and a change of time signature before the vocals kick in.

    The song starts in 6/8 time in the key of G# (G in the original) for a relaxed intro before it kicks into 4/4 in bar 4. That shifts into the riff in the key of Bb. The riff is very fun to play. Worth learning even if you’re not bothering with the rest of it.

    Verse: The verse moves into the key of G minor. A less abrupt key change since Gm is the relative minor of Bb. The verse bounces up and down the fretboard. But it’s not too challenging to play.

    Chorus: Things are a bit more difficult in the chorus with the three, slightly overlapping, voices covering a large range.

    Outro: This is made up of the main riff and Kate Pierson’s “Happy peeepooooooole” bit. There’s room to play around with the chorus melody here if you fancy stretching out a bit.

    Links

    More REM tabs
    Uke Hunt Patreon

  • Wii Shop Theme (Tabs)

    Wii Shop Theme (Tab)Download

    With Nirvanna the Band the Show back in action, I was inspired to put together a version of the Wii Shop theme It works well on uke. But there are a lot of unusual chord shapes that might take a while to get under your fingers.

    Links

    More game theme tabs
    Uke Hunt Patreon

  • Mumford and Sons – The Cave (Tabs)

    Mumford and Sons – The Cave (Tabs)Download

    The stomp-clap era has been receiving a sometimes unhinged level of vitriol recently. But I still enjoy it so here’s Mumford and Sons’s The Cave.

    Intro: The intro works very nicely on uke. Well worth learning even if you’re not bothered about the rest of the song.

    I’m using thumb-and-two-finger picking in this section. And switching to one finger per string in the other sections.

    Verse: The verse melody is very similar to the riff. So, to distinguish them, I’m using fretted notes rather than open strings. There are slight variations in the verses. But I don’t think anyone would notice if you played them all the same.

    Chorus: This section uses a mixture of strums and picking. With the strums getting more intense each time. The final chorus really ramps up the intensity and is the hardest part to play.

    Instrumental: Here, you’re bashing out the verse chords and the riff. There are also some hammer-ons that give it a very Beirut feel.

    Links

    More folk tabs
    Uke Hunt Patreon

  • Pearl Jam – Yellow Ledbetter (Tabs)

    Pearl Jam – Yellow Ledbetter (Tabs)Download

    Pearl Jam’s Yellow Ledbetter. startuh out on the B-sahhh but thuh words don’t quite line up now, an’ the song jus’ sorta rolls, on a wizard on a whale, an’ nowah suddenly it’s a fan faverrrrah. Ohahnahha.

    This one took a fair bit of knocking around to fit onto uke. There are only three chords in it (C, G and F) but there are many jumps up and down the neck and some stretches to deal with. The intro in particular is fiddly but a lot of fun to play.

    Intro/Outro: A Little Wing/Lenny-style intro with plenty of flying up and down the neck. Make sure you include plenty of silences and changes in dynamics to keep things interesting.

    Verse: Nothing difficult to play here. Just a few slides and many pull-offs.

    Chorus: A little increase in difficulty with a stretch up to the 6th fret in bar 26.

    Solo: Some tricky stuff here too. I’ve included elements from the original. But you can adapt it however you feel. I’d recommend sticking fairly close to the C major pentatonic scale. But you can include some C minor pentatonic for a more bluesy feel.

    Bridge: This section is very sparse. But it demonstrates how effective just changing the order of the chords can be. It still uses the C, G and F chords but this section has a very different feel.

    Links

    More grunge tabs
    Uke Hunt Patreon

  • Bon Jovi – Livin’ on a Prayer (Tabs)

    Bon Jovi – Livin’ on a Prayer (Tabs)Download

    Bon Jovi’s Livin’ on a Prayer is full of hair-rock bravado, so I wasn’t sure if it’d work on uke. But it has a very strong melody, so I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed playing it.

    Intro: I had to change the talk-box riff a fair amount to get it onto uke. This version runs more smoothly than the original. And it doesn’t go on for 45 seconds.

    Verse: The verses don’t have anything too challenging. It’s all Am – F – G in open position.

    Pre-Chorus: Things build in intensity here but don’t get any more difficult.

    The second pre-chorus is cut short. As well as reducing the number of bars, they also cut a beat out of bar 44 (making it a bar of 3/4). This combined with the lack of any preparation in the chords, means the key change really hits you in the face.

    Chorus: The first chorus is challenging enough. But changing to C minor for the second chorus makes it even trickier. I originally arranged it to replay the chorus in the original key. And I think that’s a perfectly reasonable way to play it if you want to avoid the added difficulty. Even Jon Bon Jovi seems in two minds about it. But it’s such a moment in the song I decided it’s worth tackling.

    Solo: The solo has a few tricky moves too. But, once everything is octave shifted, it plays nicely on the uke. The one thing worth skipping would be the very fast lick in bar 40. It’s very difficult to play (I certainly didn’t get it cleanly in the video) and I think something simpler could be just as effective.

    Links

    More 80s tabs
    Uke Hunt Patreon