Ukulele Hunt

Tag: Tricky

  • Oh Shenandoah (Tabs)

    Oh Shenandoah (Tab)Download

    Loads of people have covered Oh Shenandoah, but the Tom Waits and Keith Richards version is the one I’m most familiar with.

    I’ve arranged it three different ways. In order of easiest to trickiest. I’d recommend using this version as a springboard for your own. You can mix and match sections and add your own ideas.

    Intro: Just a short intro to establish the harmony.

    Verse 1: A very simple way of playing it. There are a few grace notes and an Fmaj7 chord in bar 6. But that’s as fancy as it gets.

    Verse 2: This verse harmonises the melody. It’s starts using thirds. Then switches to using a pedal at the end of bar 15 (around the open g-string and A-string, 7th fret). Then, bars 16-17 switch to sixths. After that, it goes back to using thirds.

    Verse 3: This one throws around all sorts of curlicues and filigree. There’s a lot of jumping up and down the fretboard and rapid hammer-ons and pull-offs. By far the hardest section, but still not too bad. You can add more frills here if you like. Or pare it back and make it more tasteful.

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  • Yusuf/Cat Stevens – The Wind (Tabs)

    Yusuf/Cat Stevens – The Wind (Tab)Download

    The Wind comes across as a gentle little ditty. But there are some fiendish time signature changes in the chorus to deal with. This version is slowed down to about 90% of the original which makes it easier to handle.

    Intro: A very simple start using one-finger-per-string picking. Which is used here and in the verses.

    That’s followed by the main guitar riff. You could play this all in the first position. But I moved it up the neck to differentiate it from the melody.

    Verse: Nothing much to deal with here. Just alternating between the guitar riff and the melody.

    Chorus: Here’s where the trouble starts. There are bars of 5/4 and 2/4 thrown in along with irregularly spaced chord changes. The second chorus has an additional bar of 5/4 as well.

    I found it hard to keep track of. My approach was to break it down. I started by counting out the bars. When I had that down, I tried playing just the chords. Then adding the melody part in starting at a very slow tempo.

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  • Blur – The Universal (Tabs)

    Blur – The Universal (Tab)Download

    Here’s a tab of Blur’s The Universal. Real horrorshow.

    Intro: Thumb and two finger picking for the intro. PARKLIFE

    Verse: Switching to one finger per string picking in the verse (with a few strummed chord stabs thrown in). PARKLIFE

    Chorus: And full on strumming for the chorus. The action moves high up the neck in this section and it gets fiddly. PARKLIFE

    Solo: Still high up but not as frantic. I found the phrasing here a little difficult to get the hang of. PARKLIFE

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  • Aphex Twin – Avril 14th (Tabs)

    Aphex Twin – Avril 14th (Tab)Download

    If I’m going to tab an Aphex Twin song, there’s only one choice: Avril 14th. Which was interpolated by Kanye West on Blame Game.

    A Section: By far the hardest part of the song is the artificial harmonics that start in bar 5. In these bits, I’m picking the C-string with my thumb and playing artificial harmonics on the other strings.

    Take a look at 4stringboy if you want to see artificial harmonics done right. If you’re as bad at them as me, you can just skip the harmonics part and play the standard and it’ll sound fine.

    B Section: AKA the section that goes on twice as long as it should. Just a jump up to the 7th fret to deal with here.

    C Section: The easiest section of the song. A bit of campanella picking while holding down a single chord shape.

    D Section: This is the oddest section of the piece. It’s simplified from the original. But it bounces all over the fretboard.

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  • The Newton Brothers – X-Men ’97 Theme (Tabs)

    The Newton Brothers – X-Men ’97 Theme (Tab)Download

    Here’s a quick tab for the theme to the revival of the X-Men animated series. Which just so happens to be identical to the original, retaining cheesy metal widdle-fest that was the style at the time.

    First thing to do is tune your g-string down to F. This is needed to play the sweep across the strings in bars 8 and 9

    The tune starts out easy with some palm muted notes on the C-string picked with the thumb. From then on, there are plenty of challenges. There’s some fast picking and notes all the way up the fretboard. That’s followed by a whole bunch of triplets in bars 13 to 15.

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  • Macy Gray – I Try (Tabs)

    Macy Gray – I Try (Tab)Download

    Thanks to Lin for suggesting Macy Gray’s I Try for a tabbing. She’s remembered as a one hit wonder, but Macy Gray had a few great songs.

    Verse: The first verse is nice and simple, with everything in the first position. Just a few sus chords among us. And the open g-string gets a lot of use in the melody.

    The second verse is more tricky, with a couple of trips up the neck.

    Pre-Chorus: Just a big jump up to the seventh fret to deal with the first time around. Again, the second time around, things get tricky and you’re playing way up the neck.

    Chorus: I love the campanella run in bar 16. It’s a little fiddly to play, but I think it’s worth the effort.

    Outro: This section might not be worth the effort! The key change in this song is so iconic I couldn’t leave it out. But it makes the song much more difficult to play. I wouldn’t blame if you just played the chorus in the original key here instead.

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  • Taylor Swift – august (Tabs)

    Taylor Swift – august (Tab)Download

    Verse: These are nice and simple. Standard chords in the first position.

    Chorus: There aren’t many songs that get more gentle in the chorus. But it’s very effective here. This section is slightly more difficult. It moves up the neck for a bit of campanella action and there’s some swift picking required.

    The second chorus starts with an A minor chord rather than a C. If you prefer, you can just stick with C since that’s what she did on the Long Pond version.

    Bridge: The song changes character here and it gets much trickier to play. The melody is less structured than in the verse and chorus, with a bunch of words crammed in.

    Outro: I tried to mimic the way the song drops out for the first bar of this section the second time it crops up. Then blasting in with full on strumming.

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  • Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros – Home (Tabs)

    Edward Sharpe – Home (Tab)Download

    Intro: Straight in with the trickiest part of the song. If you wanted to make this easier, you could just chug out the chords rather than tackling the fingerpicking.

    Verse: I’ve tried to keep the feeling of a duet in this section. For the female part, I use bends and play close to the bridge to give it a raspier sound. Then play away from the bridge to get a fuller tone for the male part. You can judge for yourself whether it works. I’m not sure.

    If you don’t want to play the bends, you can replace them with the open A-string.

    Chorus: Nice and easy. Just picking a simple melody and strumming the chords.

    Solo: Nothing difficult here either in terms of fretting. But there are a bunch of bars of 2/4 which make the timing tricky to keep track of.

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  • Hozier – Take Me to Church (Tabs)

    Hozier – Take Me to Church (Tab)Download

    I can’t say Hozier’s massive hit Take Me to Church fits nicely on the uke. But it is well worth learning if you’re up for a challenge.

    Verse: No mucking around with an intro. The verse starts in 3/4 time and switches to 4/4 at the end. If you know the song, it shouldn’t trip you up.

    Pre-Chorus: Back to 3/4 for the “Amen” section. And again switching to 4/4 at the end.

    This is the most sparse section of the song. Creating contrast with the chorus.

    Chorus: Staying in 4/4 for the most challenging section of the song played high up the neck. Reaching the 14th fret for the falsetto on “death”.

    Bridge: Some movement up and down the neck in this section, but it’s still easier than the chorus. And it stays in 4/4 time but with a cheeky bar of 2/4 that threw me off when I was first learning the song.

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  • Ozzy Osbourne – Mama I’m Coming Home (Tabs)

    Ozzy Osbourne – Mama I’m Coming Home (Tab)Download

    Intro: Starting off with an incongruous country lick. Then moving into a descending line played on the g- and C-strings with the thumb. Set against static notes on the E- and A-strings (plucked by the index and middle fingers respectively).

    It fits nicely on the uke and sounds more intricate than it actually is.

    Verse: Carrying on the descending line but now played with one finger per string picking.

    Pre-Chorus: Building up the tension with a strum each time there’s a chord change.

    Chorus: Bringing in more strums, slides and ventures up the neck. Stepping things up in terms of intensity and difficulty.

    Break: This little acoustic break is my favourite part to play. It’s a challenge to play at speed but it suits the ukulele very well.

    Solo: The big electric solo is less suited to the uke but still fun to play. I haven’t been particularly faithful to the original, so feel free to adjust it to your own taste.

    Coda: The coda is just like the end of the chorus, but there are an extra couple of beats on the F chord that add a little suspense.

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