Ukulele Hunt

Tag: Tricky

  • 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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  • The Smashing Pumpkins – Cherub Rock (Tabs)

    The Smashing Pumpkins – Cherub Rock (Tab)Download

    At first, I thought there’s no way Cherub Rock would work on the uke. But I found it a fun song to play that you can blast out with strums.

    Intro: Starting out at full pelt building up a C chord and breaking into the intro riff.

    If you don’t have the space on your uke to play the riff high up the neck, you can move the E-string notes on the A-string. Just lower each note five frets and let the E-string ring open. You can do the same with the melody in the verse.

    Verse: Staying high up the neck for the verse and continuing to blast out the strums with just a few picked notes.

    Chorus: All strums here too. Be sure to mute the g-string with your thumb for everything but the Eb chord.

    Bridge: Adding a C chord to the chord progression from the chorus.

    Solo: The trickiest part of the song. I’ve changed it significantly from the original. So feel free to make adjustments of your own.

    Bridge 2: Similar to the chorus, but watch out for the A-string, 5th fret at the start of the F chord (first in bar 39).

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  • Wilson Pickett/The Commitments – Mustang Sally (Tab)

    Wilson Pickett – Mustang Sally (Tab)Download

    Originally by Wilson Pickett, Mustang Sally has been covered by acts including The Commitments, Buddy Guy and Barry from Eastenders. I based this arrangement on the Wilson Pickett version but there’s elements of the Commitments version in there. As well as a few bits of my own I’ve thrown in.

    This is another song where it’s more important to keep the propulsive rhythm of the song going than hit every string exactly as they are tabbed.

    The arrangement is all up and down the neck. But there’s nothing too difficult to handle. Just a couple of stretches up to the 12th fret in bars 36 and 45.

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  • Eddie Vedder – Rise (Tabs)

    Eddie Vedder – Rise (Tab)Download

    Possibly because of Eddie Vedder’s affection for the uke, the mandolin song from the Into the Wild soundtrack, Rise fits nicely on the uke without changing the key.

    After a fingerpicking intro, the song is almost all strums. With just a few notes picked out. The verses and choruses are straightforward. It’s just the solo and that outro that have a few stretches and jumps up and down the neck.

    I’ve kept the solo and the outro fairly faithful to the original, but there’s plenty of space in those to throw in your own ideas.

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  • Arctic Monkeys – Fluorescent Adolescent (Tabs)

    Arctic Monkeys – Fluorescent Adolescent (Tab)Download

    After tabbing Do I Wanna Know? in January, I hope it’s not too soon to cover another Monkeys track: Fluorescent Adolescent

    The biggest challenge here (after spelling the title) is the very rapid delivery of the verse melody. These bits are played with a long succession of hammer-ons and pull-offs. Make sure you pull-off downwards rather than straight off the string. That’ll give it an extra pluck to keep the notes sounding.

    Other than that, it’s a fun song to blast through.

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  • The Cure – Lullaby (Tabs)

    The Cure – Lullaby (Tab)Download

    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.

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