Ukulele Hunt

Tag: Tricky

  • 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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  • Green Day – Boulevard of Broken Dreams (Tabs)

    Green Day – Boulevard of Broken Dreams (Tab)Download

    Intro: The verse of Boulevard uses the same chords as the verse of Wonderwall so I went extra Wonderwally for the intro.

    Verses: Nothing too tricky here. Just fingerpicking around first position chords.

    Chorus: Switching to strums and moving up and down the neck much more.

    Solo: This is where it gets challenging. It’s a series of chord stabs with octaves between them. The upside is that it’s very repetitive, so there’s not a lot of it to tackle.

    Outro: A completely new chord sequence here using chromatic moves. It’s just bashed out with strums.

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  • Arctic Monkeys – Do I Wanna Know (Tabs)

    DArctic Monkeys – Do I Wanna Know (Tab)Download

    Starting off 2024 with a track from Arctic Monkeys’ last good album: Do I Wanna Know?

    Intro: The funnest part of the song. The original is just single notes. But I’ve beefed it up for the uke with doubled notes and chords wherever I get the chance.

    Verse: The melody is very rambling and conversational even before he does his club singer act on it. I thought I knew this song well, but it took a lot of work to get the timing somewhere near right. The biggest challenge of the song.

    Pre-Chorus: The only thing to worry about here is a quick jump down the fretboard in bar 27. If you prefer, you can play the A-string, 2nd fret to the E-string, 7th fret. All you’re losing here is the open E-string ringing.

    Chorus: Other than the “Crawling back to you,” part, it’s exactly the same as the intro.

    Outro: A simple little riff to finish off.

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  • Greg Lake/ELP – I Believe in Father Christmas (Tabs)

    Greg Lake/ELP – I Believe in Father Christmas (Tab)Download

    Just enough time before the big day to work up a version of Greg Lake’s I Believe in Father Christmas. Later recorded by the whole of Emerson, Lake and Palmer as well as U2, Mark Kozelek and many others. But it’s the original I worked from for this arrangement.

    Intro: The trickiest part of the song. There are a few switches in the picking pattern which can get you in a jumble. The best way to get these down is to practice them very slowly (slow enough you don’t make any mistakes). So when you speed up, you can just play them on auto-pilot.

    There’s also a bar of 2/4 (bar 8) followed by a big jump up the fretboard. Give yourself a little extra time by not holding the 23 notes and moving up during the open g-string.

    Verse and Chorus: Much simpler. All done with basic chord shapes and a melody that fits in the first three frets.

    Solo: The solo is adapted from Prokofiev’s Troika. It’s a nice, little Christmas ditty that fits well on the uke. Worth learning this section even if you’re not bothered about the rest of the song.

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  • U2 – Sunday Bloody Sunday (Tabs)

    U2 – Sunday Bloody Sunday (Tab)Download

    U2’s song against violence and occupation, Sunday Bloody Sunday, is depressingly relevant again. So time for a tab.

    Intro: The perfect example of how simple but effective The Edge’s riffs can be. It’s the easiest bit of the song and worth learning even if you’re not tackling the rest of the song.

    Verse: The song has an odd structure at the beginning. There’s just half a verse before it dives into the bridge. This short verse is just fingerpicking. Whereas later verses are fuller with more strums.

    Bridge: The first bridge starts out fingerpicked before switching to strums at the end of bar 12. Second time around, the whole bridge uses strums.

    Chorus: The first chorus features a Bb chord, which you wouldn’t expect in the key of E minor. That short section (bars 30-33) provides a brief respite before the militaristic muted strums come back in.

    Solo: A typically jingle-jangle Edge solo. The first half of the solo in this arrangement is faithful to the original. But the second half is faithful to the spirit rather than the exact notes. So long as you keep all the strings rattling, there’s plenty of scope for your own ideas here.

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