Ukulele Hunt

Tag: UK

  • 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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  • The Beatles – Oh! Darling (Tabs)

    The Beatles – Oh! Darling (Tab)Download

    It was a nice surprise to see Paul McCartney playing Oh! Darling live for the first time at the Taylor Hawkins memorial. It’s a nice blend of early-era R&B Beatles in the verses and the harder-edged, bluesier later Beatles in the chorus.

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  • Radiohead – Creep (Tabs)

    Radiohead – Creep (Tab)Download

    Intro: Starting off with a fingerpicking played with one-finger-per-string picking.

    Verse: Mixing together the melody with the fingerpicked chords before switching to strums for the ck-ck bits leading into the chorus.

    Bridge: Easily the funnest bit of the song to play. It gets a bit cramped at the top of the uke, though, so it requires a bit of careful fretting.

    Outro: Just a stripped down version of the verse.

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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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  • Radiohead – Karma Police (Tabs)

    Radiohead – Karma Police (Tab)Download

    I’ve written up quite a few Radiohead songs in the past. Now it’s time for the OK Computer track Karma Police.

    Intro: Mostly picking out the chords with the thumb on the C-string and the middle and index on the E and A, respectively.

    On the Eb chord there’s a nice addition of an F note making it an Ebsus2. To prepare for the change to that, fret the E-string, third fret in the first half of the bar with your little finger.

    Verse: Sticking with the same picking for the verse. The only slightly tricky part here is the run down from the fifth fret in bar 12.

    Bridge: I’m mostly using one-finger-per-string picking in this section until the last two bars. There’s a lot more moving around the neck in this section, with the transition between bars 17 and 18 being tricky (I flubbed that bit in the video). Which is the most Radioheady part of the song.

    Chorus: Even more moving around here, but it’s less intense.

    Solo: The solo takes its inspiration from the bass line. There’s lots of scope for your own ideas here.

    After that, it’s another run through the chorus and a fade out with a little of Freakshow Industries’ Backmask added.

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  • Keane – Somewhere Only We Know (Tabs)

    Keane – Somewhere Only We Know (Tab)Download

    Intro: All down-strums here to give an authentic dad-rock feel.

    Verse and Pre-Chorus: Switching to fingerpicking using a one-finger-per-string set up.

    Chorus: Adding some strums here on the Em chord and picking more heavily than before. You can beef it up even further by strumming all the way through the final chorus but you’ll lose definition in the melody.

    Solo: A quick and easy solo. It’s one I made up myself so you’re welcome to change it however you like.

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  • David Bowie – The Man Who Sold the World (Tabs)

    David Bowie – The Man Who Sold the World (Tab)Download

    The Man Who Sold the World starts off with that iconic riff playing over changing chords. It works nicely on uke and is well worth learning on its own.

    At the end of the intro, there’s an awkward bar of 2/4. I considered extending it to a bar of 4/4 (as Nirvana did in their Unplugged version). It certainly feels more natural that way. Even Bowie messed up and came in late sometimes. I’d recommend going with a bar of 4/4 if that feels more comfortable to you. There’s another bar of 2/4 in bar 20, but that one feels much more natural.

    The verse is a simple chord and melody affair. But things get a little tricky in the chorus where you’re playing the riff and the melody. Make sure you keep them as distinct as you can by giving extra emphasis to the melody notes and sustaining them as much as you can over the riff.

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  • Spandau Ballet – True (Tabs)

    Spandau Ballet – True (Tab)Download

    Spandau Ballet’s True is a real new romantic cheese-fest. Despite (or maybe because of) that, I had a lot of fun playing this. There are some tasty chords and runs in there.

    Cheesiest and funnest of all is the sax solo. I’ve kept this as close to the original as I could manage. The chord progression switches to a simple Eb – Ab vamp. So there’s plenty of scope to throw your own ideas in there. The trickiest part of the whole song comes in bar 60 with a quick descending run at the climax.

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  • George Michael – Careless Whisper (Tabs)

    George Michael – Careless Whisper (Tab)Download

    For this arrangement, I’ve stuck fairly closely to the George Michael original. But I’ve listened to the Ben Folds and Rufus Wainwright version more often so some of that version has snuck into this arrangement. And, of course, the Sexy Sax Man version is definitive.

    The chords are the same the whole way through: Dm – Gm7 – Bb – Am (the same key as the original). But things don’t get boring as you’ll be playing the chords in different inversions. And you can make things even more interesting by varying the dynamics as you’re playing.

    There is a note played on the E-string, 13th fret in bar 14. If you playing a soprano and don’t have a 13th fret, you can replace that note with A-string, 8th fret.

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