Tag: USA
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Panic at the Disco – High Hopes (Tabs)
Here’s my take on Panic at the Disco’s High Hopes.
Intro: Starting out dead easy with the parping horns section.
Chorus: This section is fiddly. But it’s all contained on the lower frets. It’s also fun to play once you get it down.
Verse: This section moves up the neck and ramps up in difficulty. Setting up bar 17 is particularly hard. To help with that, I recommend not letting the F chord in the previous bar ring. That gives your fingers more time to set up.
Bridge: This is the fiddliest section. You can replace the 5 – 6 on the E-string with 0 – 1 on the A-string if you find that easier. Or even just use the open A-string followed by the E-string 6th fret.
Pre-Chorus: A welcome easy section. You’re just blasting out chords here. That leads into a chorus with just the melody, then a final chorus with chords.
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R.E.M. – Shiny Happy People (Tabs)
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.
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Alice in Chains – Down in a Hole (Tabs)
Down in a Hole by Alice in Chains fits on uke better than I was expecting. There’s a nice mix of fun bits and challenging bits.
Intro: This sets up the Gm – F – C chord progression that runs through the verse and pre-chorus. I’ve thrown in a few twiddles based on the acoustic and electric parts in the original. Definitely room for your own ideas here.
Verse: I played around with just doing one of the vocal parts here (first heard in bar 9). But I think the vocal harmony is too good to ditch.
Pre-Chorus: This is the hardest part of the song by some distance. It’s high up the neck and fiddly. You could get away with simplifying the section. Either by repeating parts or moving notes around. But I’d be reluctant to get rid of the dissonant C# (E-string, 9th fret).
Chorus: Mostly bashing out the chords in the chorus. Things get tricky towards the end though with a trip up the neck and a short lick.
Outro: A reprise of the intro but with the baffling choice of ending on an A major chord (despite the whole song being gloomy and minor).
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Pearl Jam – Yellow Ledbetter (Tabs)
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.
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Bon Jovi – Livin’ on a Prayer (Tabs)
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.
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Sixpence None the Richer – Kiss Me (Tabs)
Here’s the ultimate 90s one hit wonder: Sixpence None the Richer’s Kiss Me.
Intro: A simple start. Just strumming out a G chord with the note on the E-string moving down and back up chromatically.
Verse: That chord progression continues into the verse. The melody here is very contained. It’s almost all going between the open g-string and open A-string until bar 12 , which builds into the chorus.
Chorus: The chords get busy in the chorus. I found it a bit of a challenge to memorise all the changes. But once it’s under your fingers, it’s not hard to play.
Solo: The first half of the solo is very relaxed. But there’s a lot more to do in the second half. This arrangement is only loosely based on the original. So feel free to change it however you like.
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Al Green – Let’s Stay Together (Tabs)
Al Green’s Let’s Stay Together is a buttery-smooth track, a laid-back feel, and has an earworm melody and tasty chords. All of which mean it suits the ukulele well.
Intro: The intro nicely sets up the harmony for the piece. And prepares you for plenty of movement up and down the neck. Keep the notes (except the C-string bass notes) staccato to mimic the horns.
Verse: The first verse has a more minimal arrangement. The second and third verses are heavier and have a bit of filigree. You can mix and match these elements as you like. Or include some of your own ideas.
Pre-Chorus: A tasty Am9 in this section. Which is fretted like an Em chord but with the g-string played at the second fret.
Chorus: A lot of moving up and down here. But if you plan ahead, you can use the passing notes to get into position for the next chord. For example, if you play the A-string, 3rd fret in bar 40 with your pinkie, you’ll be set up for the Dm7 chord in bar 41.
Solo: The string solo is the hardest part of the song. I’ve kept this arrangement as close to the original as possible. But I think there’s room for a more uke-friendly version if you want to try. Or, I don’t think anyone would notice if you just skipped this section.
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Elvis Presley – Suspicious Minds (Tabs)
Here’s my take on Elvis’s Suspicious Minds.
Intro: A nifty little riff to start with.
Verse: The verses are nice and simple. A straightforward G-C-D chord progression with a simple but effective melody.
The verse at the end (bar 40 onwards) is a beefed-up version of the first half of the earlier verse pattern.
Chorus: Here’s where things get challenging. There’s a lot of bouncing up and down the neck. And things get fiddly at the top end. I found the high Bm section (bar 24) the most challenging bit of the song.
Bridge: This section has a big drop in tempo and a time signature change to 6/8. Like the chorus, there are some challenging moves here. But the slower tempo makes it more manageable.
Outro: Closing off with a descending G minor pentatonic inspired by the live ending of the song.
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Waxahatchee – Right Back to It (Tabs)
This arrangement of Waxahatchee’s Right Back to It is a rare outing in the key of Bb, which keeps all the melodies comfortably within the first few frets.
But there’s still plenty of movement up and down the neck in the song’s instrumental sections. And there are many of those with an intro and two solos. I’ve kept the intro close to the original. And I recommend you do the same. But the solos have plenty of room for your own ideas. For mine, I’m following the chord shapes and adding in notes from the Bb major scale (plus a C# in bars 42 and 54 for a bluesy edge). And I use lots of slides and bends to imitate a lap steel guitar. The lick in bar 53 in particular is a classic lap steel move.
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Bobby “Boris” Pickett – Monster Mash (Tabs)
I’ve covered a lot of Halloween songs over the years and I’ve always avoided Monster Mash. It’s delivered in a talk-singing voice, so there’s no real melody to transport to uke. So the melody in this arrangement is largely fictional. I’ve tried to follow the contours of the vocals and match the vibe of the original. But feel free to change anything you don’t like. Either way, I’m sure Pam would hate it.