I’ve kept my version very simple. I’m only using the top three strings picked thumb and two finger style. The most important thing is to give the melody notes a little extra umph so they stand out against the backing notes.
I Remember You is heartbreaking beautiful song from 1941 by Victor Schertzinger and Johnny Mercer. My favourite versions of this are by Ella Fitzgerald and Bjork. But, bafflingly, Frank Ifield’s bizarre yodelling cowboy version is the most well known. You won’t be surprised to learn my arrangement is based on the former two.
This song is part of my jazz odyssey series where I’m trying to increase my understand of jazz theory and putting it into practice. Instead of focussing on jazz licks like I did in Ja-Da and Summertime, this time I’m focussing on chords. So there are many 7, maj7, 6, and b5 notes thrown in. Hopefully, in a way that they flow together and don’t sound contrived.
Christmas came early for depressed weirdos last week with the surprise release of Bon Iver’s new album i,i. The record is a perfect blend of his previous three albums. The acoustic track Marion is the most like his debut album and so obviously suited for a ukulele cover I started working it out during my first hearing of it.
I’m playing it with a capo on the third fret to keep it in the original key of Eb. But it does stray high up the neck so you might want to ditch it if you’re using a soprano uke.
It’s not too difficult to play. The only big stretch comes in bars 10-11. Everything else is plain sailing. I’m very loose with the timing in the song. Spreading out and compressing notes to add feeling to the song. So I encourage you to do the same.
I first tabbed up this tune 11 years ago (almost to the day) but never got around to doing a video of it. But having finally got around to watching the final season (I dropped out because season 8 was so awful) I finally got around to making one.
I made some minor changes so I’ve redone the tab.
Dunder Mifflin Jingle (People Person’s Paper People)(Tab)
While I was at it, I also felt the need to tab the Dunder Mifflin jingle from the Local Ad episode. I’ve tabbed the first version from the episode. Which was written by, BoJack Horseman composer and brother of BJ, Jesse Novak.
For my version, I with a capo on the 4th fret. Making it the same key as the original. But there’s nothing stopping you playing it without a capo if you’re not playing along with the recording.
There are a couple of sections in this song that are full of swoops, whoops, beeps and boops that don’t transfer particularly well to uke. Which makes for the perfect opportunity to come up with your own parts.
The first of these comes in the intro. For that I took the notes in the melody and fingerpicked them campanella style to create a shimmering effect.
The second part is the solo. There I let the g and E strings ring out to produce the Em backing while playing octaves on the C and A strings using the E minor scale.
I highly recommend you play around and try to find something you like for your own version.
The last few tabs have been at the trickier end of the scale. So for this one I’ve gone super-simple. The melody for this song is so great it benefits from having very minimal backing.
The whole arrangement is played with just the thumb on the picking hand. And most of the chord shapes used will be very familiar to you. The only time it ventures up the neck is the high variation on, “nothing compares,” right at the end. It’s a bit of stretch. So if you’re struggling you can stick with the way it’s played in previous bars. Or you can replace the 55 at the start of bar 32 with an open C-string.
The arrangement is shortened by a verse and a chorus (you can just repeat the previous verse and chorus if you want those). I originally included the weird solo but realised it was the worst part of an already pretty bad song and took it out.
I owe all y’all an apology. And not just for using the term, “all y’all.” I thought I had posted this tab months ago until someone let me know I hadn’t.
The Zombies’ Odessey & Oracle (which this song comes from) seems to be criminally overlooked. If you’re into psychedelic 60s pop you absolutely have to check it out.
My favourite aspect of this song is the descending chromic line that runs through the chord progression. It starts with the G on the E-string. Then moves down through Gmaj7 and G7 to the open E-string in C6. Then it moves down to the C-string, third fret before dropping to the C-string, second fret for a D7 chord. Then it skips a fret for the open C note on the final C6.
My version is heavily based on Aline’s version. It’s in the same key and I use the same chords (although often in a different inversion). The melody is largely the same but I do shift the notes around. For example, rather than picking the E-string, 3rd fret in bar 3 I play the open g-string.
From bar 21, I start throwing in a few little runs. I’m just using notes from the F major scale for that. So I highly recommend trying a few things out for yourself and seeing what you can come up with.
I wrote up the chords for this song more than a decade ago, so it’s high time I gave it the tabbing treatment.
Dream a Little Dream of Me was written in the 30s by Fabian Andre and Wilbur Schwandt and covered by all the greats including Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong and Nat King Cole. But it hit biggest in the 60s when the Mamas and the Papas released their cover. And it’s that version that I’ve mostly based my arrangement on. But I took a few cues from Doris Day version in the intro.
My favourite thing about this song is how it creates that feeling of slowly drifting off to sleep. It does this with a series of gentle, chromatic downward shifts in the chords. So C shifts to B7, Ab shifts to G and F shifts to Fm.