Ukulele Hunt

Tag: USA

  • 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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  • Stephen Sondheim – Send in the Clowns (Tabs)

    Stephen Sondheim – Send in the Clowns (Tab)Download

    Here’s my take on Send in the Clowns in a belated tribute to Stephen Sondheim. The most well known versions are the song are by Judy Collins, Frank Sinatra and, of course, Krusty the Clown. Although my favourite is by, occasional ukers, The Tiger Lillies.

    Intro: I couldn’t resist referencing Entry of the Gladiators for this intro. Feel free to replace it with something more sensible.

    Verses: The verses switch between 12/8 and 9/8. But it all flows nicely, so it’s not tricky to keep track of.

    There is a brief pause in bar 5 where the tune hangs in mid-air (indicated by the frown with a dimple over the tab). That pause gives you a chance for that slide up to the seventh fret. When this bar happens a second time (bar 11) without a pause, it’s played on the A-string, 2nd fret so you don’t need to jump down to the C-string, 2nd fret.

    Chorus: My favourite part of this song is the long descending line in bars 18 and 19. With the run starting at the E-string, 3rd fret and going almost chromatically to the open C.

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  • Phil Phillips/Cat Power – Sea of Love (Tabs)

    Phil Phillips/Cat Power – Sea of Love (Tab)Download

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  • Foo Fighters – Learn to Fly (Tabs)

    Foo Fighters – Learn to Fly (Tab)Download

    As you expect from the Foos, Learn to Fly is a straightforward rocker. So a lot of strumming and nothing too intricate.

    The trickiest part comes in some of the quick switches from G to Dm. One of these shows up for the first time in bar 5. Here there’s an open-G used as part of the melody to give you a little extra time to change chords. The second comes in the chorus (at the end of bar 13). Here you strum all the strings open and hammer-on an entire Dm chord.

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  • Pixies – Here Comes Your Man (Tabs)

    Pixies – Here Comes Your Man (Tab)Download

    ntro: The classic Here Comes Your Man riff. Played with a few extra supporting notes to beef it up.

    Verse: Nothing too challenging here. Just open chords until the build up into the pre-chorus.

    Pre-Chorus: Bars 24-25 are the trickiest part of the song. There’s a big leap up to a bend at the tenth fret for the, “so long, so long,” backing vocals. That makes for an easier transition into bar 25.

    Chorus: Back to the riff mixed in with the melody. There’s plenty of jumping up and down here but I find this section fun to play.

    First Solo: A nice little melody for the transition back to the verse.

    Second Solo: Much less melodic. The original is mostly bashing out chords with a few bends. For this take, I’ve shortened it down but there’s still a lot of bashing.

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  • Bill Withers – Grandma’s Hands (Tabs)

    Bill Withers – Grandma’s Hands (Tab)Download

    Grandma’s Hands by Bill Withers. You might recognise the riff as the sample in Blackstreet’s fantastic No Diggity. Or maybe James Corden’s terrible England song.

    This arrangement is very simple and the tempo is slow, so this is a very approachable tab to take on.

    Intro: I hadn’t realised until starting on this arrangement that the No Diggity riff isn’t a straight sample of the original. In his version, Bill Withers has an Esus4 chord missing from that version. I went with the No Diggity version for this arrangement (and so did Gregory Porter’s guitarist).

    Verse: A couple fingerings to help with the chord changes here. At the end of bar 5, play the A-string, 2nd fret with your index finger barred over all the strings. That’ll set you up for the B7 chord in the next bar.

    In bars 10 and 11 (and in the repeats), play the A-string, 2nd fret with your middle finger so you have your index and ring fingers ready for the A7 chord.

    Outro: A little minor pentatonic lick to finish things off.

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  • Willie Nelson – Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain (Tabs)

    Willie Nelson – Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain (Tab)Download

    Intro: Matching the Willie version by following the bass notes using the thumb on the g- and C-strings. Followed by strums. 

    Verse and Bridge: Continuing the thumb-plucking and strums, and adding the melody line. Most of the melody line is picked with the fingers, but some notes are part of the strummed chords. 

    There’s a simple lick in bar 11 and a couple of lines inspired by the walking bass in bars 12 and 20.

    Solo: With Willie playing a nylon string guitar, his solo suits the ukulele fairly well. 

    The one problem is the bends. It is much easier to do bends on a uke in the middle of the fretboard. So I’m bending the E-string at the 7th fret rather than the A-string at the second fret. That does require some shifts up and down the fretboard. 

    Although the song is in swing time, the descending line at the end of the solo (bars 43-44) is played straight. 

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  • Joni Mitchell – Big Yellow Taxi (Tabs)

    Joni Mitchell – Big Yellow Taxi (Tab)Download

    Intro: A cool strummy riff to start off with.

    Verse: Like a lot of Joni’s songs, there are a lot of words crammed in. So you’ll need some quick alternate picking to fit them in. I have cropped out a few notes here and there to make it more playable.

    Chorus: A rare case of a song getting softer at the start of a chorus. Tone it down for the first half of the chorus, then start blasting for the second.

    In the second chorus at the end of the song, there’s a brief pause added on “gone” to look out for.

    Outro: I love the goofy ending. She knocks it up an octave for “they paved paradise,” then drops below the original melody for the rest (sadly, not room for that on the uke).

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  • Bob Dylan – You Belong to Me (Tabs)

    Bob Dylan – You Belong to Me (Tab)Download

    You Belong to Me was originally written by Price, King & Stewart in 1952. But I first heard the Bob Dylan cover on the Natural Born Killers soundtrack. And it’s the Dylan version this arrangement is based on.

    Intro: A very brief intro just to establish the key and feel. There’s plenty of room to expand this to the whole chord progression if you fancy stretching out.

    Verse: There are a couple of jumps up and down the fretboard to deal with here. But the tempo is slow and it’s straightforward to play. I am very loose with the timing and phrasing in the video.

    The second time around, there are a few extra twiddles to keep things interesting.

    Solo: The solo is heavily based on the melody. It’s a very sentimental song, so I went a bit cheesy with it. You’re free to dirty it up in your own version.

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  • Bobby Darin – Beyond the Sea (Tabs)

    Bobby Darin – Beyond the Sea (Tab)Download

    Beyond the Sea is an anglicized version of Charles Trenet’s La Mer and regularly crops up in film and TV (most notably the prison kitchen scene in Goodfellas).

    Intro: Starting off with some big strums to emulate the brass in the original.

    Verse: Nothing too difficult to play in the verse, but there are a ton of chord changes to keep track of.

    Bridge: This section has three key changes (to A, to C and returning to the original key of F). Each time it uses the trick of leading into the change with the V7 chord of the new key. So you have E7 at the end of bar 18, setting up the key of A. And G7 at the end of bar 24, leading in the key of C. Finally, you have C7 in bar 30 to lead back to the original key of F.

    Solo: The solo is based on different inversions of the chords in the verse with a few melodic elements added. Plenty of room here for your own ideas.

    From there, it’s back to the verse and finishing with a simple chromatic lick.

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