Steppenwolf’s Born to be Wild is a real basher. It’s one of the rare occasions where the video is my first take. It’s not the cleanest, but it had the most energy. And that’s the most important thing to get in this song.

Intro: This is all strumming away on a C5 chord until the last bar where I throw in a little lick inspired by the bass part.

Verse: Still hammering away on that C5 chord.

Chorus: We finally get a couple more chords. So there’s a slight increase in difficulty. There’s a stretch for the fifth fret in bar 13. Otherwise, it’s clear sailing.

Bridge: The bridge section gets sparse. So I was tempted to throw in some muted strums in bar 28 and build up into the “Borrrrrrn to be wiiiiiiieiiiild” section. So give that a try and see how it feels.

Solo: This solo doesn’t match the original in anything more than vibe. So feel free to change it however you like. Any sort of widdling on the C minor pentatonic scale will work.

Links

Buy the original
More rock tabs
Uke Hunt Patreon

Here’s my take on The Jackson 5’s I’ll Be There.

Intro: It’s odd to hear a harpsichord on a Motown record. The song was recorded in Motown’s “Hitsville West” in LA rather than Detroit. So perhaps they were influenced by the scene that produced songs like Monday, Monday and When I Grow Up.

Verse: Nothing too difficult in the first verse. The only tricky bit is a quick flourish on the melody in bar 8. Which you can drop altogether if you don’t fancy it.

The second verse brings in some noodling higher up the fretboard that requires some fast shifting.

This section has my favourite part of the song: the tasty C7sus4 in bar 10.

Chorus: The chorus modulates from the key of F to Ab. This much less uke-friendly key does present some challenges. Particularly some awkward finger-shuffling between bars 15 and 16.

Outro: Probably the trickiest part of the song with the most shifting up and down the fretboard.

Links

Buy the original
More soul tabs
Uke Hunt Patreon

Here’s my take on Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club.

Verse: There are two halves to the verse. The first half is loose and rhythmically varied. You can be very expressive in your playing here.

The second half is much more structured. You have a repeated rising pattern of eighth notes. But you can still get some emotion in through dynamics. I like to increase the volume through the pattern.

Pre-Chorus: My favourite section to play. Both the loud first pre-chorus and the quiet second one.

Chorus: Lots of rapid picking here that you’re going to need to use alternate picking to play (i.e. alternating between picking with your index and middle fingers).

Solo: By far the most difficult section to play. I switch to strict thumb and two-finger picking for this section. It’s played fast and you have to be quick with the chord changes.

If you don’t fancy it, I think you can skip it and no one will care. You could also come up with your own section here using the same chords.

Bridge: The melody here is almost the same as the verse but played over a different chord progression.

Links

Buy the original
More pop tabs
Uke Hunt Patreon

If you join Patreon at the Concert level or higher, you’ll get access to all 80 previous exclusive tabs including September’s: Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams.

And extra thanks to September’s Tenor level backers:

• Arthur Foley
• Brian 
• Colin
• DanD
• Dennis Boutsikaris
• Elizabeth Beardsley
• Ely Fletcher
• Eric Sweet
• Jeff K
• Jon Kenniston
• Kelby Green
• Leia-lee Doran
• Margit Stadlmann
• Mary
• michael tabor
• Noah
• Pat Weikle
• Pauline LeBlanc
• Rick Wurster
• Robert
• Steven Pituch

Intro: This sets up the chord progression that’s used for the whole song except the solo. The main feature is the descending line that moves down from C down to G#.

Verse: The verse is very loose and a little tricky on the uke since the melody notes sometimes conflict with that descending note in the chords.

Chorus: The chorus, on the other hand, works perfectly on the uke. To give the melody extra inflection, there are a few slides and hammered-on grace notes (e.g. bars 14 and 16).

Solo: The solo is completely different from the rest of the song. It’s in a different key and the chords don’t have that simple connection between them. But, as solos go, it’s fairly easy to play.

Links

Buy the original
More 90s tabs
Uke Hunt Patreon

Sway aka Quién será? is best known to me for Dean Martin’s version. Although it seems like Michael Bublé’s is the most popular these days. Since Cris mentioned Dean Martin, it’s that version I worked from. Also, it’s the superior version.

Intro: This is by far the hardest part of the song. There are a few runs, the most rapid of which comes in bar 7.

Since it’s an intro, you have a lot of leeway to change things. The easiest option is to follow Buble’s version and create a variation of bars 13 – 16.

Verse: Things get a lot simpler in the verse. It’s just switching between A7 and Dm with the melody sticking to the first three frets.

Chorus: There’s a bit more going on in the chorus. More chords and a small journey up the neck. But nothing too challenging.

Solo: The solo is based on the guitar solo in the Martin version. It’s very simple. Just the verse melody harmonised.

Links

Buy the Dean Martin version
More 50s tabs
Uke Hunt Patreon

I had to do a tribute to Dolly. Since I’ve already done Jolene and I Will Always Love You, 9 to 5 seemed like the obvious next choice.

Intro: Give this part a little bit of palm muting (i.e. resting the underside of your strumming hand gently on the strings).

Verse: I’m using strums here to give the melody plenty of propulsion. That means you have to mute the strings not being played. I use my thumb to mute the g-string. Then any finger I’m not using for fretting to mute the others.

Chorus: The chorus moves up the neck. Which can make for some tricky fretting. The hardest part being the stretch up to the 12th fret in bar 20.

Links

Buy the original
More country tabs
Uke Hunt Patreon

I decided to fulfil two requests at once since these two are the same song in my head. In the End is originally in Eb minor and Bring Me to Life is in Em. And they’re about 10 bpm apart. So it’s not a big challenge to combine them.

Intro (In the End): A very simple riff to kick things off. But also very effective at setting up the harmony and vibe of the song. You can make your life easier by sliding up to the final note in bar 4 so your ring finger is free to play the following E note.

Verse (Bring Me to Life): It’s hard to transfer rapping to the ukulele effectively. So I opted for the much more melodic verse from Bring Me to Life. The most challenging bits here are the quick notes at the start of bars 14 and 16. These mimic the chugging guitar in that section. But you can replace these with more relaxed chords if you prefer.

Choruses: Exactly the same chords in both choruses. In the End‘s chorus is lower than Bring Me to Life, so I put that one first to create a build-up.

Links

More 2000s tabs
Uke Hunt Patreon

If you join Patreon at the Concert level or higher, you’ll get access to all 79 previous exclusive tabs including August’s: The Girl From Ipanema by Antônio Carlos Jobim

And extra thanks to August’s Tenor level backers:

• Alice
• Arthur Foley
• Brian 
• DanD
• Dennis Boutsikaris
• Elizabeth Beardsley
• Ely Fletcher
• Ivo
• Jeff K
• Jon Kenniston
• Kelby Green
• Leia-lee Doran
• Margit Stadlmann
• Mary
• michael tabor
• Noah
• Pat Weikle
• Pauline LeBlanc
• Rick Wurster
• Robert
• Steven Pituch

Verses: You Really Got Me is a straightforward basher. The biggest challenge is stamina. You’re doing heavy strumming through almost the whole thing. The only respite you get is the G chord at the end of the verses.

The other challenge is making sure only the notes you want ring out when you’re strumming. That means muting the g-string with your thumb and the other strings with any fingers you have free.

Solo: The solo is played by fingerpicking. It’s massively cut down from the original. You could expand it back into a full solo. But you’d need to find a way to beef it up.

Links

More 60s tabs
Uke Hunt Patreon