I love the Chinese video websites Youku.com and Tudou.com because they allow for really long videos, as well as skirt the copyrighting YouTube succumbed to this summer. You can find all sorts of great stuff on Youku and Tudou, like this Neil Young MTV Unplugged concert. This was my favourite MTV Unplugged concert, even though Bob Dylan is at the top of my list for singer/songwriters.
If you haven’t seen this, please do enjoy. If you have, it probably never gets old. It doesn’t for me.
This Beatles classic was written by George Harrison and has been used by him so much it seems wrong now to say the song was by the Beatles rather than George. The song is tabbed pretty much as is in the recording people know best, which is the one used in the video below.
Vodpod videos no longer available.
George Harrison
The one thing my tabs call for, though, is that the singer also sings all the main instrumental phrasings. You can hum it, if you like, but I prefer to use “doo doo”. It makes for a song with a lot of “doo doo” in it, but a good one! 🙂
All the notes are written out so wherever you see notes in the main body of the lyrics, you sing or hum them.
There is a bit of syncopated strumming in the middle instrumental interlude. “Slash” characters describe them. Read them left to right so if they rise, you’re on an upstroke, whereas if they fall, you’re on a down stroke. It’d be hard to describe it more without a video to show it, which I may some day, but I think if you listen to the song and try to strum along, you’ll get it. It’s not that difficult.
If you do the strumming and singing of the instrumental parts on top of the regular song, you’ll find you won’t feel like you need a band to play a pretty good version of this great tune. The depth of talent in the Beatles still blows my mind!
If the letter size tabs (8.5″ x 11″) are too small for your eyes, you can either enlarge to tabloid size (11″ x 17″) using an automatic enlarge feature on many photocopiers, or download the tabloid sized versions for printing. The tabloid size tabs can be inserted into a typical letter sized binder on the 11″ size, and folded almost in half to fit. You just open each tab to use it.
Hallelujah is one of the truly great Canadian songs of all time, written by one of Canada’s best songwriters ever, Leonard Cohen. It is generally simple to play in terms of chords, and simple to hard to perform pending how much diva you want to put into your performance.
I’ve tabbed a version reasonably similar to the one sung by kd lang in the video below, though I’ve included the notes of the melody by which I sing it. Best version I could find out there, in my opinion.
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Leonard Cohen
The nice thing about robust tunes such as this is that you can put all kinds of little variations in the phrasing and it wouldn’t matter much so long as you hit the right notes for the chord changes. So feel free to stray from my tabbed notes and just do it the way you feel it.
This is also a pretty long song so I’ve created several formats and sizes. Choose the one that works well for you.
If the letter size tabs (8.5″ x 11″) are too small for your eyes, you can either enlarge to tabloid size (11″ x 17″) using an automatic enlarge feature on many photocopiers, or download the tabloid sized versions for printing. The tabloid size tabs can be inserted into a typical letter sized binder on the 11″ size, and folded almost in half to fit. You just open each tab to use it.
I came across this song at the end of May 2010 via one of those YouTube recommendation feature (enough to blog about it). The feature where because you watched something, its algorithms think you might like something else. Every now and then, it’s good, but this was something I really liked. I just think it’s a cute song, that’s all… and I don’t even have kids. OK, maybe I was influenced by the fact it was Ernie singing it since Ernie has always been my favourite Sesame Street character. But I like the song a lot, nevertheless, and I think lots of people will, too.
I thought when I first heard that song that it’d be a great lullaby for kids, but if you play the guitar or ukulele, you can now pull it out to accompany yourself with that lullaby. Or just sing it for fun like I do.
Ernie, from Sesame Street
The hardest thing about this song is the syncopation. The breaks in the lines are a little bit awkward in places. That’s why all the dashes and commas in the tabs. If those breaks don’t feel natural, then just take a little time to learn them and try not to think about them afterwards when you play. Trust your instincts after you’ve learned where the little breaks are in the lines.
These tabs all fit on one page to avoid the inconvenience of page turns. However, the letter size tabs (8.5″ x 11″) may be too small for your eyes. If so, you can either enlarge to tabloid size (11″ x 17″) using an automatic enlarge feature on many photocopiers, or download the tabloid sized versions for printing. The tabloid size tabs can be inserted into a typical letter sized binder on the 11″ size, and folded almost in half to fit. You just open each tab to use it.
Another challenge to this song is that there are lots of up stroke chord changes, denoted by the / in the tabs. Read left to right, the line goes up like your strumming motion does. If you’re not used to this, it’s not hard to pick it up. Try it and then try not to think about it is how I’d advise you learn. Just go with the flow.
I hope you, your kids, or someone else’s kids (good for entertaining), like this song!
This is just a great song, especially the version performed at Columbia Records’ 30th Anniversary Tribute for Bob Dylan that seems to have been ripped off the Net, but here’s a close version in rehearsal.
It is also the version I tabbed. I never thought I’d say it but thank goodness for Chinese video sites that still holds videos like the one above as YouTube has grown up and wimped out to copyright threats.
These tabs all fit on one page to avoid the inconvenience of page turns. However, the letter size tabs (8.5″ x 11″) may be too small for your eyes. If so, you can either enlarge to tabloid size (11″ x 17″) using an automatic enlarge feature on many photocopiers, or download the tabloid sized versions for printing. The tabloid size tabs can be inserted into a typical letter sized binder on the 11″ size, and folded almost in half to fit. You just open each tab to use it.
Just a few notes to the tabs. In verses 4-6, there is a slight change in one of the lines from the same line for verses 1-3, so I have highlighted the note in red. It’s a little thing, but gives the song a little “ooomph” after 3 go arounds of the verse and chorus. Despite having 6 verses, a great song doesn’t get boring with repetition. You just find ways to lift it even more, like with that little note in red.
On the ukulele tab, I have added a little chord modification for that note. I have labeled the chord with an asterisk and denoted it as basically a C chord but with the finger on the bottom A string to be on the 5th fret instead of the 3rd fret. Written out in fret and string numbers, it is 0005 (fifth fret fourth string from top down) rather 0003 for a regular C chord. The labeling is in the tab sheet. I have not done this for the guitar tabs because there isn’t anything similar and the C chord on the guitar handles the slight disharmony (C chord, D note) just fine.
Digital Citizen 