Guitar and Ukulele Tabs for Leaving on a Jet Plane (John Denver)

August 8, 2010March 19, 2011Digital Citizen Leave a comment

Leaving on a Jet Plane is a fantastic example why tabs and chord files you tend to find online, without notes written out, can be so problematic. The slightest change in how you sing a phrase can cause a different chord to be used. But without the notes, you just see a chord. Unless you happen to sing the phrase the same way in terms of notes, the listed chords might sound quite wrong to you. Or singing by ear, you might find trying to fit the phrase into the chording given is rather awkward.

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John Denver

In my tabbed files below, I have two sets of chords for each file, though they are both in the same key. It’s just a matter of how you phrase the first line, and some subsequent lines like it within the verse. If a C is your high note, as John Denver sings it in the video above, then one set of chords works well for it. If B is your high note, just a semi-tone below that C, another set of chord works better. But if there were no notes written out, you’d be scrambling to try to figure it out. And you’d be wrong if you sang it with a B for the high note, if you were a purist to try to sing it “right”.

That said, though, on the ukulele, I would actually recommend singing the version with the B high note in that first line (page 2 of the ukulele tabs). The C chord is just too open for my liking in the middle of the phrase. But that’s just my take. You play what you want. Hopefully, having these two versions will give you one that’s reasonably close to how you would sing it. Any further deviations and well, you’re on your own, I’m afraid. 🙂

But this is a prime example of why I have notes written out with my tabs and chords, aside from helping you (and me) sing things correctly.

I also left out a few chords on the ukulele version which didn’t add as much colour as the chords in the guitar version did. Most noticeably, I left out a bunch of D7 chords in the ukulele version, or just used a D. They were arranged in the guitar as such to denote mid-verse and end verse points, leading to transitions or not. But on the ukulele, l;et’s just say I’m not the biggest fan of the D7 chord in the C6 tuning of GCEA. You get to avoid it if you use a ADF#B tuning like Chalmers Doane preferred his ukuleles. In this song, where the D7 is used, it follows a D. As such, then, instead of using the barred version of D7, I recommend just dropping your pinky (baby) finger on to the 3rd fret of the A string while hold the D previously with your other three fingers.

Leaving on a Jet Plane, John Denver Guitar Tabs Letter Sized PDF

Leaving on a Jet Plane, John Denver Guitar Tabs Tabloid Sized PDF

Leaving on a Jet Plane, John Denver Ukulele Tabs Letter Sized PDF

Leaving on a Jet Plane, John Denver Ukulele Tabs Tabloid Sized PDF

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.

Please click here for guitar and ukulele tabs and chords to other songs on this blog.

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Reading Level: 6.6

Guitar and Ukulele Tabs for In the Still of the Night (Five Satins)

August 5, 2010March 19, 2011Digital Citizen Leave a comment

This is a gorgeous doo wop song from the 1950s which would obviously have to get severely trimmed down if you’re going to perform it solo with one guitar or ukulele instead of having a band and 3 back up singers.

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The Five Satins

But that’s where arrangement comes in.

In the tabbed versions here, you actually do sing some of the accompanying parts when the lead singer is not singing. It’s about as complete a piece as you can do solo.

I’ve also simplified a few phrases ever so slightly, taking out a few subtle melismas (singing of a single syllable while moving between different notes) that are rather hard to do. Finally, I left out that stunning ending vocal interlude the lead singer, Fred Parris, does at the end. If you can do that, you shouldn’t be surfing this site for your music.

The notes are all written out in the tabs (by note letter) to help you figure out how to play my version of the tab.

Now, all that said of playing solo, if you had a group of people, you can certainly train them to sing the back up parts. That would be the “shoh doh shoh be doh” part throughout. This would be a great ukulele group piece, for example, if you put the time in to learn it!

In the Still of the Night, 5 Satins Guitar Tabs Letter Sized PDF

In the Still of the Night, 5 Satins Guitar Tabs Tabloid Sized PDF

In the Still of the Night, 5 Satins Ukulele Tabs Letter Sized PDF

In the Still of the Night, 5 Satins Ukulele Tabs Tabloid Sized PDF

Please click here for guitar and ukulele tabs and chords to other songs on this blog.

By the way, the video was from the 1950s and is quite sad if you realized segregation was in full tilt back then. The white people loved these guys’ music, but treated them worse than they treated their pets. They forced them in the back door, drink from different fountains, probably dressed outside, etc. No wonder they don’t look very happy.

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Reading Level: 7.4

Guitar and Ukulele Tabs for Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen)

August 4, 2010March 19, 2011Digital Citizen 3 Comments

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.

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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.

Hallelujah, Leonard Cohen Guitar Tabs Letter Sized PDF [1 pg]
(small, but use to enlarge to tabloid size on photocopier)

Hallelujah, Leonard Cohen Guitar Tabs Letter Sized PDF [2 pgs]
(2 sheets means page turn or used spread out)

Hallelujah, Leonard Cohen Guitar Tabs Tabloid Sized PDF
(for printing directly onto tabloid sized paper)

Hallelujah, Leonard Cohen Ukulele Tabs Letter Sized PDF [1 pg]
(small, but use to enlarge to tabloid size on photocopier)

Hallelujah, Leonard Cohen Ukulele Tabs Letter Sized PDF [2 pgs]
(2 sheets means page turn or used spread out)

Hallelujah, Leonard Cohen Ukulele Tabs Tabloid Sized PDF
(for printing directly onto tabloid sized paper)

Please click here for guitar and ukulele tabs and chords to other songs on this blog.

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Reading Level: 9.0

Guitar and Ukulele Tabs for I Shall Be Released (Bob Dylan)

July 17, 2010May 16, 2011Digital Citizen Leave a comment

One measure of the popularity of a song over time, and not just on the charts at a given time, is the number of covers it has. Well, there’s no shortage for Bob Dylan’s I Shall Be Released!

Bob Dylan

With every cover, there’s a little variation on it from the others and from the original. However, for this song, most only differed slightly in the notes sang and tempo. There’s no big rearrangement involved. My tabbed version is no different, with only a high D to emphasize a few important points in the lyrics. It is noted among the notes that come with the tabs.

I Shall Be Released (in C), Bob Dylan Guitar Tabs Letter Sized PDF
I Shall Be Released (in C), Bob Dylan Guitar Tabs Tabloid Sized PDF

I Shall Be Released (in G), Bob Dylan Guitar Tabs Letter Sized PDF
I Shall Be Released (in G), Bob Dylan Guitar Tabs Tabloid Sized PDF

I Shall Be Released (in F), Bob Dylan Ukulele Tabs Letter Sized PDF
I Shall Be Released (in F), Bob Dylan Ukulele Tabs Tabloid Sized PDF

I Shall Be Released (in G), Bob Dylan Ukulele Tabs Letter Sized PDF
I Shall Be Released (in G), Bob Dylan Ukulele Tabs Tabloid Sized PDF

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.

The chord sequence is fairly easy with G, Am, Bm and back down again with Am and G. Then a D7 separates the next phrase, and it cycles all over again throughout the entire song. You need to Capo 2 this to get it in the key of A that Bob originally wrote it in. I took the chords off The Definitive Bob Dylan Songbook.

If you have trouble playing the Bm on guitar like I do, you might try the version in C, capoing as you need to get it in your voice range. That uses C, Dm, Em and G7. These are a lot easier than that Bm, in my opinion.

The ukulele challenge is also with that Bm, but I tabbed an alternate version in F because the Em (like in the guitar alternate version), is almost like that Bm on guitar, which was what I was trying to avoid. The version in F on the ukulele uses F, Gm, Am and C7, which I find all fairly easy chords to play.

As for trying to find a video close to my tabbed version, the one below from a concert in 1976 matched it best, though not exactly. This was some concert, featuring Bob and an all-star cast like Joni Mitchell, Ringo Starr and many other famous musicians! It should serve as a good guide to figuring out the tabs.

The good thing about a “solid” song like this, though, is that the chords are pretty robust to any little variation you might want to put in the melody to “make it your own”. So you don’t have to follow the notes I have. Just sing it the way it feels to you for notes and it will work.

Rhythm is another story, though! The trickiest part to this song is adjusting from phrase to phrase of when you start in. For some phrases, you strum the opening chord (like G) on the first word. For many phrases, you start in while still on the 7th chord that separates the phrases. Then for the rest, you actually strum that opening chord before you start singing, like with the opening line to the chorus. Figuring out the adjustments from line to line is the hardest part, by far, as far as I’m concerned, to learning this song.

But it just wouldn’t be Bob if it were otherwise! 🙂

Please click here for guitar and ukulele tabs and chords to other songs on this blog.

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Reading Level: 6.7

Guitar and Ukulele Tabs for I Don’t Want to Live on the Moon (Ernie from Sesame Street)

July 5, 2010March 19, 2011Digital Citizen 2 Comments

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.

I Don’t Want to Live on the Moon, Sesame Street Guitar Tabs Letter Sized PDF

I Don’t Want to Live on the Moon, Sesame Street Guitar Tabs Tabloid Sized PDF

I Don’t Want to Live on the Moon, Sesame Street Ukulele Tabs Letter Sized PDF

I Don’t Want to Live on the Moon, Sesame Street Ukulele Tabs Tabloid Sized PDF

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!

Please click here for guitar and ukulele tabs and chords to other songs on this blog.

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Reading Level: 5.9