Pop music - Part 12

How to play “Tango Till They’re Sore”

How to play Tango Till They’re Sore
This is a great Tom Waits tune, and not too hard to play on guitar

The song has some profoundly cool lyrics, and listening to Tom Waits sing it with his trademark gravelly voice is pretty thrilling:

Well, you play that tarantella, all the hounds will start to roar
The boys all go to hell and then the Cubans hit the floor
They drive along the pipeline, they tango ’til they’re sore
They take apart their nightmares and they leave them by the door
Let me fall out of the window with confetti in my hair
Deal out Jacks or better on a blanket by the stairs
I’ll tell you all my secrets, but I lie about my past
And send me off to bed for evermore

Make sure they play my theme song, I guess daisies will have to do
Just get me to New Orleans and paint shadows on the pews
Turn the spit on that pig and kick the drum and let me down
Put my clarinet beneath your bed till I get back in town
Let me fall out of the window with confetti in my hair
Deal out Jacks or better on a blanket by the stairs
I’ll tell you all my secrets, but I lie about my past
So send me off to bed […]

Paul2026-04-30T12:15:15-04:00

Happy Birthday

Paul2026-04-19T16:20:36-04:00

How to play Love Potion Number 9

How to play Love potion Number 9

love_potion_no9

“Love Potion No. 9” is a song written in 1959 by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. It was originally performed by the Clovers, who took it to number 23 on the US as well as R&B charts that year. The song was recorded by the Searchers in 1964. Their version reached number three on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and number two on Cash Box during the winter of 1965. The Coasters released a version in December 1971 with “D. W. Washburn” on the B-side. It reached No. 76 on the Billboard Pop chart.

The song describes a man seeking help to find love. He enlists the help of a gypsy who determines, by means of palmistry, that he needs “love potion number 9”. The potion, an aphrodisiac, causes him to fall in love with everything he sees, kissing whatever is in front of him, eventually kissing a policeman on the street corner, who breaks his bottle of love potion. In one recorded version of the ending of the song, the Clovers used the alternative lyrics:

I had so much fun that I’m going back again,
I wonder what’ll happen with Love Potion Number Ten?

The narrator describes himself as being “a flop with chicks … since 1956”; later recordings of the […]

Paul2026-04-23T20:34:44-04:00

How to play “I Will Wait”

How to play “I will wait” Mumford and Sons – fingerstyle ukulele. A beautiful song, and not too hard to get the melody right out of the chord shapes.

Download the chord and lyric sheet

Paul2026-03-10T07:05:21-04:00

How to play “Your Song”

How to play “Your Song” Elton John – fingerstyle guitar. A beautiful song, and not too hard to get the melody right out of the chord shapes.

Paul2026-03-10T07:05:52-04:00

How to play “Something” part 1

something

How to play “Something” on guitar. Play the first part of this lovely Lennon/McCartney song for solo guitar. The chord changes are fairly easy and the melody can be picked right out of the chord shapes! The think I really like about it is that beautiful chromatic drop- CM, CM7, C7 to the F, so we’re dropping the notes from C to C to Bb to A. I find it’s a great way to introduce the CMm CM7 and C7 chords to new guitar players!

“The musician is perhaps the most modest of animals, but he is also the proudest.” – Erik Satie

Paul2026-05-09T13:00:58-04:00

Jingle Bell Rock

How to play jinglebell rock on guitar fingerstyle for solo guitar. What a great holiday song to get under your hands… and not too hard to do. “Jingle Bell Rock” is an American Christmas song first released by Bobby Helms in 1957. It, alongside various cover versions, have received frequent airplay in the United States during every Christmas season since then, and is generally considered Helms’s signature song. “Jingle Bell Rock” was composed by Joseph Carleton Beal and James Ross Boothe, although both Helms and session guitarist on the song Hank Garland disputed this (see Authorship controversy section below). Beal was a Massachusetts-born public relations professional and longtime resident of South Ocean Avenue in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and Boothe was an American writer in the advertising business.

“Discipline will only teach the techniques – a great teacher gives discipline, motivation and love” -Maury Massler

Paul2026-03-16T14:32:07-04:00

How to play “La Vie en Rose” fingerstyle on ukulele.

Download tabs and notation pdf

How to play “La Vie en Rose” fingerstyle on ukulele.

“La Vie en rose“ (French for ‘Life in pink’; pronounced [la vi ɑ̃ ʁoz]) is the signature song of French singer Édith Piaf, written in 1945, popularized in 1946, and released as a single in 1947. The song became popular in the United States in 1950, when seven versions reached the Billboard charts. These recordings were made by Tony Martin, Paul Weston, Bing Crosby (recorded 22 June 1950), Ralph Flanagan, Victor Young, Dean Martin, and Louis Armstrong.

A version in 1977 by Grace Jones was also an international hit.

Background and release

The song’s title can be translated as “Life in happy hues”, “Life seen through rose-coloured glasses”, or “Life in rosy hues”; its literal meaning is “Life in Pink.”

The lyrics of the song were written by Piaf, with music composed by Louiguy, and is registered with SACEM. It was probably Robert Chauvigny who completed the music. When Piaf suggested to Marguerite Monnot that she sing the piece, the latter rejected “that foolishness.” It was eventually Louiguy who accepted authorship of the music. The song was broadcast live before […]

Paul2026-03-31T21:12:10-04:00

How to play “love of my life” fingerstyle on guitar

how to play love of my life fingerstyle on guitar

The audio above is the midi playback from a Musescore file and the pdf below is the notation for it. In other words, the notes are written in MuseScore and we are able to output both the pdf of the sheet music/tablature and the audio as an .mpg file directly from that! Musescore, btw is an excellent tool for any guitarist and it is completely free, which is amazing to me considering what you can do with it. Find out for yourself- download the program from musescore.org

Love of my life tabs and chords part 1

Paul2026-03-10T07:07:25-04:00

Brokedown Palace

How to play Brokedown Palace

Fare you well my honey
Fare you well my only true one
All the birds that were singing
Have flown except you alone

Going to leave this broke-down palace
On my hands and my knees I will roll, roll, roll
Make myself a bed by the waterside
In my time, in my time, I will roll, roll, roll

In a bed, in a bed
By the waterside I will lay my head
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

River gonna take me
Sing me sweet and sleepy
Sing me sweet and sleepy
All the way back back home
It’s a far gone lullaby
Sung many years ago
Mama, mama, many worlds I’ve come
Since I first left home

Going home, going home
By the waterside I will rest my bones
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Going to plant a weeping willow
On the banks green edge it will grow, grow, grow
Sing a lullaby beside the water
Lovers come and go, the river roll, roll, roll

Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

“Each of us is climbing a mountain called ‘Music’. The mountain remains, but the climbers are forever changed.” – Suzanne Guy

Paul2026-05-03T08:57:35-04:00