A massive thanks once again to the generosity of Uke Hunt’s Patreon backers for keeping the site up and running this month.
And extra thanks to February’s Tenor level backers:
– Arthur Foley
– Brian
– Dennis Boutsikaris
– Elizabeth Beardsley
– Ely Fletcher
– Ivo
– Jeff K
– Jon Kenniston
– Kelby Green
– Leia-lee Doran
– Margit Stadlmann
– Mary
– Noah
– Pat Weikle
– Pauline LeBlanc
– Rick Wurster
– Robert
– Steven Pituch
Pearl Jam’s Yellow Ledbetter. startuh out on the B-sahhh but thuh words don’t quite line up now, an’ the song jus’ sorta rolls, on a wizard on a whale, an’ nowah suddenly it’s a fan faverrrrah. Ohahnahha.
This one took a fair bit of knocking around to fit onto uke. There are only three chords in it (C, G and F) but there are many jumps up and down the neck and some stretches to deal with. The intro in particular is fiddly but a lot of fun to play.
Intro/Outro: A Little Wing/Lenny-style intro with plenty of flying up and down the neck. Make sure you include plenty of silences and changes in dynamics to keep things interesting.
Verse: Nothing difficult to play here. Just a few slides and many pull-offs.
Chorus: A little increase in difficulty with a stretch up to the 6th fret in bar 26.
Solo: Some tricky stuff here too. I’ve included elements from the original. But you can adapt it however you feel. I’d recommend sticking fairly close to the C major pentatonic scale. But you can include some C minor pentatonic for a more bluesy feel.
Bridge: This section is very sparse. But it demonstrates how effective just changing the order of the chords can be. It still uses the C, G and F chords but this section has a very different feel.
Bon Jovi’s Livin’ on a Prayer is full of hair-rock bravado, so I wasn’t sure if it’d work on uke. But it has a very strong melody, so I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed playing it.
Intro: I had to change the talk-box riff a fair amount to get it onto uke. This version runs more smoothly than the original. And it doesn’t go on for 45 seconds.
Verse: The verses don’t have anything too challenging. It’s all Am – F – G in open position.
Pre-Chorus: Things build in intensity here but don’t get any more difficult.
The second pre-chorus is cut short. As well as reducing the number of bars, they also cut a beat out of bar 44 (making it a bar of 3/4). This combined with the lack of any preparation in the chords, means the key change really hits you in the face.
Chorus: The first chorus is challenging enough. But changing to C minor for the second chorus makes it even trickier. I originally arranged it to replay the chorus in the original key. And I think that’s a perfectly reasonable way to play it if you want to avoid the added difficulty. Even Jon Bon Jovi seems in two minds about it. But it’s such a moment in the song I decided it’s worth tackling.
Solo: The solo has a few tricky moves too. But, once everything is octave shifted, it plays nicely on the uke. The one thing worth skipping would be the very fast lick in bar 40. It’s very difficult to play (I certainly didn’t get it cleanly in the video) and I think something simpler could be just as effective.
A massive thanks once again to the generosity of Uke Hunt’s Patreon backers for keeping the site up and running this month.
And extra thanks to January’s Tenor level backers:
– Arthur Foley
– Brian
– Dennis Boutsikaris
– Elizabeth Beardsley
– Ely Fletcher
– Ivo
– Jeff K
– Jon Kenniston
– Kelby Green
– Leia-lee Doran
– Margit Stadlmann
– Mary
– Noah
– Pat Weikle
– Pauline LeBlanc
– Rick Wurster
– Robert
– Steven Pituch
Mele Kalikimaka, Merry Christmas, Chanukah Sameach, Feliz Natal and Happy Holidays! (If that’s what you’re into.)
That’s it from me for another year. I’ll be back at the end of January 2026.
If you can’t stand to be without a steady stream of uke, I’ll be posting on Instagram, BlueSky and Patreon. Speaking of which…
Patreon
I’m overwhelmingly grateful to all the people supporting the site on the Uke Hunt Patreon. Without your generosity Uke Hunt would not still be going. And without your suggestions for tabs I’d probably be covering Belgian art rock songs rather than tunes people want to learn. Your munificent patronage of the arts has not been since Renaissance Italy.
And extra thanks to December’s Tenor level backers:
– Arthur Foley
– Brian
– Dennis Boutsikaris
– Elizabeth Beardsley
– Ely Fletcher
– Ivo
– Jeff K
– Jon Kenniston
– Kelby Green
– Leia-lee Doran
– Margit Stadlmann
– Mary
– Noah
– Pat Weikle
– Pauline LeBlanc
– Rick Wurster
– Robert
– Steven Pituch
Intro: A simple start. Just strumming out a G chord with the note on the E-string moving down and back up chromatically.
Verse: That chord progression continues into the verse. The melody here is very contained. It’s almost all going between the open g-string and open A-string until bar 12 , which builds into the chorus.
Chorus: The chords get busy in the chorus. I found it a bit of a challenge to memorise all the changes. But once it’s under your fingers, it’s not hard to play.
Solo: The first half of the solo is very relaxed. But there’s a lot more to do in the second half. This arrangement is only loosely based on the original. So feel free to change it however you like.
