Tex-Mex: La Cucaracha Tab.

[Ed Goist]

I met the wife today for a very enjoyable lunch at our favorite local restaurant (a very authentic Mexican Restaurant), and when I heard La Cucaracha on their background music soundtrack I realized how great this melody would sound on the mandolin!

I know I can sit down and transpose over from a guitar tab, but I'm hoping someone knows where I might find a decent mandolin tab for this fun song.

[Jim MacDaniel]

No tab, but I found the dots here, and there is an interesting history of the lyrics in this Wikipedia entry.

[Jon Hall]

I hadn't thought of "La Cucaracha". That would be a good tune to learn. A group I'm in plays a couple of other Mexican standards; "Jalisco" and "La Bamba". That brings to mind another slower song "La Paloma Blanca".

Did you know "La Cucaracha" translates "The Cockroach"?

[brunello97]

Thanks, Jim, for the links. Of course, the marihuana lyrics were the ones we knew and sang loudly as kids. It is interesting to read about the fuller history of the song.

Lila Downs does a pretty great version of the song on her album Una Sangre.

Mick

[Ed Goist]

Worked on this tonight. I think it sounds pretty good...The wife loved it! Let me know what you think. Enjoy.

La Cucaracha - mandolin tab

E ||---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -||
A |o----------0-4---------0-4--0-0-------------------------2-----------2--4-5-4-4-2-2-0----o|
D |o---2-2-2-------2-2-2-----------6-6-4-4-2----2-2-2-6-----2-2-2-6----------------------- o|
G ||----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ||

Oh, and I think the chords are Am ---> E7 ---> Am, but I'm not at all sure about this. Any thoughts?

[Julian Morris]

Here's a full tabbing, chords and lyrics of La cucaracha for anyone who's interested. It is sometimes played in 3/4 which I think is dismal compared to this 4/4 mariachi rhythm. I have put the beats above the tab to keep it right. If you are not used to this, clap out the rhythm of the first and second bar like "... and 4 and 1..... and 4 and 1 ..." while tapping your foot 1..2..3..4.. Once you've got that, you might realise that a lot of the notes are pushed a little, fractionally before the beat. A distinctively latin feel.

It wraps around endlessly if required, but I have added a note about how it is sometimes played in G then in C. To effect the change to C you can drop down a string. Or re-tab it for yourself .

Some of the long notes in the second part lend themselves well to tremelo AND glissando (slide), imitating a trumpet downward bend.

Any comments welcome.

[k0k0peli]

Ha! Great piece! I just tried fingerpicking it on my Irish-tuned mando (GDAD) in D. Chord 2-4-0-0 with the 1st and 3rd fingers and play the melody with pinky as x-x-0-x to-x-x-5-x to x-x-x-4 to x-x-2-x (shift the index finger), then go to A as 2-2-0-2 and 2-2-4-2 (picked), then pick the final line on the 1st string at frets 7,9,7,5,4,2,0, chording 2-4-0-0 again. Hey, that's one for my repertoire!

EDIT: I just tried Julian's great tab. It also works fingerpicked in Irish tuning, chording G with 4-0-x-x to 4-0-2-0 to 4-5-2-0, then picking 4-5-x-x to 4-4-x-x to 4-2-x-x and a very open D chord with 2-0-0-0, continuing the melody as 2-4-0-0, hammering that open D string at the 4th fret and playing the A open, with the final line at frets 5,7,5,3,2,0 and resolving with the G chord at 4-5-x-x.