Recently I introduced different kinds of crossword puzzles to my ukulele community, before the 2022 Annual Ukulele Jeopardy Game. Earlier, during my years on Maui, I created bespoke puzzles and games to help my music students prepare for their final exams. These crossword puzzles and jeopardy games ranged from piano to music theory. Ukulele is my latest.
While plenty of people have talked about how to make a crossword puzzle, I am looking for advice on how to make efficient and effective puzzles. It should be gratifying and even addictive to work on a crossword puzzle, not frustrating or confusing. This article focuses on the importance of choosing a narrow theme. Other than the theme, what else is there?
One thing I learned from creating crossword puzzles is to simplify. That’s also one reason I love the ukulele — what can you do with just four strings?
One way to simplify is to restrict, or add constraints. In the above ukulele crossword puzzle, I restricted the answers to four or five letter words. I also tried to simplify the questions. Another constraint I could add is to set a time limit. Complete the puzzle in one hour, for instance.
The above ukulele crossword puzzle should be renamed a cross number puzzle. I wonder if such a term exists? The answers are numerals from 0 to 9. Each number represents the fret that needs to be pressed on the ukulele. The order of numbers follow the strings GCEA on the ukulele. It doesn’t matter if it’s a low G or high G ukulele, as long as it’s tuned GCEA, such as standard for soprano, concert, and tenor ukuleles. When we tune such a ukulele, we are effectively tuning the Am7 or C6 chord, represented by the four fret digits of 0000.
I introduced this crossword puzzle in the first session of 3 Chord Thursday 2023 on 5th January. The puzzle is intended for intermediate to advanced ukulele players. Thinking in four fret numbers prepares you for reading tablature, for the numbers on the four lined tablature represent the frets that need to be pressed on that particular string. 0 means open string or 0th fret or “don’t press that string” —
The third crossword puzzle (shown above) is not so easy. Click on it to get to the one page PDF. Why isn’t it easy? Unless you’ve taken music theory, you wouldn’t know what a somersault of notes refers to. Unless you know Spanish or fingerpick your ukulele, you wouldn’t know what pulgar means.
My next challenge is to create a crossword puzzle that is fun, easy, fast, and gratifying for the beginner ukulele player. Subscribe to this blog post to be the first to get it.