Game of Thrones

I was living on Maui when “Game of Thrones” premiered on American cable TV HBO in Spring of 2011. I must have watched one episode of it on someone else’s television and concluded that the main theme was an ear worm. In other words, once the tune is in my head, it would be difficult to get rid of it. I decided that I shouldn’t watch the series.

The series ran for eight seasons, with 73 episodes, ending in May 2019. By then, I had moved to Boston and a year earlier (summer of 2018) had visited Croatia which boasted a Games of Thrones destination.

Recently, with access to my brother’s HBO MAX, I started watching “Game of Thrones” or “GoT” for short. It’s so addictive that I had to transcribe the music for my ukulele community to play along to the original sound track for the upcoming 3 Chord Thursday Games (theme).

The main title and many other pieces in the sound track are in minor keys. It’s a gory tale, not for the faint-hearted. The main title (main theme) starts in C minor and flips to its parallel C major before the melody begins. The repetitive riff keeps it going while strings play the long melodic lines. You could hear the march of the warriors, the sense of urgency, in this fast piece.

I wouldn’t say the music “converts” easily for playing on the ukulele for we can’t replicate the melody convincingly. However, it would be fun to play along by strumming the chords and using the ukulele as a percussive instrument. Like the theme from Pirates of the Caribbean, the hemiola (3 against 2 beats) presents both a challenge and opportunity to do more than 3-count strumming.

One of the first decisions to make in transcribing or making a new arrangement is the choice of key.

Should you use the original key to preserve the authenticity? So that you can play along to it? Or should you use an easier key (for the new instrument), thus transposing to another key (and you cannot play along to the music)?

For “Game of Thrones” theme, it’s possible to fingerpick the repetitive riffs and melody line on the low G ukulele. Why not keep it in the original key of C minor then?

One of the most popular ukulele groups has transcribed and arranged the main title theme in the ukulele friendly key of A minor. Check out the song sheets, tablature, and video on Bytown Ukulele Group’s webpage.