Chord melody arrangement is a fancy term for instrumental solo. You play the melody and harmony together. For my ukulele course this past season, I arranged Silent Night in different keys for low G ukulele. Why not high G ukulele?
Recently, someone asked how my arrangement of Silent Night in G for low G ukulele would change for high G ukulele. The obvious answer is that you’d have to transpose it to a different key. The less obvious answer is which key and why can’t you play it in the same key for high G ukulele.
Low G ukulele, which has linear tuning, extends the range of high G ukulele, which has re-entrant tuning, by five notes (below middle C).
More does not mean better.
Sure, we can therefore go below middle C, and thus Silent Night in G major can end on the lowest note of the G below middle C, which is not possible on a high G ukulele.
So why even bother with high G ukulele, if it has five fewer notes than low G ukulele?
Why high G, if low G offers more notes and therefore a bigger range?
Silent Night in C chord melody arrangement for high G ukulele by Anne Ku
My reasons for writing for high G ukulele are numerous.
Make use of that high G string. It’s there for a reason.
When a piece is written for high G ukulele specifically, it sounds completely different from playing the same notes on a low G ukulele. Most notably, campanella style – a way of playing that makes it sound like bells through sustaining notes, playing adjacent strings, causing sympathetic vibrations.
Samantha Muir puts it more succinctly in her article in Ukulele Magazine:
“… constantly moving across the strings. By placing the notes on alternating strings, each note is free to ring on and over the previous notes, thus creating a bell-like effect.”
I can’t wait to record my latest arrangement of Silent Night for high G ukulele campanella style.
This is part of my new project to write harmonized scale exercises for high G ukulele campanella style. Below is an extract from my Ukulele Exercises books.
