The universe has a strange way of directing me to my next song. I was looking at upcoming national days. The 13th of January every year is National Stephen Foster Day. Known as the Father of American Music, Stephen Collins Foster died on 13th January 1864 at the age of 37. At first, I thought of arranging “Beautiful Dreamer” but this morning, I woke up humming “Oh Susanna.”
All of Stephen Foster’s songs are in the public domain. This means we can perform, record, and publish without asking anyone for permission.
The song title has many nuances: “Oh Susanna” or “Oh! Susanna!” or “Oh, Susanna” or “Oh Susannah.”
The song can be accompanied by three chords.
The mention of “banjo” in the lyrics makes me think of ways to mimic the banjo. At high tempo, the melodic notes can be hammered on and pulled off on high or low G ukulele. I chose high G ukulele to illustrate the left hand techniques.
One way to introduce the chords into the song is to strum on long melody notes. As an accompanying instrument, the ukulele should not compete but support the voice.
Do you have a favorite song by Stephen Foster?
Practice suggestions
Practice the left hand techniques separately from the strums.
Access to the sheet music
- My arrangements for “Oh Susanna” are laid out on one page pdfs. The pdfs will be e-mailed to all those who registered and paid for the 8-week Ukulele Winter 2025 course. See the Classes Webpage for further details.
- Annual subscribers to 3 Chord Thursday 2025 may request and receive these new arrangements as part of their package, for supporting the thematic song sessions for 2025.
- In due course, these arrangements will be available for purchase.
Notification of new and updated work
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- Sign up for the celebrated Ukulele Enthusiast e-blast (newsletter) to get on the mailing list for notification of such new arrangements. Use the Google Form.
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Catalog of new music by Anne Ku
Below is what I know and have done so far and what I plan to do for this week. Each piece is followed by exercises to prepare and support that piece. The “day” column refers to the day in the project, starting on the 1st day of 2025. As you can see, I am several days ahead.
| Day | Title / Topic | Keys | Type | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Greensleeves / What Child Is This | Em, Fm, Gm, Am | Lead Sheet Chord Melody | sample score, video |
| 2 | Andalusian Cadence | Am, Gm | Arpeggio Accompaniment | sample score |
| 3 | Auld Lang Syne for high G ukulele | F, G | Lead Sheet Chord Melody | sample score, playalong video |
| 4 | Left Hand Techniques | G | Lead Sheet | definition, sample score |
| 5 | On Top of Spaghetti | C | Chord Melody | playalong video |
| 6 | Auld Lang Syne in F for low G ukulele | F, C | Chord Melody | playalong video |
| 7 | Feed the Birds | Em, Am | Lead Sheet, Chord Melody | sample scores |
| 8 | Accompaniment in 3/4 Time | Am | High G ukulele | sample scores |
| 9 | Accompaniment exercises in 3/4 Time | Am | Low G ukulele | sample scores |
| 10 | Strum & Fingerpick Exercise in 3/4 Time | C | high or low G ukulele | sample scores |
| 11 | Exercise for Waltz Accompaniment | C | high or low G ukulele | sample scores |
| 12 | Oh Susanna! | C | high or low G ukulele | sample scores |