Will the lack of a name or a title stop you from sharing the music itself? It has for me. I love the sound of using just five notes to dance on the high G ukulele. It’s easy to sightread and fun to play very fast. I’ll just call it The Five Note Dance for now. The number five in Chinese sounds like the word for dance. By the way, I use five chords to harmonize this duet. Maybe I should rename it to “The Five Note Five Chord Duet” – 5 note 5 chord duet.
The next step after playing open strings in the instrumental piece “Dance on Open Strings” is to fret a string to produce the fifth note in the melody.
I searched for a fifth note to introduce to the open stringed notes. Adding an F does not make it pentatonic for there’s a half step between the E and the F notes.
Sometimes a new piece gets born when you’re least aware of it. Such is this duet.
Practice suggestions
- Analyse the piece first.
- Start at a low tempo (i.e. slow).
- The left hand only uses the index finger to make the F note. Whenever it’s needed, press that E string on the first fret for as long as possible.
- The right hand is at work here. Use the thumb and index finger to fingerpick the notes.
- Next add the middle finger. Compare the two ways. Which is easier?
- Sometimes it’s easier to play a piece at a higher tempo.
While it’s possible to play the piece on low G ukulele, I wrote the melody for high G ukulele specifically.
More information
Get access to the sheet music, notification of new work, and table of contents of this Daily Music Writing Project.
