Dragon Born for high G ukulele

No sooner had I released “Year of the Snake” than I scaled the pentatonic world of possibilities. How could I write a tune for the snake without one for the dragon? Similarly, it wouldn’t be fair to exclude the rabbit, the horse, or any of the other signs in the Chinese Zodiac. Here is “Dragon Born,” my second pentatonic piece for solo ukulele.

Pentatonic Scales

That there are altogether twelve major pentatonic scales, one for each major scale, correlates with the twelve signs of the Chinese Zodiac.

Pentatonic melodies are no stranger to pop music.

Consider the five notes in “Year of the Snake.” Arranged in ascending order by pitch, the five notes sound like the way a pentatonic scale should.

However, if we change the rhythm slightly, we suddenly hear “My Girl.”

The pentatonic scale is no stranger to classical music either. Do you recognize the following instrumental melody? Antonín Dvořák used it to describe the new world.

Chinese songs are rife with pentatonic melodies. Can I resist writing ten more pentatonic tunes?

Dragon

The lunar year of the dragon falls on 2024 and every twelve years.

Practice suggestions

Analyze this piece to find any repetitive patterns and to understand the structure.

Notice it only uses five different notes. What are they?

More information

Get access to the sheet music, notification of new work, and table of contents of this Daily Music Writing Project.

After building a daily regimen of writing music and writing about my music, I find it hard to stop and take stock of the Daily Music Writing Project.

I will add this piece to my forthcoming book Chinese songs for ukulele, guitar, and piano.