One of the main reasons I prefer to “batch process” rather than do a little bit of this and a little bit of that is that each “little bit” can easily lead me down a rabbit hole. To avoid digging myself into a rabbit hole, I try to finish a piece as soon as possible and move on. I also avoid trying to do anything but compose (at this time). I call it “Rabbit Hole” for high G ukulele for this reason. This is my new pentatonic piece for high G ukulele. Yet another one based on the 12 Chinese Zodiac Signs.
“Rabbit Hole” is pentatonic i.e. five notes from a major pentatonic scale. It also makes use of ornamentation and left hand techniques.
The opening two bars of my new piece for high G ukulele are quintessentially “Chinese.” This succession of perfect fourth intervals rang in my head while composing “Dragon Born” yesterday.
The next two bars repeat the rhythm of the open two bars using both hands to tap on different parts of the ukulele. It’s a kind of call and response. This is repeated in the next four bars.
Rabbits hop. So I mimic their hopping in this piece, another pentatonic tune from my new series which I’m calling “12 Chinese Zodiac Tunes” for now.
I add an ornamentation commonly used in the Baroque era, especially for instruments that don’t have a natural sustain. A trill (symbolized by the bolded Italic letters tr and a squiggly line) is a succession of hammer-on and off on an open string or any two adjacent notes.
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?
Practice sliding with two fingers of the right hand in the first line and elsewhere.
The hardest bit is in bar 32 where I specified a hammer-on, pull-off, and hammer-on on the lowest notes in the piece: D, E, and C. This is quite tricky. I haven’t managed to do it at the higher tempo of half note = 80. If you can’t do it to sound better than I was able to (in the recording), just hammer-on the eighth notes from D to E and the fingerpick the open C-string for the half-note.
The last measure is also tricky. I specify two slides.
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.
While I’m on a composing streak, the notes burst out of me. If I don’t notate immediately, I might lose them altogether. Until I get to write them down, the notes circle and spiral in my head. Is this a blessing or a curse?
