In 2021, we celebrated Year of the Ox in 3 Chord Thursday with a handful of songs to do with cows, donkeys, chickens, and other farm animals. In Chinese, ox and cow are the same characters. With respect to the Chinese Zodiac Signs, I thought of the church hymns that are pentatonic. It’s fun to play the five notes in a pentonic scale on the high G ukulele. Hence, “Holy Cow for high G ukulele” is born.
Prevalence of pentatonic tunes
It’s amazing how many familiar tunes are pentatonic. I’m discovering pentatonic hymn tunes.
Just yesterday, I played and sang a new hymn for a funeral. The tune was very familiar but text was not. When I googled “Going Home” and the lyricist, I discovered a three-page PDF that was freely downloadable.
Watch this short video clip about pentatonic scales.
Repurposing and reharmonizing hymn tunes
In church, it’s common practice to indicate the hymn tune to a hymn. A tune such as Londonderry Air or Beethoven’s Ode to Joy can be used for different texts, hence different hymns and hymn titles. This is a way of repurposing a tune to different texts (lyrics), resulting in a different hymn.
To add variety, an organist may either modulate the last verse or reharmonize it or both. Modulate means to change to another key in the same piece. Reharmonize means to use other chords and chord progressions to accompany the same melody.
A medley of pentatonic tunes
My latest piece “Holy Cow” is a sequential medley of four tunes, three of them are used as hymns. Can you guess what they are?
12 Chinese Zodiac Tunes
“Holy Cow” is the fifth piece in this forthcoming collection of pentatonic pieces for ukulele. I plan to make the entire set available for purchase. Each one fits on a single page of PDF. Each one presents new concepts and techniques.
For other recent compositions and arrangements by Anne Ku, please visit the Daily Music Project.
Upcoming freebies
a chance to learn something new on the ukulele
3 Chord Thursday 2025 – 12 sessions only in Zoom
Thursday 1/30/2025
- Ukulele Plus – pentatonic scale warm-up and songs to celebrate the new year and multi-instruments
- Subscribe for Free to get the Zoom Link – or join as paid subscriber for perks.
FREE WORKSHOPS on World Ukulele Day
Sunday 2/2/2025
- FREE one-hour workshops in Zoom – warm up exercises and more
- 2 PM EST and 2 PM HST (one-hour each)
- Register in Zoom. Visit webpage for the links.
FREE in-person Workshop in Cohasset, Massachusetts
- Sunday 2/9/2025
- 2 to 4 PM (two hours)
- Details HERE.
