What do you call sheet music that looks challenging and sounds beautiful but is deceptively easy and fun to play? That’s the kind of music I want to write. For beginners, it looks intimidating to see a lot of notes and fret numbers that leap beyond number 3 and jump around.
Here’s an easy piece to get you to slide your left hand (fretting hand) fingers up and down the neck, hence the title “Waltz Up the Neck.” I will teach this piece as a starting warm-up at the next 3 Chord Thursday session, to celebrate our fifth anniversary.
There are two kinds of right hand finger movements to play this waltz in C major.
The feel of a waltz is shown in the first line of this piece as it’s the accompaniment. This chord melody arrangement of the melody and the chords together also makes use of single melodic notes to connect the “oom – pah – pah” so it’s not always “oom – pah – pah.”
While you can easily fingerpick the three notes in measure 5 (second line or second system) with. your right thumb in a downward stroke, it’s also possible to use your right thumb, index, and middle fingers.
Don’t let the higher fret numbers in the tablature scare you. You’re not fingering the entire chord but just some of them.
As the first fret you press on the left hand is the 10th fret, your left hand should start in that position. Because the fret space gets smaller the closer you get to the sound hole, you might want to use your pinky or ring finger to play the A-string on the 10th fret for the first note in the second measure.
To reach the third measure, you can either drop your middle finger on the 8th fret and drop your index finger on the 7th or slide your middle finger to the 8th fret.
To reach the fourth measure (last bar in the first line), slide your left middle and index fingers from the 7th to the 5th fret. Of course, your left index finger needs to move to the next string (C-string).
The additional eighth notes are part of the chords shown earlier. It’s possible to fingerpick the entire instrumental piece with your right hand thumb, index, and middle fingers without the little finger – pim fingering.
Try using all four fingers, try that, too. We call this pima fingering. Each letter stands for one of the right hand fingers (in Spanish).
Which feels more comfortable – pim or pima?
The highest pitched note in this waltz is the second A above middle C. To avoid getting lost, deliberately slide your fretting fingers. In other words, instead of removing all left hand fingers from the fretboard, try as much as possible to slide and reach.
In the above example, moving from the 5th fret to the 12th, you can slide your index finger (which is barring the 5th fret) towards the sound hole until your pinky can reach the 12th fret, which is tiny.
If you’re using your left index, middle, and ring fingers to press the 5th frets of the D minor chord, then simply slide your ring finger until it reaches the 12th fret or until your pinky reaches it.
The 3/4 feel of the waltz can be communicated in different broken chords. While the left hand is pretty much the same in each section, the right hand gets busier than before. It’s busier but not harder.
“Waltz Up the Neck” is one of the 12 pieces I’m writing for Level 2 of the new book “Pick! Pluck! Play! Fingerstyle Ukulele.”
The last page “Ukulele Chords” contains a table of ukulele chord diagrams ordered alphabetically for the chords used in the book.
I’m thrilled about releasing these two books as a precursors (prerequisite) to the 12 Chinese Zodiac Suite, which contains three skill levels.
For other recent compositions and arrangements by Anne Ku, please visit the Daily Music Writing Project or scroll through the consecutive blog posts.
