The classical guitar literature is blessed with melodious study pieces by Carulli, Carcassi, Sor, Giuliani, to name a few. The piano literature is also replete with Burgmuller, Czerny, and even more composers. These pieces are written to exercise and develop technique but are also beautiful to play and hear in their own right. Inspired by these greats, I try my hand at creating something for the ukulele. The piece starts in A minor and eventually ends in C major, hence the title “A Minor Moment to C.”
What if we limit the right hand fingers to a fixed set of fingerpicking movements? Will this make it easier to focus on the left hand?
This instumental piece opens with the right hand two fingers (thumb and middle) grasping the outer strings followed by the index finger picking one inner string. The right hand fingers to play the last four eighth notes in the first line (under the E7 chord) can be any of the following respectively:
- p, i, m, i (alternating fingers)
- p, m, i, m (alternating fingers)
- p, m, i, i (alternating fingers, index finger lands on the C-string after playing)
- p, i, m, m (alternating fingers, middle finger lands on the C-string after playing)
The second section B is almost the same as the first except it’s more “broken up.” It’s important to use alternating fingers to fingerpick consecutive notes on the same string.
When moving up the neck, I try to stick to easy and predictable chord shapes so that it’s possible to slide the entire left hand instead of reconfiguring.
Once the piece finally arrives at C, I deliberately go through suspended chords and the G7 chord to confirm its arrival.
Pick! Pluck! Play!
I would love to include “A Minor Moment to C” in the first level of the book “Pick! Pluck! Play!” but it may have to be the second level because of the different chord shapes.
The last page “Ukulele Chords” of the new book 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.
I am recording all my new compositions in the 100 Days of Ukulele 2025 project. To me, this challenge means uploading a new video recording of a new piece each consecutive day from 1st March to 8th June 2025.
For other recent compositions and arrangements by Anne Ku, please visit the Daily Music Writing Project or scroll through the consecutive blog posts.
