Homage to Carcassi for low G ukulele

Posted on January 25, 2025 by Anne Ku

The Five Note Duet sounds so familiar that I had to dig through my stash of music. Has someone else composed it already? Or does it sound like a piece I’ve written? About four years ago I composed a homage to a guitar composer. There are similarities but the homage and the new ukulele duet are two very different instrumental solos. Let’s revisit my Homage to Carcassi, a solo piece I wrote for low G ukulele a few years back.

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Take Five on Five ukulele duet

Posted on January 24, 2025 by Anne Ku

I woke up this morning to the tune of “Take Five” in my head. Since recording my new duet using only five notes and five chords, why not make it in 5/4 time? After all, “Take Five” got into my psyche in quintuple meter. Why can’t I add a note to every measure and make it 5/4 time? Take Five Chords on Five Notes. Take Five Notes on Five/Four Time. It clicks.

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The Five Note Dance duet for high G ukulele

Posted on January 24, 2025 by Anne Ku

Will the lack of a name or a title stop you from sharing the music itself? It has for me. I love the sound of using just five notes to dance on the high G ukulele. It’s easy to sightread and fun to play very fast. I’ll just call it The Five Note Dance for now. The number five in Chinese sounds like the word for dance. By the way, I use five chords to harmonize this duet. Maybe I should rename it to “The Five Note Five Chord Duet” – 5 note 5 chord duet.

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Fill and connect melody with passing notes

Posted on January 23, 2025 by Anne Ku

One way to play a chord melody arrangement from single melodic notes is by filling and connecting the melodic notes with chord and nonchord tones. So far, my examples make use of chord tones (notes within the chord). In this post, I show the use of nonchord tones, in particular, passing notes. Let’s apply this to Auld Lang Syne to celebrate Robert Burns Night on 25th January.

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The pedal tone applied to a lead sheet for ukulele

Posted on January 23, 2025 by Anne Ku

One way to add notes to a melodic line and make a so-called chord melody arrangement is to add a pedal tone. Also known as pedal point, organ point, and pedal note, this added note is meant to sustain and fill the harmony. Being able to add notes to a lead sheet is the basis for improvisation. Let’s look at example – a hymn called “Bless This House” in which we add pedal tones to the lead sheet.

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Harmonized major scale exercises for high G ukulele

Posted on January 23, 2025 by Anne Ku

How many different ways can you harmonize a major scale? In other words, which chords will sound good to accompany a major scale on the ukulele? Are they diatonic chords, i.e. chords with notes in the same major scale? Or not? Here are extracts (excerpts) from my forthcoming book of progressive studies of harmonized scale exercises for fingerstyle high G ukulele.

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Dance on Mostly Open Strings for high G ukulele

Posted on January 22, 2025 by Anne Ku

Change one note in “Dance on Open Strings” and it still works. Let’s experiment with changing different notes, starting with mostly open strings. You are ready for the exercises on this blog post IF you don’t have to babysit your fingerpicking hand. In other words, your right hand fingers continue playing the piece as before. Just your left hand — which in “Dance on Open Strings” holds the ukulele neck — needs to get into action. You will now produce your own version of Dance on Mostly Open Strings.

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Dance on Open Strings for high G ukulele

Posted on January 22, 2025 by Anne Ku

What’s the easiest and quickest way to get someone to fingerpick, strum and have fun with the ukulele? Years ago, my piano guitar duo partner and I wrote a short ukulele duet in which one person only uses one hand. The other person strums the chords. Dance on Open Strings is the new name of this instrumental duet.

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Simplifying Midnight Diner theme, Omoide 思ひで, for ukulele

Posted on January 21, 2025 by Anne Ku

The theme to the Netflix series “Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories” on the guitar can be played on the ukulele. Originally in the key of B minor, the transposed tune in A minor presents many possibilities for the ukulele. However, it’s even easier to play in the key of D minor. The melody to Omoide (pronounced oh-moh-ee-deh) is repetitive. What do we really need to know to play this catchy tune?

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Body Surfing for easy ukulele transposed

Posted on January 20, 2025 by Anne Ku

When we transpose Herb Ohta’s (Ohta San) Body Surfing in the original key of G minor to A minor, we can now play the entire piece on a high G ukulele an octave lower and with more familiar chords. Easy ukulele means easier to play. Often we transpose a piece so it’s easier to play and/or sing.

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