Talk me out of (or into) a ukulele

I think that the accompaniment is, essentially, composed mostly of arpeggios. In which case chords are (from my source I'm looking at) Dm, F, G, Bb, A, Asus4, A7 in various orders.


Arpeggio just means the notes of the chord are played consecutively up and down. On ukulele there are fewer strings and so this space needs to be filled differently. Also the arrangement isn't the song--there are many, many, many ways to play the same song and have it recognizable. I tried playing those arpeggiated chords on ukulele and it worked out, though sounded a bit different as one would expect. With fewer strings, it's reasonable to expect that the arrangement would be less complex. But we can add ornaments, etc. to add complexity if wished and maybe be able to come out with something sounding similar.

arpeggios
Such a pretty looking word.  I have to find some way to remember it.

I enjoy playing songs with that kind of picking pattern and the cords are pretty stable.  

One of the frustrations I find so far is youtubers putting their tabs or sheet music behind a pay wall.  Only, we find out that these sheet musics (arangementsa) are put together (transcribed?) by someone else and offered for free.  

They are profiting by someone elses hard work.  

Same with a book i found at the library.   The author didn't even bother to make the notation consistent within the book or take the names and "do not copy" notices off the music.

This makes me sad and now I am extra careful to try to find the original and support them when I can.

Just for fun, some of the versions of house ofmthe rising sun, I grew up listening to




Joan baez's voice still gives me chills

Did I mention this one yet?


This is the next warm up exercise I'm starting today.

I can now play house of the rising sun 8 different ways and sing along to most of them,  it's going in my fun book for playing to the chickens.

The morning lessons feel a little less structured now i finished the 30 day beginners class from Bernadette.   The finger style class is starting a little too easy so I might double up on those lessons until we get to something challenging.

The ukulele for dummies book is at brahms lullaby with cords and fancy strum.  I might make that my next song to learn inside and out.  Maybe.  If I can stay awake.

A lot of songs at this level keep too much melody on the first and second (next to floor) strings.  I feel like if the G string could be more involved, the melody would ring better instead of dampening each note as we play the next one.  I don't have good words for this, but it frustrates me.

brahms lullaby is well within my current skillset.  It's fun to play as we sometimes get to strum just three strings.  Finger pick 2 notes, semi strum.  Nice and engaging for my brain.

If I can get up to time, the notes keep going as the next ones play.  

This should only take a couple of days to learn well.

I love my ukulele more every day.

I don't know how to ask the question yet, but I am going to try.

Why do so many beginners and intermediate songs ignore the G-string?  Especially fingerstyle.

I did some testing and it looks like it can play many of the same notes the A-sting can play.  Fret4 on G sounds a lot like fret 2 on A.  I didn't try the tuner to double check yet, but they seem pretty close.

This is the part i have trouble describing.   When we play one note on one string, then a new note on the next string, the first note sings a little bit.  But if we play several notes on the same string in a row, changing fretting each time, the note before goes quet to make room for the next note.

I think the word is related to a bell tower.

Example.  The song says play the following frets on A string.  7 4 2 0 2 4 0.  It's pretty but, the note dies as soon as the next one is ready.

Why not play the two 2 notes on the G string (g string fret 4)?  It takes less fancy fret work and then the notes can sing to eachother?

Or is this not allowed?  

Bonus points if you can rephrase the question in an easy to understand way.

That's absolutely allowed! It's a wonderful idea too. I think your question makes sense and is not confusing.

I will link to a video explaining a banjo playing style that does something similar. Banjo also has reentrant tuning, like ukulele, but its fifth string is usually an interval of one fourth higher than the first string, whereas on ukulele it is a whole step lower. I believe that playing that way might potentially take more skill because the placement of the g string isn't as straightforward. Go to 5:28 for that particular style.



On banjo the fifth, higher string is often used as a drone string (the same note played over and over, which harmonizes and centers the rest of the notes) as well and I have played ukulele that way too.

I'm very happy to hear that.

It's kind of fun to alternate between the two outer strings, so I'm going to see if I can do that section this way.

I was really worried I missed some sort of rule telling us G can't be used for melody

So, I'm not breaking music laws by doing this?

It's ok to change music or do people get angry?

Well, it's your book/sheet of paper... unless you are defacing a library copy?

People do this sort of thing all the time. It is called arranging.

Ah, I'm beginning to see why they didn't bother with the G string there.  It's weird to wake up the thumb as it's only used in two other notes for the whole song.

But it sounds better this way.  And kind of fun to alternate the outer threads like that.