Classical Ukulele Players Challenge!

[engravertom]

That was wonderful, what an exhilarating listen! Thank you for posting it, Tom.

(In other news, I’m going to stop worrying about anchoring my pinky )

Yes! The pinky has a long and noble history, across several instruments, of being planted on the soundboard, or banjo head, etc.

Anchor boldly, and proudly!

 

[engravertom]

And using thumb index for scale passages was the method even guitarists like Fernando Sor used and taught. Sor also did not use nails, like many lute players did not.

My point is that you are free to do what you like, and what works best for you!

Many times, people who insist on a “right way “ may be just unaware of the larger tradition of how instruments have been played. And, it is tempting to suggest that what has worked for some would be best for all. It’s just an unfortunate assumption.

 

[Camsuke]

Here's an anonymous dance tune from the 16th Century. I have adapted this piece for high g ukulele and (as a guide) the suggested fingerings have been listed in the tablature. There's a link to the TAB in the video description at YT. I hope you enjoy.

 

[Jan D]

Nicely done, Cam. I play this appealing tune on my harp. Thanks to you providing the tab, I’m now looking forward to playing it on my ukes!

 

[Camsuke]

Nicely done, Cam. I play this appealing tune on my harp. Thanks to you providing the tab, I’m now looking forward to playing it on my ukes!

That's great to hear Jan, I hope you enjoy it!

 

[ploverwing]

Here's an anonymous dance tune from the 16th Century. I have adapted this piece for high g ukulele and (as a guide) the suggested fingerings have been listed in the tablature. There's a link to the TAB in the video description at YT. I hope you enjoy.

That was a lovely piece! I look forward to trying this with my lutulele.

 

[engravertom]

Here's an anonymous dance tune from the 16th Century. I have adapted this piece for high g ukulele and (as a guide) the suggested fingerings have been listed in the tablature. There's a link to the TAB in the video description at YT. I hope you enjoy.

Beautifully done!

 

[Timm_S]

Yes, that was a lovely piece. You mentioned you adapted it for high g, does that mean there’s a low-g score out there somewhere? I’d like to work up to things such as this some day. Yesterday here I just started on the first exercise in the Peterson book, the Ode to Joy. Notewise, it’s not hard, but wrapping my head around the consistent i m i m i m i m picking is the challenge. My fingers want to just wing it with whatever finger happens to be handy so this is good discipline to learn the prescribed fingerings.

 

[Camsuke]

That was a lovely piece! I look forward to trying this with my lutulele.

Thanks Amie, it is a nice little piece & I hope you enjoy learning it. I'm currently working on an arrangement of a medievil tune that will suit your lutulele perfectly, I hope to post a video in the next week or so.

 

[Camsuke]

Beautifully done!

Thanks Tom.

 

[Camsuke]

Yes, that was a lovely piece. You mentioned you adapted it for high g, does that mean there’s a low-g score out there somewhere? I’d like to work up to things such as this some day. Yesterday here I just started on the first exercise in the Peterson book, the Ode to Joy. Notewise, it’s not hard, but wrapping my head around the consistent i m i m i m i m picking is the challenge. My fingers want to just wing it with whatever finger happens to be handy so this is good discipline to learn the prescribed fingerings.

Hi Tim, I was encouraged to adapted this tune from an old guitar transcription initially, mainly because I thought it would sit well for reentrant tuning. It's a good point you raise regarding the discipline of learning the most user friendly & economical fingerings, it does take some extra effort, but makes things a lot easier down the track.

 

[Timm_S]

Still very much a work in progress... now that I finally have my uke back with it's new fluorocarbons and low-G setup, I tried working out this Nuance piece again trying to take advantage of the low-g string where I could use it towards (hopefully) a slightly more campanella style. TBH it took me quite a few tries to get through this w/out major mistakes and there's still a few flubbed non-ringer notes but you can probably get the idea. I included my new low-g Tabs score from Sibelius.
And... I realized I have my uke tuned a half-step lower this weekend (for use in a song tomorrow that's in B but I want to finger it in C) so this came out a 1/2-step lower too, but I think it this piece actually sits well in the lower key so I left it. FWIW.

 

[ploverwing]

Still very much a work in progress... now that I finally have my uke back with it's new fluorocarbons and low-G setup, I tried working out this Nuance piece again trying to take advantage of the low-g string where I could use it towards (hopefully) a slightly more campanella style. TBH it took me quite a few tries to get through this w/out major mistakes and there's still a few flubbed non-ringer notes but you can probably get the idea. I included my new low-g Tabs score from Sibelius.
And... I realized have my uke tuned a half-step lower this weekend (for use in a song tomorrow that's in B but I want to play in C) so this came out a 1/2-step lower too, but I think it this piece actually sits well in the lower key so I left it. FWIW.

That's very beautiful and I think a half-step down suits the piece AND your instrument. Downloaded and will enter rotation!

 

[Patty]

Here's an anonymous dance tune from the 16th Century. I have adapted this piece for high g ukulele and (as a guide) the suggested fingerings have been listed in the tablature. There's a link to the TAB in the video description at YT. I hope you enjoy.

That was just lovely. I just cannot get over how relaxed and effortless your left hand looks, Campbell. No strain whatsoever. How do you do it?

 

[Camsuke]

Still very much a work in progress... now that I finally have my uke back with it's new fluorocarbons and low-G setup, I tried working out this Nuance piece again trying to take advantage of the low-g string where I could use it towards (hopefully) a slightly more campanella style. TBH it took me quite a few tries to get through this w/out major mistakes and there's still a few flubbed non-ringer notes but you can probably get the idea. I included my new low-g Tabs score from Sibelius.
And... I realized have my uke tuned a half-step lower this weekend (for use in a song tomorrow that's in B but I want to finger it in C) so this came out a 1/2-step lower too, but I think it this piece actually sits well in the lower key so I left it. FWIW.

How wonderful, I really enjoyed this one, very well played! Thanks for sharing a great video & Tab.

 

[Camsuke]

That was just lovely. I just cannot get over how relaxed and effortless your left hand looks, Campbell. No strain whatsoever. How do you do it?

Thanks Patty, you’re too kind. It might come across that way on camera, but the wheels can fall off at any moment!

 

[TBB]

Here's an anonymous dance tune from the 16th Century. I have adapted this piece for high g ukulele and (as a guide) the suggested fingerings have been listed in the tablature. There's a link to the TAB in the video description at YT. I hope you enjoy.

Beautiful, Campbell. As Patty says, you have a wonderfully relaxed performance style, I find it very hard to believe the wheels are even loose, let alone in any danger of coming off!

And thanks to you and Tom and your generosity with your tabs I have an extra incentive to dust my poor neglected reentrant ukuleles off!

 

[TBB]

Still very much a work in progress... now that I finally have my uke back with it's new fluorocarbons and low-G setup, I tried working out this Nuance piece again trying to take advantage of the low-g string where I could use it towards (hopefully) a slightly more campanella style. TBH it took me quite a few tries to get through this w/out major mistakes and there's still a few flubbed non-ringer notes but you can probably get the idea. I included my new low-g Tabs score from Sibelius.
And... I realized I have my uke tuned a half-step lower this weekend (for use in a song tomorrow that's in B but I want to finger it in C) so this came out a 1/2-step lower too, but I think it this piece actually sits well in the lower key so I left it. FWIW.

That was really lovely, beautifully played. I agree with Amie, it sounds great with the uke tuned down a semitone. (Actually, I pretty much always think that to be honest, I wish I could get away with it on my sopranos!)

 

[DelGriff]

I don’t know if this belongs here. If the general consensus is that it doesn’t, I’ll happily remove it from the thread. I did this a few years back for a Season Of The Ukulele. For a bit of background info, I’m including what I wrote then as the introduction for it. Be patient, there is some ukulele in the mix, as you’ll see/hear.

Bit weird this! I was just messing around with a bass line on the keyboards, which I started adding extra parts to. Sometimes this is how a new original song begins to appear for me, but in this case it wasn’t quite happening. With this week’s theme in mind I was also thinking about mountain songs and Edvard Grieg’s ‘In The Hall Of The Mountain King’, which he wrote for Ibsen’s 1867 play ‘Peer Gynt’, popped into my head. Then bingo - with a few minor tweaks here and there the main ‘catchy’ part of Grieg’s piece fitted what I’d been working on. Spooky!

 

[ploverwing]

This is a really neat riff on a classical piece!!! I'm ok with it It's more about getting people to play something classical, and this is definitely a classical piece, if not handled in a traditionally classical manner. Is the main melody on a keyboard too?