Tag Archives: ukulele

performance, sheet music, tabs, videos

New ukulele jig

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I found this ukulele arrangement of an Allegretto by Carcassi and thought it was rather cool. I only have the original arranger’s title to go on, so I’m not even 100% sure it’s by Carcassi (I had a good look through quite a few of his published works but couldn’t find it).

UPDATE (5 July 2020): I got a nylon string guitar last week and a guitar playing friend recommended I study the Etudes of Fernando Sor. Well, lo and behold, there was this Allegretto – the third of his ’24 Progressive Lessons, Op.31′. It’s in a different key in Sor’s original and uses the guitar’s range, as you’d expect. I rather like the little ‘push’ in the last section of the arrangement (not a feature of Sor’s original, it turns out), so I’m going to leave that and the other few anomalies intact.

I made my own edition of the piece using the principle of ‘campanella’, a style of ukulele playing where open strings are used where possible to get a ringing sound. I wrote in some suggested fingerings, too. If you’re interested in giving it a go, use the link below to get a copy for just €3.

Sor Allegretto moderato tab

Notation and tablature (one page) of this charming piece.

€3.00

tabs

Think About Things

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The Iceland entry for the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest was this absolute tune – Think About Things by Daði Freyr. I thought I’d have a go at figuring it out on ukulele. Slightly tricky because it’s in the key of E flat minor. It’d be nice to have the low B (C flat, whatever…) but I didn’t want to retune.

Here’s the brass break that comes at 1’18” transcribed for ukulele. Have a go at it, if you’d like a challenge. I practiced at 0.5 speed on YouTube, then upped it to 0.75, before attempting it at Normal speed. (To adjust the speed, click on the ‘gear’ icon at the bottom right of the video window.)

Download a free PDF of the ukulele tabDownload

composers, composition, performance, sheet music, tabs, videos

Check out this classic American march arranged for ukulele

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I used to play clarinet in a marching band when I was growing up in Northern Ireland. We’d have these ring-bound books that clipped onto our instruments using special attachments so we could play while marching along. We played a lot of tunes by the great American composer John Philip Sousa (Monty Python fans will be familiar with ‘The Liberty Bell’, which was used as the signature music to the cult British sketch show).

Jen and I saw ‘The Post’ last week, so maybe that’s why this particular tune jumped out at me when I was idly searching for a tune to work on. The film stars Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks and retells the proud history of the newspaper’s stand against Nixon’s administration.

Sousa was asked to write a march in 1889 for The Washington Post’s essay contest awards ceremony (read all about it in this article by Post writer John Kelly) and he came up with this piece, which apparently was great for dancing the two-step.

I hope you enjoy my ukulele arrangement! It uses a style of playing called campanella that has been a bit of a revelation to me in my approach to the instrument. If you want to find out more, seek out Jonathan Lewis’s YouTube channel and his website jons-ukulele.com.

Being snowed in these past few days, thanks to Storm Emma, has meant I got it finished. Check out my video — the tabs are here, too, if you’re interested.

ukulele tabs PDF

My ukulele arrangement of John Philip Sousa's march, 'The Washington Post'.

€5.00