These two tunings offer a different sound and resonance on the instrument. While this is the typical tuning for soprano and concert ukuleles, some of these instruments will tune the G down an octave for a “low-G” tuning. The first is “high-G” or re-entrant tuning, because the G on the fourth string is tuned higher than the C on the third. Low-Gįirst, let’s discuss the instruments with the two traditional ukulele tuning: GCEA. (You can learn more, in fact, on just how well Bach’s music in particular fits on the ukulele here.) Instruments High-G vs. If you’d like to see just how deep this well goes, I have arranged over sixty works for classical ukulele in our Graded Repertoire for Ukulele Classical book.įrom Bach’s Air on the G String (Arioso) to Beethoven’s Für Elise to music of Paraguayan guitar composer Agustin Barrios, there is much classical music that works quite well on the ukulele. This unlocks a whole wealth of music from the Renaissance to the Baroque, Classical to Romantic, and many modern and contemporary pieces as well. Nevertheless, there is a lot of classical music that does fit quite happily on ukulele. Sometimes we have to move bass lines or use different chord inversions or even leave out notes to maintain the essence of the music. Even for those that do, compromises still have to be made. This means that not every piece of music makes a happy fit on the ukulele. For instance, the range of the ukulele is quite different from, say, the piano or even the guitar. And the process of arranging across instruments always involves a series of compromises. What this means is that a lot of classical pieces you will hear on the ukulele are arrangements. However, the “classical” repertoire for the ukulele is still rather limited. And much more music has been arranged and composed over the past thirty years. Ernest Ka’ai composed and published some great music in the early 1900. At this point not only Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart, but even Chopin and Rossini were already in the past. The ukulele first developed from the Portuguese braguinha in the 1880s, which is quite late compared to the traditional “classical” repertoire. Repertoire Classical Musicįirst of all, the ukulele does not have a traditional classical repertoire. Let’s look at the repertoire, the techniques required for playing classical music on ukulele, and then we’ll discuss the different instruments and which one might work best for this style of music. So, can you play classical music on ukulele? Absolutely! But we need to add a few qualifications. From John King’s masterful arrangements from about 20 years ago to Samantha Muir’s contemporary compositions, classical ukulele is starting to gain ground in the musical world. There is a growing interest in playing classical music on the ukulele.
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