“THE PRAYER” by David Foster & Carol Bayer Sager. . . . Solo ukulele chord/melody arrangement by Ukulele Mike Lynch. . . . Now included in the massive 52 song CHORD/MELODY eBook (now reduced to just $20.00)

According to WIKIPEDIA “The Prayer” is a popular song written by David Foster, Carole Bayer Sager, Alberto Testa and Tony Renis. It is most commonly known as a duet between Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli. It is the second single from Dion’s Christmas album These Are Special Times and the first from Bocelli’s album Sogno, and was released as a promotional single on March 1, 1999. The song won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song from the 1998 film Quest for Camelot. It was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1999 and a Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals in 2000.

AN ARRANGER’S THOUGHTS . . .

I’ve personally been a huge fan of David Foster ever since he was producing Chicago back in the 80’s. THE PRAYER is a fine example of his skill at crafting beautiful elegant melodies and the first time I heard Andrea Bocelli and Celine Dion sing it as a duet I was knocked out. The fact that so many people have successfully covered it is a testimony to it’s lasting quality as a well composed song.

I’ve wanted to take on this song as a solo ukulele arrangement for many years and over time I’ve tried numerous keys, fingerpicking styles and chord/melody styles. I finally settled on a chord/melody arrangement with use of the thumb only. The next issue I had was how to deal with the bridge section of the song.

The bridge takes the song up into a higher register and it just seemed impractical for ease of playing on the ukulele. It’s always been my goal to design my arrangements to allow the most ease of playing for most players. So often I’ve found published arrangements that are just way to difficult for most people to play. I attempted to make this piece playable and yet not diminish the full richness of the song. Therefore, my ultimate solution was to to use the Key of C. Most ukulele arrangements play better in F or G or even Am but C allowed me to keep the song in a good playable range and then, to deal with the bridge, I merely lowered it an octave. I think it works. . . I hope you do as well.

The entire piece as I mentioned is a Chord/Melody style arrangement. Use the thumb only . . . no fingerpicking is needed. Notice in the video that I play it up on the fingerboard above the sound hole. I’ve discovered that you generally get a warmer,fuller,sweeter tone in that position.

Played on the new Ukulele Mike “signature” tenor ukulele from Oscar Schmidt

Addendum . . .
THE PRAYER is now contained in the newly released CHORD/MELODY eBook.
Here is a video detailing the contents of the pdf book.

The Chord/Melody eBook ONE can be purchased by making a payment (recently reduced) of just $20.00 through the paypal button on the Ukulele Mike Lynch website http://www.ukulelemikelynch.com Once purchased, it will be personally emailed to you within the day. 

Each of the Chord/Melody collections can be purchased separately for just $20.00 or all together at the new Combo “TRILOGY” discount of just $50.00

Announcing the release of the NEW Chord melody ebook FOUR  $25.95

All 4 of the Chord melody ebooks can be purchased at a combo discount of  $70

For information regarding any ukulele product please email TheUkuleleMan2012@hotmail.com