UKULELE MIKE LYNCH – All things UKULELE

I’ve had hundreds of requests for more and more Chord/Melody ukulele solo arrangements.

For so many people they have proven to be an immediate success. They are so much easier

to learn then complicated fingerpicking, arpeggio style arrangements. Although those do

have their place and can be of great elegance and beauty, these chord/melody arrangements

are more readily accessible to most players.

Chord/Melody arrangements are by far the best introduction to instrumental solo

playing. One can play convincing instrumentals with much more ease than

usually experienced with fingerpicking solo playing. Only the thumb is used in

this stye of playing. No other fingers are involved. This acts to simplify the

process so one can concentrate on the distinctive melody of the piece.

In many cases the melody will be found to exist on either the first or second

strings. One needs to merely hold down the main chord while the…

What do we know about “Ode To Joy”? . . . Here’s what we learn from Wikipedia:

Ode to Joy” (German: “An die Freude”, first line: “Freude, schöner Götterfunken”) is an ode written in the summer of 1785 by German poet, playwright and historian Friedrich Schiller and published the following year in Thalia. A slightly revised version appeared in 1808, changing two lines of the first and omitting the last stanza.

It is best known for its use by Ludwig van Beethoven in the final movement of his Ninth Symphony, which does not set the entire poem and reorders some sections (Beethoven’s text is given in that article). Beethoven’s tune[1] (but not Schiller’s words) was adopted as the Anthem of Europe by the Council of Europe in 1972, and subsequently the European Union.

In arranging this piece, I originally did it as a fingerpicking arrangement with flowing 8th note arpeggios…

This what we know, historically, about the well known song Greensleeves . . .
“Greensleeves” is a traditional English folk song and tune, over a ground either of the form called a romanesca or of its slight variant, the passamezzo antico.
A broadside ballad by this name was registered at the London Stationer’s Company in September 1580,] by Richard Jones, as “A Newe Northen Dittye of ye Ladye Greene Sleves”. Six more ballads followed in less than a year, one on the same day, 3 September 1580 (“Ye Ladie Greene Sleeves answere to Donkyn hir frende” by Edward White), then on 15 and 18 September (by Henry Carr and again by White), 14 December (Richard Jones again), 13 February 1581 (Wiliam Elderton), and August 1581 (White’s third contribution, “Greene Sleeves is worne awaie, Yellow Sleeves Comme to decaie, Blacke Sleeves I holde in despite, But White Sleeves is my delighte”)…

“Fly Me to the Moon”, originally titled “In Other Words”, is a popular song written in 1954 by Bart Howard. Kaye Ballard made the first recording of the song in 1954. Since then it has become a frequently recorded jazz standard often featured in popular culture. Frank Sinatra’s 1964 version was closely associated with the Apollo missions to the Moon.

In 1999 The USA based Songwriters Hall of Fame recognized the importance of “Fly Me to the Moon” by inducting it as a “Towering Song” which is an award “…presented each year to the creators of an individual song that has influenced our culture in a unique way over many years.”

“Fly Me To The Moon” sounds best when it “swings”, however, in my chord/melody arrangement I have laid it out as a pretty straightforward piece with easily understood time values for the notes. After one masters the notes then…

“You Are My Sunshine” is a popular song written by Jimmie Davis and Charles Mitchell. and first recorded in 1939. It has been declared one of the state songs of Louisiana as a result of its association with former state governor and country music singer Jimmie Davis. According to a 1990 article by Theodore Pappas, the original song was written by Oliver Hood.
The song has been covered numerous times — so often, in fact, that it is “one of the most commercially programmed numbers in American popular music.” The song, originally country music, has “virtually lost” its original country music identity, and “represent[s] both the national flowering of country music and its eventual absorption into the mainstream of American popular culture.” In 1941, it was covered by Gene Autry, Bing Crosby, Mississippi John Hurt and Lawrence Welk. In subsequent years, it was covered by Ike and Tina Turner, Aretha…

“Scarborough Fair” is a traditional ballad of Great Britain about the Yorkshire town of Scarborough.
The song relates the tale of a young man who instructs the listener to tell his former love to perform for him a series of impossible tasks, such as making him a shirt without a seam and then washing it in a dry well, adding that if she completes these tasks he will take her back. Often the song is sung as a duet, with the woman then giving her lover a series of equally impossible tasks, promising to give him his seamless shirt once he has finished.
As the versions of the ballad known under the title “Scarborough Fair” are usually limited to the exchange of these impossible tasks, many suggestions concerning the plot have been proposed, including the hypothesis that it is about the Great Plague of the late Middle Ages. The lyrics…

“Let It Be Me” is a popular song originally published in French in 1955 as “Je t’appartiens”. The score was written and first recorded by Gilbert Bécaud. The lyrics were penned in French by Pierre Delanoë. The English language version used lyrics by Mann Curtis and was performed in 1957 by Jill Corey in the television series Climax!. Corey’s version, with orchestration by Jimmy Carroll, was released as a single and was moderately successful.

The most popular version of “Let It Be Me” was released in 1960 by The Everly Brothers. It reached 7th position on the Billboard Hot 100. The harmony arrangement of this version was often emulated in subsequent remakes. This was the first Everly Brothers single to be recorded in New York, and not in Nashville. the musicians that backed up the brothers on the record included Howard Collins, Barry Galbraith and Mundell Lowe on guitar, Lloyd…

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…

According to Wikipedia, we learn that
“Autumn Leaves” is a much-recorded popular song. Originally it was a 1945 French song “Les feuilles mortes” (literally “The Dead Leaves”) with music by Hungarian-French composer Joseph Kosma and lyrics by poet Jacques Prévert, and the Hungarian title is “Hulló levelek” (Falling Leaves). Yves Montand (with Irène Joachim) introduced “Les feuilles mortes” in 1946 in the film Les Portes de la nuit.

Like all of the selections in the new 52 Song CHORD/MELODY eBook, AUTUMN LEAVES uses the thumb only. . . No fingerpicking is involved. The most distinctive aspect of this arrangement is that you not only have the chord/melody format but also a rhythmic pulse that keeps the piece moving forward. The use of chords strummed between the melody also help the ukulele sustain more. It is important to emphasize the melodic part and play down the intermediate chords. If everything is…

“SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW” – Chord/Melody solo ukulele arrangement by Ukulele Mike Lynch

https://vimeo.com/79508674

My arrangement of Somewhere Over The Rainbow is a Chord/Melody piece. That means you play a chord and the melody, for the most part, “rides” on the first string. I chose the Key of F since it worked well with this song. The key of F is one of the most popular solo instrumental keys for the Ukulele. As in most Chord/Melody pieces we play the entire piece with the right thumb. No fingerpicking is needed. Using the flesh of the thumb rather than the nail also gives a sweet warm sound to the uke. I also find that stroking the strings up close to the neck rather than the soundhole also provides for a better sound.

One of the significant aspects of this arrangement is my use of “jazz” chords. . . Principally m7 dim7…