The ukulele has a close cousin in Brazil. It’s called the cavaquinho: a small four-string instrument with steel strings and a bright, ringing voice. Both instruments come from the same family of small Portuguese guitars. That family connection is a good reason to bring Brazilian rhythms to your ukulele. In this lesson, you’ll learn the … Read more
Tarantella for Ukulele Long before it reached the concert hall, the tarantella was treated as medicine: people in southern Italy believed this fast dance could draw a spider’s venom out of the body. Below you’ll find the strange story behind the tarantella, followed by a guide to this fingerstyle arrangement. You’ll find the sheet music … Read more
Vivaldi Largo for Ukulele: Concerto in D for Lute Antonio Vivaldi wrote his Concerto in D for Lute for a Bohemian count during a journey north of the Alps, and its slow middle movement, the Largo, adapts beautifully to solo ukulele in the key of G. In this post you’ll read about Vivaldi and the … Read more
Brahms Lullaby for Ukulele Brahms’ Lullaby is one of the most recognized melodies in the world. Parents have sung it to their babies for generations. In this post you’ll learn the story behind the piece and how to play it on ukulele. This arrangement comes from our Graded Repertoire for Ukulele: Classical, Volume 1 book. … Read more
Ode to Joy for Ukulele Beethoven’s Ode to Joy is one of the most celebrated musical themes in music history. You hear it in concert halls, in churches, and even at official ceremonies across Europe. It is also one of the best first pieces you can learn on the ukulele. In this post we’ll tell … Read more
Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring for Ukulele J.S. Bach’s Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring has become one of the most popular pieces of Western classical music. It shows up at weddings, in holiday programs, and in film scores. In this post we’ll look at its history and how it works on ukulele in Jeff Peterson’s … Read more
Renaissance Music for Ukulele: Nine Pieces to Explore Renaissance music, written between roughly 1400 and 1600, was built on modes (the major and minor keys of later centuries were still developing at this time). Its main texture was polyphony, independent melodic lines woven together through imitation. Regional traditions colored this shared language differently: England leaned … Read more
Fingerstyle Ukulele Styles: Explore Different Ways to Play Fingerstyle ukulele describes a particular technical approach to playing the ukulele. And essentially it’s about playing with the fingers in the right (or picking) hand, but it’s also more than that. Once you can play a melody with the fingers and a bass line with the thumb … Read more
How to Learn Fingerstyle Ukulele: A Complete Guide to Practicing and Progressing If you’ve worked through our Fingerstyle Technique guide, you might be asking, “Now how do I actually learn this stuff?” It’s a different question than “How do I move my hands?” Technique tells you what your fingers should be doing. Learning is everything … Read more
How to Play Fingerstyle Ukulele: A Complete Technique Guide Fingerstyle ukulele is built from a collection of small movements that work together. The way your fingers contact the strings, how your left hand places and releases each note, and how you shape the sound all contribute to the music you create. As these movements become … Read more
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Six pieces to explore, with standard notation and TAB. Arranged by Jeff Peterson.
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