Over the last 5 weeks I have had the pleasure of attending Sammy Turton’s (a.k.a. 4stringboy) Fingerstyle Composition course. Every week we have been introduced to important aspects of composing fingerstyle music for ukulele including theory, patterns and harmony.
As I write this, that final class hasn’t happened yet. More to come…
The last week we were asked to apply what we learned to an original composition. Then, we will explore it more in class with Sammy’s guidance.
I have been noodling on some ideas for my composition and what I finally came up with was not anything I would’ve ever guessed that I would do. My Monday morning meditation session, was disrupted by this tune in my head, so I immediately grabbed my iPad, popped open Garageband and tapped it out on the keyboard. When I listened to it a few hours later I just decided that I would transcribe it for my final assignment.
It sounds somewhat familiar so maybe my higher self ripped it off from some poor extraphysical soul or a deep memory from my parent’s past. It sounds old. Almost like a fiddle tune.
I added the “Frère Jacques” reference as I was transcribing from my iPad. The creative process is full of side steps and discoveries as you work through things. I thought it was funny…
It’s still a work in progress and I would like to add a Baritone ukulele part and maybe a second ukulele.
I decided to share it with a Creative Commons 4.0 license. Anyone who wants to fiddle around with it and create more permutations can do so. The PDF and mp3 are attached.
Please share if you take a stab at working with it. Also take a look at Sammy’s classes and his memberships. I have found them very fun and valuable.