Snow White Waltz for high G ukulele

Posted on December 15, 2025 by Anne Ku

The first snowfall is always magical—just like the first day of anything new. The snow lies fresh and white, and in its stillness, I hear a waltz: the Snow White Waltz. It begins as an arpeggio, a chord melody that invites a second player to join with gentle um-pah-pah strums. The tune feels familiar, echoing something timeless, yet waiting to become its own story.

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Harp on Arpeggio

Posted on December 9, 2025 by Anne Ku

Typical of my composition frenzy, I can’t stop at one piece. The “five arpeggios” of the 12 Days of Ukulele Christmas Parody got me thinking: what’s the second arpeggio? After “Intro to Arpeggio” which comprises ascending arpeggios, why not descending ones? As arpeggio in Italian refers to the harp, why not “Harp on Arpeggio” ? I haven’t had enough of arpeggios yet. Here is a short fingerstyle piece for high G ukulele with descending melodic lines and descending arpeggios in succession.

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Intro to Arpeggio

Posted on December 9, 2025 by Anne Ku

At the 10th Annual Holiday Party of the Ukulele Union of Boston, we sang a playful parody of The Twelve Days of Christmas. Molly and Dan Watt cleverly chose the phrase “five arpeggios” for the fifth day—a perfect musical twist! Inspired by that, and still in an arpeggio mood, I couldn’t resist writing a short piece for Pick Pluck Play! But first, let’s answer the question: what exactly is an arpeggio?

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Arpeggiated chord melody arrangement

Posted on December 9, 2025 by Anne Ku

Breaking up a chord into a sequence of its individual notes—while weaving in melodic tones—is what I mean by the admittedly mouthful phrase “arpeggiated chord melody arrangement.” Since I couldn’t find this term anywhere online, I’m sharing this blog to showcase examples of my own work. I use this four-word phrase as if it already exists in the musical lexicon, even though I may be inventing it here.

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About Pick Pluck Play!

Posted on December 7, 2025 by Anne Ku

Pick Pluck Play! is a series of ukulele books composed for fingerstyle ukulele by Anne Ku, available worldwide on Amazon. Owners of Pick Pluck Play! are invited to attend, participate, or watch the livestream recordings of 3 Chord Thursday in 2026, which dives into the contents in the one-hour session in Zoom. It’s a new ukulele curriculum.

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Ukulele Odyssey Project

Posted on December 3, 2025 by Anne Ku

A global Call for Scores invited original ukulele compositions, resulting in a unique website that showcases one piece at a time. On the Ukulele Odyssey site, each work is featured for a few days before a countdown reveals the next. Visitors can read performance notes, watch the video, and play from on-screen sheet music—though downloading or printing isn’t allowed. There’s no archive; only the current piece is visible. I was thrilled when my first submission, Tulips in Triple Time, launched the site in October 2025. Since then, these rotating works have continued to inspire my own composing.

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Annual Holiday Party – ukulele clubs in Boston and London

Posted on December 2, 2025 by Anne Ku

One of the events I so look forward to attending at the end of each year is the annual holiday party. It’s THAT time of the year when we dress up in Christmas colors of red and green (which also happen to be the colors of the Italian flag), bring our ukuleles, and get together for warm festivities of food and fun. To support this event, I’m donating my books as raffle prizes.

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Book signing & free workshops at Walter Baker Building

Posted on November 15, 2025 by Anne Ku

Each year, the historic area of Lower Mills (that part of Boston that borders Milton, Mattapan, and Quincy, Massachusetts and home to the oldest chocolate factories in the country) is lit up for an afternoon event called the Holiday Stroll. Visitors walk from restaurants to shops, sit on the free trolley, and get free samples of snacks and other goodies. The Walter Baker Building will open its doors to book sales and signing by three authors, including me. Save the date – Saturday 29th November 2025 from 3 to 6 PM for free workshops and other events.

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Fingerstyle Ukulele Book 1 for absolute beginners

Posted on October 9, 2025 by Anne Ku

My new book “Pick Pluck Play! Book 1” is now published on Amazon worldwide. I would love to get your feedback before I publish the second book in the new fingerstyle ukulele series. Click below for the direct link to this 48-page book in full color.

and more !

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Hemiola Gondola

Posted on October 1, 2025 by Anne Ku

Last night my friend texted, “We must ride a gondola when we’re in Venice.” Somehow the word gondola became vongola in my dreams overnight. I woke up this morning hungry for my favorite pasta dish linguine alla vongole. How do I write a piece about clams and pasta? Luckily, gondola, the Italian word for the famous flat bottomed boat in Venetian canals, rhymes with hemiola. Here is my second piece dedicated to changing meter through use of deliberate accents.

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