Is there a one stop shop for ukulele arrangements and transcriptions of guitar music? Given the right transposition and pitch range, what was originally written for the classical guitar can now be replicated and experienced on a smaller instrument such as the ukulele.
Decades after I picked up the guitar and stopped playing, my fingers still know the beginning of the Waltz in E minor by Carulli. It was the quest for this music that got me to transcribe it for the ukulele. The key of A minor was more appropriate, i.e. doable, on the ukulele.
In my madness, I found other waltzes by Carulli that were equally engaging on the ukulele. In my blog post, I pondered whether there is a one-to-one mapping. First there needs to be a correct naming. The Waltz in e is not to be confused with Waltz in E. The small e is short for E minor, while the large E is E major. But Carulli didn’t call it the “Waltz in E minor” and that’s why it was so difficult to find.
The version I found and played was in a book by Randy Reed, entitled Randy Reed Repertoire Book One, on page 19. No opus number was given, but simply Carulli’s Method. I researched further afield to find an attribution to Opus 241 elsewhere.
Why is this piece so important to me? It brings back memories of my teenage years on the island of Okinawa. I had just learned to pick notes on my nylon string guitar. It felt very different from the piano.
