Auld Lang Syne for high G ukulele

Between New Year’s Eve and Burn’s Night is the best time of the year for Auld Lang Syne. This time last year I ran several workshops in Zoom to explore different ways to play and accompany this popular song. Revisiting what I had arranged, I discovered even more, if not, better ways to play it — for high G ukulele specifically.

Consider this song in the popular key of G major. There are many ways to play the single melodic notes. The sample extract above makes use of the high G string. In Campanella Style playing, hold each note for as long as possible.

In the third bar “brought to mind,” to travel from the 2nd fret “brought” to the 5th fret “to” to 7th fret “mind” on the A-string, consider sliding instead of lifting your left hand finger.

Arranged for instrumental solo, I find it fascinating to try different left hand techniques of slide, hammer on, and pull off, as I’ve indicated in the above extract with oval, circle, and square shapes.

Next blog post: exercises for left hand techniques

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