Valentine’s Day is almost here, and I’m just one arrangement away from finishing the next and fifth book in the Pick Pluck Play! Series. Today’s sneak peek is a spirited one: “Star of County Down” arranged for high‑G ukulele, full of lively slurs and crisp down‑ and up‑strums that keep the music dancing. A bright, joyful tune to kick off the celebration.
Slurs and Strums
This one‑page arrangement makes extensive use of slurs and strums. Slurs (the little arc over the notes) represent left‑hand techniques where the fretting finger helps create the sound itself. The strums are the spelled‑out chord shapes that add rhythmic drive.
Abbreviations
- ho — hammer‑on: starting from an open string or a lower fret, strike the next note firmly with the left‑hand finger at a 90° angle
- po — pull‑off: starting from a higher fret to a lower fret on the same string, “pluck” the lower note using the fretting finger
- sl — slide: move one finger along the same string, either up toward the sound hole or down toward the nut
- d — down strum
- D — accented down strum
- u — up strum
There’s one more left‑hand technique I haven’t used in this fun chord‑melody arrangement: BEND.
Valentine’s Day Special Edition
The fifth book in my Pick Pluck Play! Series is a Special Edition for Valentine’s Day—a lively compilation of twelve arrangements of the love songs that matter most to me. I’m racing the clock to bring it to you as soon as I can, and every page feels like a celebration in the making.
Rather than ordering them progressively, as I’ve done in the previous four books (from easy to most challenging), I decided to sequence them according to the stages of life.
Stage I: Infancy & Childhood
- 1. Hush, Little Baby (The Lullaby/Birth)
- 2. Skip to My Lou (Playful childhood games)
- 3. Mo Li Hua (The innocence of a child admiring a flower)
Stage II: Youth & The First Spark of Love
- 4. Oh! Susanna (The adventurous, energetic journey of youth)
- 5. Star of the County Down (The “love at first sight” moment; high energy)
Stage III: The Complexity of Adulthood
Stage IV: Reflection & The Golden Years
Stage V: The Final Farewell
12. Aloha ‘Oe (The “Farewell to Thee”—historically used for partings and often at the end of life’s journey)
Pick Pluck Play! Series on Amazon Worldwide
I am absolutely thrilled to see my books going to places all over the world. The first four books are available in paperback (both COLOR and black & white ECONOMY) as well as on Kindle.
I invite all my readers to join me in 3 Chord Thursday (a one-hour session in Zoom) on the third Thursday of each month.
