Dec 6, 2022

A Ukulele for Christmas: Fingerstyle Solos - New Book!


A Ukulele for Christmas: Fingerstyle Solos
Check out the all new "A Ukulele for Christmas: Fingerstyle Solos" Book!

You will Learn More and Play More with Play Ukulele NOW.

Find out for yourself why teachers and students have depended on Play Ukulele NOW Methods and Songbooks since 2009

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It's finally here - my new book of Christmas Fingerstyle Solos. You're going to love it!


Here's a little bit about it...

These arrangements are hauntingly beautiful, with many campanella passages, and majestic; steeped in rich harmonies.


They are carefully arranged and graduated; each song comes with a comprehensive lesson to help you perform it properly. I do things very differently in these arrangements... Here’s how I put them together and why. 

I like to take advantage of the unique reentrant tuning of the ukulele by incorporating campanella passages (campanella is Italian for “little bells” – notes ring together). Campanella sounds like a piano played with a sustain pedal so it’s a great effect, but like many great things you don’t want to overdo it! 

There are whole books of camanella arrangements for ukulele, where all the notes ring together in every one of the songs – can you imagine a piano player playing an entire song with a sustain pedal? Might be cool for a song or two but after a while the listener will want to hear harmony and rhythm – a campanella passage is just melody. Some people like to hear melody and can listen to many pieces that are exclusively campenella but most people can’t listen to that kind of thing for an extended period of time. 

IMPORTANT: 

There are “three elements” present in music: 
  • Melody
  • Harmony
  • Rhythm

Typically, people like one of these elements more than the others or may like one exclusively. Some may like harmony, someone really into harmony may like jazz music (people that are not into harmony at all will hate jazz). Some one that’s really into rhythm, may like dance or rap music, etc… These people would become quickly dis-interested by a performance of pieces that are strictly campenella, because it’s just melody, therefore campanellla is best used as an effect - like the sustain pedal of the piano would be used. This is an important rule I use to create arrangements that everyone can enjoy. 

What I typically find for ukulele arrangements are pieces that are 100% campanella—which I can only listen to for so long because I love jazz and harmony—or pieces that are chord melody, or maybe even more of a classical arrangement, that do not utilize the reentrant tuning at all and have no campanella effects (or very few of them). There are not many arrangements available for the ukulele that take into consideration the “three elements” and, at the same time, take advantage of the reentrant tuning with beautiful campenella parts.

Therefore, these are unique arrangements that explore new possibilities... 

I like jazz so harmony is important to me, these arrangements have beautiful harmonies – and are a step above a basic chord melody arrangement, they are closer to how a classical player would arrange the piece. Don’t worry, we don’t get into any crazy jazz chords here – so no-one will be alienated that’s not a harmony nut like me. 

Great care is taken in these arrangements to insure can be performed with the “three elements” so they will be engaging to you and your audience and perfect for any public performance. In these arrangements you will find a well balanced fusion between campanella passages, harmonies, and chords, while still incorporating interesting rhythms into the pieces as well. 

With the 32 graduated lessons that accompany the solo arrangements, you will learn to play fingerstyle one step at a time! Beginners will lean to play fingerstyle ukulele and develop excellent right- and left-hand technique. 

This book is “packed to the gills” with tips and tricks to make you a better solo player, and to help you to perform these beautiful pieces perfectly! 

The advanced player will greatly improve their technique and will still enjoy playing even the simplest pieces here; the advanced player will perform them on another level entirely. And finally, if you’re an advanced player, you will be able to easily apply these techniques to other pieces you like to play. Now, everything you play can have the “three elements,” and your solo performances will be unforgettable! 

This could serve as a complete fingerstyle method book too! 

I take full advantage the reentrant tuning, as a result, these arrangements will only work on a high G uke

Grab your copy today (click the links below, first one is a hard copy).



Get just one song: O Little Town of Bethlehem from "A Ukulele for Christmas: Fingerstyle Solos" with extras! (this and other songs from the book are available FREE to patreon members).

A Ukulele for Christmas: Fingerstyle Solos



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