When fingerpicking are you just playing the melody?

Hey guys and gals,

I just bought "Ukulele Fake Book" from the Hal - Leonard company. It has chords, melody, and lyrics for each song in it. Some of the songs sound weird to me when I play the chords so I wanted to try fingerpicking them but I don't know how to read the music to fingerpick it. Am I just playing the melody? If so how do I map the notes to the uke. Lets say there is a F in the melody, there is an F on every string how do I know which F to play?

Thanks,
~ Zero

zeroradius said:

Hey guys and gals,

I just bought "Ukulele Fake Book" from the Hal - Leonard company. It has chords, melody, and lyrics for each song in it. Some of the songs sound weird to me when I play the chords so I wanted to try fingerpicking them but I don't know how to read the music to fingerpick it. Am I just playing the melody? If so how do I map the notes to the uke. Lets say there is a F in the melody, there is an F on every string how do I know which F to play?

Thanks,
~ Zero

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"Normally" I take the lowest note in the written music and use that as my base reference. By definition all other notes must be higher in tone so will be either (or both) higher up the fret-board or on a different string. Again, "normally", I'd usually move across the fret-board for higher notes before I moved up the fret-board, but there are circumstances where it's easier to begin a particular sequence, for instance, on the fourth or fifth fret of the third string rather than down at the bottom of the second string, but decisions like that need to be made on a case-by-case basis. On a re-entrantly tuned ukulele there's not really a lot of choices until you start to "get complicated" and use the fourth string for melody notes, as in campanella-style. This is where specifically-written tab is very useful

Try different combos. Which ever F sounds the best to you, that's the one to play. It's " .......F***ing finger picking good"!

zeroradius said:

If so how do I map the notes to the uke. Lets say there is a F in the melody, there is an F on every string how do I know which F to play?

Click to expand...

The important bit is how it relates to the other notes in the melody. You don't want to be jumping octaves unless the music calls for it (or you're getting creative.

This might help map the notes to the ukulele. I just made it so I hope I didn't stuff it up:



There are plenty of other ways to play most of those notes too, by moving up the fretboard on a lower string, but this is a good place to start.

Thanks yall! The chart really helps Dan. I'm printing it out now. About the other part of my question, is fingerpicking just playing the melody?

zeroradius said:

Thanks yall! The chart really helps Dan. I'm printing it out now. About the other part of my question, is fingerpicking just playing the melody?

Click to expand...

Most of the time, but some people do some crazy stuff with finger picking. Think of it like singing - you can sing the song, or you can butcher the National Anthem in front of millions by trying to embellish it. Or nail it.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I always thought "fingerpicking" was a right-hand technique (assuming you're a right-handed player). You can fingerpick chords. You can fingerpick melody. You can fingerpick harmonies or for that matter random notes. Doesn't matter what notes you're playing, only that you're using your fingers to sound individual strings, not strumming across all the strings or using a pick. Search on Youtube for "ukulele fingerpicking."

Chord/melody style is when you play the melody while accompanying it with chords. Could be picked or strummed, your choice.

I don't know of any name for "just playing the melody" except "just playing the melody."

Sometimes just playing the melody can sound OK. Other times you can thicken up the sound by playing chords as well, such as rolls or arpegios. It all adds variety to a tune. The uke is a polyphonic instrument so may as well makes the most of it.

Which note to play? There are different ways to play scales depending on the effect required, like the capanella scales in this previous thread.

http://forum.ukuleleunderground.com/showthread.php?73251-Campanella-Scales-in-all-Twelve-Keys!

Thanks for all the replies

acmespaceship said:

I don't know of any name for "just playing the melody" except "just playing the melody."

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I've heard of it being called Flat Picking - but I just say that I'm picking the melody.

Basically - Picking is when you pick/sound individual strings, & that's it.

uke1950 said:

I've heard of it being called Flat Picking - but I just say that I'm picking the melody.

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Hi, uke1950. Your style is very similar to Grant Green, who is great jazz guitarist. And his style is called single note melody or linear style. Anyway I like your style very much in the seasons. I like to play single note melody too.

Thankyou, zztush.

zeroradius said:

About the other part of my question, is fingerpicking just playing the melody?

Click to expand...

Not at all. It can be, or it can be just about anything else, providing you're picking with your fingers.

I like to fingerpick chords. Most guitarists and ukulele players will learn some simple patterns that can be used to fingerpick any chords and will sound great. You've probably learned some strumming patterns - picking patterns are just like that, except they incorporate 'which string when' instead of just 'when'.

And when you've mastered that, you can add in some extra notes to form a melody as well as the chord, commonly called fingerstyle.

Here's an example. Two simple chords, A major and Asus4. The top four bars are what you get if you simply strum them on the beat. It sounds nice, right?

The middle four bars are using a simple finger picking pattern. The left hand is still just holding the same chord shapes. It sounds pretty, and you can add dynamics (louder and softer, speeding up and slowing down) to add some emotional zing.

The bottom four bars add a basic melody. So now the left hand is holding the chord shape and hitting an occasional extra note with a spare finger. Meanwhile, the right hand is still picking basically the same pattern, but also picking a few extra strings now and then to form the melody. This sounds fantastic, IMHO (I think I can say that because it's based on a simplification of something Kalei Gamiao sometimes uses for ukulele sound samples).

You can also use an alternating bass to carry the melody.