ukulele-arts

Praeludium – Melpomene Suite (Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer)

Wilfried Welti — Wed, 27 Dec 2023 21:02:41 +0000

At the first glance, the melpomene suite is not very well suited for solo playing with re-entrant ukulele tuning. Surprisingly some of the pieces sound quite interesting with the ukulele nonetheless, despite the many overlapping voices in the ukulele arrangement.

Three more Christmas Carols

Wilfried Welti — Sun, 24 Dec 2023 15:39:58 +0000

Besser late than never: I was able to upload three more Christmas music videos just in time for Christmas Eve.

Merry Christmas!

Alle Jahre wieder

Wilfried Welti — Fri, 22 Dec 2023 10:41:42 +0000

A Christmas Carol from my free German Christmas e-book.

Ukelige Weihnachtslieder

Wilfried Welti — Thu, 07 Dec 2023 14:09:48 +0000

You can download the e-book here.

Who didn’t make this experience? You want to motivate somebody to play ukulele — however even “simple” chords like G or D can be a challenge for absolute beginners. So I tried something to make it easier for them: An e-book of German Christmas carols with simplified chords.

These simplified chords may sound a bit unusual at the first glance. In the first 6 songs, the open G- and C- strings are used for a “drone”-like accompaniment sound. However, such drone sounds were not unusual in early music, for example. A bag pipe also often uses two drone pipes tuned as a fifth.

In the song “Süßer die Glocken nie klingen” I untroduce the Bbmaj7 chord as a replacement for Bb. Sounds a bit “trippy”, but also reminds me (a bit) of bells.

Jesu, meine Freude

Wilfried Welti — Sat, 24 Dec 2022 09:49:17 +0000

Originally a hymn by Johann Franck and Johann Crüger. I used the setting by Johann Sebastian Bach (BWV 227, chorale) for my arrangement for solo ukulele.

Played with my Brüko No. 6 soprano ukulele.

Merry Christmas!

Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern

Wilfried Welti — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 17:10:32 +0000

A more than 400 years old hymn by Philipp Nicolai.

The Hymn of Joy

Wilfried Welti — Sat, 17 Dec 2022 19:41:16 +0000

I simply wanted to play some uplifting music…

What diminishes my joy a little bit is that I promptly received a copyright claim via content ID by Youtube. Which is of course ridiculous, since this melody was already used by Ludwig van Beethoven in his 9th symphony.

I really have to rant a bit here… I hate those Copyfrauders who abuse platforms like Youtube and Content ID by claiming copyright for music that is in the public domain. Most people are too lazy or too shy to dispute these claims, and it also doesn’t help that Youtube threatens with deletion of your account if your dispute gets rejected (for whatever reasons I cannot know). So many people playing such public domain music will not issue a dispute, whereby the Copyfrauders will receive income from advertisments which get shown to people who want to watch such videos.

This is not okay IMHO. It’s clear that these Copyfrauders have criminal energy and their actions should be punishable. They are making profit by stealing music from the whole of humanity. Makes me kinda angry.

Anyway… I still wish you all a wonderful time and Christmas season!

Gaudete

Wilfried Welti — Fri, 16 Dec 2022 16:22:59 +0000

It doesn’t always have to be a sophisticated arrangement…
Gaudete is a wellknown Christmas carol from the 16. century.

Der Morgenstern ist aufgedrungen

Wilfried Welti — Sun, 04 Dec 2022 20:29:37 +0000

A more than 400 years old German Christmas carol by Daniel Rumpius, played on my Brüko No. 6 soprano ukulele.

Tourdion with zither and ukulele

Wilfried Welti — Wed, 30 Nov 2022 16:29:57 +0000

I recorded this video last summer with Zacquine. We decided now to publish it.

I think ukulele and zither can work amazingly well together!