I have some sheet music from 1929 that includes ukulele notation above the treble staff. We can dope out the tablature just fine, but the other notation is a mystery. We have several uke instruction books, but none of them include it, and I’ve surfed a bit and found nothing. Any uke players care to take a gander at it and help me out? Even if you can point me to a resource that explains it, that would be great. Thanks mucho.
I’m getting “page unavailable”, but I can’t even begin to imagine what you are discussing. Are they numbers, or letters, or words, or… what?
Looks like this, below the tabs but above the treble staff:
d :- |s[sub]|[/sub] :m
r :- |s[sub]|[/sub] :f
m :m |d :l
s :- |- :-
m .f :s |d :m
r :f |t[sub]|[/sub] :r
Each line is one 4/4 measure; each set of one to three symbols corresponds to a quarter note, except the first two of the fourth line, which are two eighth notes.
I’m thinking it’s some sort of fingering/strumming/picking notation. I have a 112K JPG I can e-mail to anyone else who can’t get to the image link.
Taking my free bump . . . Don’t tell me I’ve stumped the Dope!
I can’t see the picture page either, but I notice that the letters you typed correspond to the notes of the scale expressed as do, re, mi, etc., so I gather that this is some kind of “movable doh” notation.
OK, let’s try Photobucket:
Notation
Looks like you’re right about the do-re-mi thing; it matches the melody. But [thinking out loud] why would they include that with a full staff of normal music notation? (Under what you (hopefully) see in the JPG is a regular grand-staff piano arrangement.) And what the heck are those other symbols? Maybe it isn’t uke-related at all – but the subhead under the title says “Uke arrangement by Harry J. Stafford.” Hm.
That was a most excellent gathering! It would have taken me ages to get to that even after seeing the music (which I saw in the second link).
The uke arrangement is the chord blocks (BTW they are not tablature; tablature is a way to write linearly that is similar in that it is a schematic for finger positioning, but shows lines as they move through time) and is what Harry wrote.
Biffy is onto something with the “movable” idea–if you write do-re-mi for a vocalist who is familiar with that system, then they can sing in any key they want from that notation. So I am guessing that those other marks are indications for the singer. But as far as what they mean, they are very mysterious.
Yeah, I thought it might refer to fingers (thumb [?], first, middle, ring, last?), but I had no idea what to do with d and s. Never saw do-re-mi in “real” music. Then again, this is from 1929.
Learn something new every day! (I’m a piano girl.) I just asked Mr. S (who knows tons about music, yet doesn’t really play) and he confirmed your definition. Wow!
I think I’ll ask a mod to revise the title to get more people in here, not just uke people.
Done.
Ding ding ding we have a winner!!
That is some funky stuff. Never heard of it before. Don’t need it because I know how to sing the song, but interesting to know what it is nevertheless. Along the lines of shape-notes I guess.
Thanks everyone, and especially romansperson!
Cute. I’ve got a lot of old music but had never seen uke parts expressed like that. (Though it makes sense, now that I look at it. . . and remember my solfege.)
But now I’m really curious . . . what’s the tune?
TubaDiva
Who loves to linger in the moonlight . . . on Honolulu Bay.
That was my first suspicion until I saw your second post with a depiction of the notation. Although the OP question has been answered I’ll add that classical guitar music, particularly student music, is often notated with p (thumb), i (index), m (middle), a (ring) to suggest with which right finger to pluck a note. The abbreviations are taken, I think, from the Spanish words. I don’t know if the same convention is used for other plucked instruments (e.g., harp).
“Ever So Goosey,” featured in one of the funniest Jeeves & Wooster episodes ever. I had to order the sheet music from England! And we finally decided that we need a new uke – the old one Mr. S got on eBay doesn’t hold its tuning very well – so we’re gonna treat ourselves to one this weekend. Will be tormenting the neighbors soon!
Since everything else has been answered, I’ll add some ukulele information. Cheap ukes have pretty substandard pegs, so they lose their tune really fast. If you are going to get a uke, make sure to check out the pegs, and not get anything too cheap, or you’ll have the same problem.
Also, if they are nylon strings, you have to strech them out a bit before they begin to hold their tune, but you probably know that.
Yeah, Mr. S knows all about that stuff, so I’ll defer to him. (He amazes me – knows all kinds of things about songs and music techniques and playing styles, especially guitars and folk instruments, and owns about a dozen nice instruments, yet barely plays except to noodle aimlessly. Last year I set him a goal of learning to play ONE SONG on the guitar from beginning to end. I don’t think he ever even picked a song.)
There’s a nifty folk music shop in Madison we’re gonna hit on Saturday (Spruce Tree, if any Madtown folks drop into the thread), and they should be able to steer us right. A friend of ours who’s a performer has a sweet little National steel uke – wouldn’t that be great!