Area of Expertise : Baroque

Our modern understanding of chords and harmony are rooted in the Baroque compositions of J.S. Bach and his contemporaries. The Baroque style is at times simple and sweet, but much more often is highly ornamented and full of counterpoint. Because of these qualities, performing Baroque music on a solo ukulele takes a fair amount of skill.

Earn your AE Baroque Folk patch by demonstrating two Baroque pieces transcribed for the ukulele. You may create your own tabs for these (please email copies to be shared on this page to ryan@ukuleleplay.com), or find tabs out there on the internet. If in doubt about when a piece was written, look up the composer (should have lived somewhere between 1600-1760 A.D. – there is a timeline of famous Baroque composers on Wikipedia). Here are a few resources for this genre:

• Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach and Ukulele arranged by Ondrej Sarek. This notebook was a gift from J.S. Bach to his wife.
• The Baroque Ukulele is another great book from Tony Mizen.
• 20 Spanish Baroque Pieces by Gaspar Sanz Arranged for Uke by Rob MacKillop gives a look at what was going on down south during this era.
• The Bach Uke Book is another well-reviewed offering from Rob MacKillop.
• Chief Noda has a few pieces by Bach on his website.
• The late John King has one Bach offering on his site.
• Alte Musik mit der Ukulele by Wilfried Welti contains Renaissance and Baroque pieces (look up the composer if in doubt).
• Classical Tabs for Ukulele by Michael Parmentier is a site with many Classical, Renaissance and Baroque pieces (look up the composer if in doubt). Many tabs are for low 4th string, so look for those labelled ‘high 4th’ or ‘reentrant.’ His arrangements are really well-done and are free.
• PDF Minstrel also has some tabs from this era, but you have to search a bit for them.