On this site I whole-heartedly recommend various books and materials for becoming a better ukulele player.
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Area of Expertise : Renaissance Faire
The Renaissance marks the beginning of a fundamental shift in the way music was written and percieved. Music of this period is widely varied, but a large portion of it was written for or influenced by the ukulele’s distant ancestor, the lute. Earn your AE Renaissance Faire patch by demonstrating three Renaissance pieces transcribed for the ukulele (Medieval compositions will also be accepted). 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 1400-1600 A.D. for Renaissance, or as early as 500 A.D. for Medieval). Here are a few resources for this genre:
- From Lute to Uke by Tony Mizen : an excellent book of lute transcriptions that range in skill level from easy to difficult. This would be my first choice.
- 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.