Ukulele Secret #12 The Campanella Arpeggio Workout

Here is one of my favorite ukulele secrets. Taken from my harp ukulele original, King’s Rain, these artful and impressive arpeggios span the neck and will improve your agility and accuracy for both your left and right hands.

The ingredients for a UKULELE BADASS!

When I composed King’s Rain I heard these arpeggios in my head before I even worked them out on the ukulele. I wanted to write a song for the harp ukulele that sounded like a traditional harp being played. What I didn’t anticipate was how much fun they would be to play. I spent hours shedding on them, easily hundreds of repetitions. I liked the way they sounded and I really liked the way they felt under my fingers.

I still use them as a workout… or just to show off.

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Performance Notes: Once again, three finger right hand technique. Thumb plays 4th string and index and ring fingers play the rest. See the instructional video for more explanation.

Left hand fingering should follow campanella judgement. Let the note on a string ring as long as possible before moving to the next note on the same string. This takes a bit of practice to do smoothly so go slow at first. This is important and when you get it faster it will sound like a harp.

Repetition. I don’t think you will get bored with these. Shoot for infinity.

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USE THESE IDEAS TO CREATE YOUR OWN.

Please. As with any of my secrets, they are meant to inspire you to learn and expand.

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The worksheet has 6 arpeggios written out in TAB with a chord diagram above each one.

Here’s the first example. Download all six examples below.

Download the full Campanella Arpeggio Workout.

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Here is the demonstration video with helpful hints.

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To refresh your memory of these being used in a song, here is the King’s Rain video. The arpeggio section begins at 1:18.

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And one last thing… PRACTICE!!!

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