I spotted this great campanella version of Deck The Halls recently and Jon (who created the beautiful arrangement) has very kindly allowed me to post the tab here for you all to learn…
Campanella can sometimes be a real left hand (or fretting hand) workout. You can end up moving your hand all over the neck to try and find a note on another string. The beauty of this arrangement is that it’s not the case here. Look how little Jon’s fretting hand moves to begin with. He’s getting a lot of notes with minimal movement, which is a huge bonus.
Deck The Halls Tab
Take a look at the tab below (the PDF version is linked to at the bottom of this article). Take it very slowly to begin with. Aim for fluidity rather than speed. It’s better to play it slow and correct than fast and wrong.
Watch Jon’s performance to get to grips with the finger placement and don’t forget you can slow down Youtube videos by clicking on the gear icon in the bottom right corner and selecting speed.
One tip that I’ve really started to lean on when working with arrangements that I can’t immediately play is to take them a single bar at a time. I’m always mindful of the next bar, but if I can get through even one bar in each practice session then that’s progress.
If you enjoy this tab and find that you’re liking the campanella sound then I’d highly recommend you take a look at Jon’s ebook – Celtic Tunes for Campanella Ukulele. The ebook contains 40 brilliant campanella arrangements (and supporting Youtube videos) to help you learn.
Celtic Tunes for Campanella Ukulele
This tab is terrible, yes it it the right notes, but it is really badly tabbed.
First of all, I get you are trying to add the g string. There is a reason it is generally avoided. There are people out there, like me, who has a low G string. Yes I can still play a g on my e string, but not everybody can sight read and play that well and you are making it harder than it should be.
Second of all, why, o why, is there sixes and fives in the tab. I get you are trying to use open strings or sixes and fives to make it easier for some players. Well if you used ones and threes with open string it would be even easier and better, I saw what you were trying to do, but when there are multiple sites with way better tabs than this you are gonna lose your users, quickly. So please change think about what you did.
Hi Aldo, this is a campanella arrangement. It’s deliberately tabbed this way to avoid playing the same string consecutively in order to let each note ring out for as long as possible. This does tend to mean that it’s a bit of a finger workout though.
This a Campanella arrangment. Campanella is not for Low G.
The arrangement is brilliant.
Your criticism is completely missing the point. Would have been a good idea to get informed a little bit before being so harsh.
What has happened to the good old Aloha Spirit?