For many of us it has been a long time since we had a chance to play with other people , let alone meet at banjo conventions . The tune We ’ ll Meet Again seemed appropriate to me , also because Dame Vera Lynn passed away on June 28 th this year at 103 years old . The tune was written in 1939 by the British composers Ross Parker and Hughie Charles and was first recorded by Lynn . In 1943 a movie by the same name also featured Lynn . Dame Very Lynn released her last album in 2017 , making her an active professional musician for 96 years !
My arrangement is intended for beginners as well as intermediate students of ukulele chord melody playing . The tune has an “ AABA ” form , meaning in this case that there are 8 bars in the “ A-part ” that are repeated , then 8 bars in the “ B-part ” ( aka the “ bridge ”), and then the A-part once again . The first A-part has a different ending from the other two A-parts .
The arrangement is in the key of G . To those familiar with the circle of fifths , the A-part starts on the I chord ( G ), then jumps to the III chord ( B7 ), and then descends along the circle ( E , A , D ) back to G . Check out the accompanying chords first . The first chord is a G6 , a variant of the G major chord that has a little more warmth to it and is easier to play than a G chord to boot . We then skip to a B7 chord and an E7 chord . The E7 chord is followed by an augmented version to follow the melody . Then on to A7 and Am7 ( A minor 7 th ). The first A-part ends on a D augmented chord , strongly guiding the ear back to the G chord that starts the second A-part . The second A-part ( and the third for that matter ) simply ends with a V-I progression : D7 to G6 . However , to follow the melody , we can play a D13th chord instead of a D7 .
The bridge is a so-called “ Honeysuckle ” bridge , named after the famous tune Honeysuckle Rose by Fats Waller . It ’ s also sometimes called a “ Montgomery Ward ” bridge . It is a common pattern in various other tunes ( e . g ., When You ’ re Smiling ). The progression starts on the dominant version of the I chord , in this case a G7 , which then naturally wants to resolve in a C chord . We use a C6 chord , for the same reasons that we used a G6 chord instead of a G . The whole thing is then repeated one step up , from A7 to D7 , which then guides the ear back to the G , the starting chord of the last A-part .
Now on to the actual chord melody . In the A-part , the arrangement tries to accentuate the second beat of each measure by playing a chord . Otherwise it is mostly single note playing . Each measure should be practiced slowly until it can be played precisely from memory , with a steady rhythm and only then sped up to the desired speed . This is not a fast tune . The bridge is a little trickier than the rest . For variety the chords are played on beats 1 and 3 . Because the melody goes a little higher , some closed chords must be fingered up the neck . Again , doing this slowly at first is the way to learn it .
This is a tune that most everybody knows , so you may want to sing along too . In that case , I recommend just playing the chords , four strums to the bar . Singing and doing a chord melody arrangement at the same time is hard and rarely sounds good . A nice arrangement might be the following : first play the last four bars by way of introduction and setting the proper speed ( remember , not too fast ). Then sing it , just playing the chords for accompaniment . Then play the chord melody . Finish by singing the tune one more time .
I hope you liked this mini lesson . If you have any comments , questions , suggestions , and / or requests , please feel free to email me at rvr @ cs . cornell . edu .
ALL FRETS SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2020 31