Author Archives: James Cline

As I’m writing this, it is December 17, 2019. 249 years ago today, Beethoven was baptized. Since we don’t know the actual day he was born, December 17 is generally accepted as the day we celebrate his birthday. I celebrated the day by filming page 10 of the second movement of my “Pastorale” Symphony transcription: […]

Another “milestone” reached this week: The first seven pages of “Scene by the Brook”, the second movement of Beethoven’s Pastorale Symphony, arranged for solo ‘Ukulele! Like the first movement, the second movement of Beethoven’s Sixth is in sonata form. Sonata form has three main sections: the exposition,the development, and the recapitulation. Since page 7 marks the end of […]

Here is Beethoven’s “Scene by the Brook”, the second movement of Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony, in my solo ‘Ukulele arrangement: I had an attack of the “if onlys” this week, wishing the project would be farther along or done, thinking that if only the transcription was complete, things would be so much “better”, so much “easier”…. […]

Here’s the latest installment of “Beethoven of the ‘Ukulele”. I’m not sure whether to continue to call it “Beethoven OF the ‘Ukulele”, or to call it “Beethoven ON the ‘Ukulele”, or something else. Anyway, here is the latest installment: Page 5 of “Scene by the Brook”, the second movement of his “Pastorale” Symphony: After a […]

The second movement of the “Pastorale” symphony is flowing right along. (Ha ha :)) Here is page 4 of the ‘Ukulele transcription: In the video, I also share how to play the phrase at the end of page 4 using harmonics. Harmonics are the bell-like sounds that are produced by lightly touching a node, or […]

Yesterday it started snowing here in Denver. It’s not that unusual to have heavy snow here at the end of October, but it still feels strange every time it happens. This morning my commute that normally takes thirty minutes turned into a treacherous hour-long trek across snow-covered freeways. My kid’s school and the colleges where […]

On October 8, my video series of the first movement of Beethoven’s Pastorale Symphony for solo ‘Ukulele concluded and I took the entire movement out for its first official performance on October 9. Due to my traveling to a conference last week, I skipped creating a blog post, but faithfully pressed on with the project […]

Yesterday (Monday, October 7, 2019), the final video for the first movement of the Beethoven Pastorale ‘Ukulele solo transcription was filmed. You can see a performance of the final two pages of Movement 1 in the latest episode of Beethoven of the ‘Ukulele. In the video you can also see some rehearsal footage from last […]

The first movement is almost done! In this episode of “Beethoven of the ‘Ukulele” you can see and hear pages 17 and 18 of the transcription performed: Last week I discussed some of the ways this project has made me a better ‘Uke player. A big project like this is not just good for sharpening […]

We’re into the home stretch of the ‘Ukulele transcription of the first movement of Beethoven’s Pastorale Symphony! Here’s a video of pages 16 and 17 of the symphony: Being so close to a big milestone like this gives me a chance to pause and reflect on how taking on this project has made me a […]