Below is the lesson for Fingerpicking Etude no. 10: “DayDreaming”.

Helpful Tips

In this etude, you’ll learn a cute sounding melody that is played with a swung rhythmic feel. This song features an ABA format, in that each section is 8 bars in length. In other words, we would be playing:

Melody A – 8 Bars
Melody B – 8 Bars
Melody A – 8 Bars (with the last bar [bar 8] being an alternate ending)

Throughout the tune, we have a swung eighth note feel. This means that, instead of two 8th notes dividing the beat exactly in half, the second 8th note in each pair occurs two-thirds of the way through the beat (equivalent to playing on the first and third parts of an 8th note triplet). This is represented as:

In simpler words, the first note lasts longer than the second. That’s what gives us the “swing” feel. Here is an extra video lesson which explains the difference between straight and swung eighth notes.

* Note: This is the featured song from our course on How to Write a Song on the Ukulele. This course deep dives into the theory behind how “DayDreaming” was composed. I’d highly encourage you to check out the course if you’re interested in songwriting, arranging, and music theory.

* Bonus Tip: To make the first few bars of the song easier (Melody A: pick-up bar + bars 1 and 2), you can sub out the 3rd fret of string 2 for the open 4th string. Both of these notes are “G”.

Part 1 – Performance & Free Lesson

Tab Play Along