Because of its simple melody that is well known by almost everybody, I thought Oh! Susanna might be a great song to use for doing an interactive tutorial on the clawhammer uke technique. In order for it to be successful you will need to interact with me, so be sure to ask questions, make observations, or whatever so there is some communication. This discussion will take place in the General Ukulele forum on ezFolk. Each arrangement will have a separate forum. You can open these forums by clicking on the following links:

• Melody Forum
• Level 1 Forum
• Level 2 Forum
• Level 3 Forum

Feel free to ask any questions, but be sure to use the same forum as the arrangement you’re referring to. In order to post to the forums you need to register, but it’s completely free to do so.

There are 4 different arrangements of Oh! Susanna, as follows (click on the links to see the other arrangements):

1. Melody -- This is just a very basic melody line for the song that we will use to make the other arrangements.
2. Level 1 -- The first level just adds the basic “bum ditty” to the melody.
3. Level 2 -- The second level builds on the Level 1 arrangement by adding some hammer-ons, pull-offs, and slides (slurred notes).
4. Level 3 -- The Level 3 arrangement adds some drop thumb where appropriate as well as more slurred notes.

Be sure to read the tutorial and watch the videos on clawhammer uke before you start.

The computer-generated MIDI files will help you learn what each arrangement sounds like. There is currently no MP3 but click here to watch a sample video.