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Today’s free ukulele TAB is a request from a reader – the well-known Mozart chamber ensemble serenade, “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.” The gentleman who contacted me, a long-time guitar player, found this site after buying his granddaughter a ukulele and putting it in low G tuning.
He had already downloaded a few of the TABs I have available, but he had hoped to find the Mozart piece, which his granddaughter knew from an episode of Little Einsteins. I’m sure I heard it on Little Einsteins as well (my daughter loved the show at one point), but when I hear “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik,” I always immediately think of this Looney Tunes ad that aired on Nickelodeon back in the 90’s.
Mozart wrote the serenade in 1787. It was likely a commission like most of the pieces of this type that he composed, though there is no record of who requested it. The title, which translates to “A Little Night Music,” comes from a note Mozart made in his records, referring to the piece as “eine kleine Nachtmusik,” which was more a description than an attempt to give it a name.
Mozart likely wrote the serenade and then never really thought about it again. He never published it or saw it performed as far as we know. The original composition was sold to a publisher after Mozart’s death in 1791, part of a large collection of unpublished works. It wasn’t put into print until 1827. It’s strange to think that a tune that is so common today could just as easily be lost to history had things gone a little differently.
“Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” Playing Tips
This is an abbreviated arrangement of the full composition, replicating the core melody of the first 18 measures of the piece. It was actually really difficult to figure out where to draw the line on this one. The piece just seems to keep going, flowing from one section to the next, exploring new ideas and building on a few repeating themes.
It really is a brilliant composition, and a single-note melody line doesn’t do it justice, but it’s still fun to play. It is a testament to what you can do with barely more than a full octave of a major scale.
The hardest part of my arrangement comes in measures 9 and 10 with the three 16th note runs. If you have quick fingers (or you play at a slow tempo), this might not pose much of a challenge, but I found it difficult to play until I tried adding a pull-off from the first to the second note of each four-note phrase.
(A pull-off is an intermediate left-hand technique that I’ll have to post about another time, but there are plenty of great tutorials that you can find elsewhere if you aren’t familiar with it.)
“Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” can be played on either a low G uke or a uke in standard tuning. Click the link or the ‘Download’ button below to see the sheet music if your browser doesn’t display the embedded PDF.
“Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” Ukulele Sheet Music Download
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