Hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving!
I learned a new song on prior Thanksgiving Day that I would like to share with you.
See related posts for guitar and ukulele.
While I have sung the hymn “We Gather Together” several times, I had not played the song on guitar before. About a half hour before Thanksgiving dinner, my brother asked me to say grace, or prayer before the meal. I had happened to have brought my ukulele with me (but not my guitar), and immediately thought of the hymn, “We Gather Together”.
So in addition to saying grace, I also played and sang this hymn, along with my niece who held my phone so that I could read the lyrics and chords.
Over a quick half hour, I searched for the lyrics and guitar chords on my phone and learned this song on ukulele. The chords were for key of D, which is a singable key for this song.
As primarily a guitar player, I view the ukulele fretboard as being similar to a 4-string guitar with a capo at the 5th fret. So in order to play a D Major chord on a uke, you have to think of A Major chord shapes from 1st position guitar chords. So I basically sang in D Major, but was playing chord shapes from A Major.
The webpage that I found for this song did not have the melody. Also, most of my family and guests for Thanksgiving dinner are not singers. Like me, they didn’t know all the lyrics. So I had also picked out the melody by ear on the uke, while I was quickly rehearsing this tune. Just before the meal and singing this hymn, I picked out the melody on the uke for the guests, so that they could at least hum the tune if they so desired.
Later that evening, when I had my guitar, I played chords in first position, but played in key of A, akin to what I played on the ukulele. From there I composed a fingerstyle guitar arrangement in key of A.
This year I am thankful for my years of playing music, so I would like to share these melody transcriptions (keys: D and A) and fingerstyle arrangement (A Major). Please see related posts below.
Best wishes to you and your family as we enter to enter the holiday season. I plan to include more holiday music for guitar on this site. If you have any holiday song requests, or if you have any questions or feedback on the music for “We Gather Together”, please add use the comment section below. Thanks!
Related posts
Hymn: We Gather Together, key of D, melody, 1st pos.
Hymn: We Gather Together, key of A, melody, 1st pos.
Hymn: We Gather Together, key of A, fingerstyle guitar