Ukulele Halloween: Dance Macabre

Danse Macabre (Tab)
Midi

That may look like a player piano in the video but it’s actually a haunted ghost piano. True fact.

Dance Macabre starts out with two very discordant notes (A and Eb) which are a flattened fifth apart. This interval is supposed to summon up the devil. You can read about some of the other songs where this has been used in The Guardian.

The main theme starts in bar 9. I’ve arranged this so that all the notes ring into each other and create a spooky Gm9 chord. It gets tricky, suitably enough, in bar 13 when the tune switches up a notch. I play the note at the fourth fret with my third finger giving me just enough time to barre my first finger across the third fret. Moving down is easier; you can use the open string to give you time to get the chord shape ready.

Check out Mary Martin’s version on MUD.