You won’t get very far on the ukulele without being able to chuck with your strumming hand. It’s actually pretty easy to do but takes a bit of practice to get right. Continue reading
Tips
Tuning Your Ukulele By Ear
You’ll often hear me banging on about the benefits of a clip-on tuner. I say all the time that you need one, particularly if you’re a beginner, but you should also not use it as well… Continue reading
The Most Important Strumming Pattern You’ll Ever Learn
If you were only ever going to learn one strumming pattern assuming that you’ve got a few basic strumming patterns down, I’d definitely recommend you make it this one. I’ve heard this strumming pattern referred to as ‘old faithful‘ in the past because of it’s versatility. It works on just about any song and is a great pattern to default back to if you’re not sure what pattern you should be playing… Continue reading
Understanding Ukulele Chord Boxes
When you start playing ukulele you’re going to encounter a lot of ukulele chord boxes. It’s worth knowing how to read these so you can learn a host of new chords. Here’s how you read a ukulele chord box…
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Ukulele String Order
It’s a really good idea to know which string is which note on your ukulele, this is something that you should commit to memory as soon as you possibly can (even if you’re using a clip-on tuner which I recommend). It will help you a huge amount when it comes to transcribing songs yourself and working out which notes are which. Continue reading
Ukulele Strumming Patterns For Beginners
One of the first things that you’re going to need to get used to when playing ukulele is how to get started strumming and working out some useful strumming patterns. Here are some handy ukulele strumming patterns for beginners to try out… Continue reading
Why Does My Ukulele Always Go Out Of Tune?
Are you finding that your new ukulele always needs tuning every time you want to play it?
This is really common, particularly when you have new strings on your ukulele. Nylon strings take a certain amount of stretching before they settle down and hold their tune. Some strings will settle faster than others. Personally I like Aquila strings and Worth Browns. I haven’t noticed a huge difference in the stretching of the two but I’ve seen (and heard) some very poor strings at the cheap end of the market that seem to never really settle.
Assuming you have got a decent set of strings on your ukulele, there’s a few things that you can do to speed the stretching process up… Continue reading
Getting Started With Ukulele
So you’ve either just bought a ukulele or someone has bought one for you. You’ve given it a strum and it sounds pretty good doesn’t it? How the hell are you going to play a song though? Continue reading