Hello

Welcome!

Wanna learn how to play the ukulele but have no musical experience what-so-ever? Well you've come to the right place! "Uke Can Do It" will provide you with a quick jump-start to your ukulele journey!

Here's a little overview of what's in this blog:


    Tuning

    Before you start playing, you have to make sure that your ukulele sounds right. This will involve adjusting the pitch of each of your strings, which is a process called tuning. The standard tuning of the ukulele is as follows:

                                                   G C E A


    These letters are the notes of the four strings of your ukulele as if you were looking directly at it.
    Moving from left to right:
    • The string furthest to your left (known as the 4th string) is tuned to a G note.
    • The following string (known as the 3rd string) is tuned to a C note.
    • The string after that (known as the 2nd string) is tuned to an E note.
    • The string furthest to your right (known as the 1st string) is tuned to an A note.
    Although you can tune your uke to whatever sound you want, following standard tuning will make learning easier and allow you to play more easily with others.

    How To Tune Your Uke

    Alright, now that I've told you what an ukulele should sound like, you might be wondering, "How do I get that sound?" Well, unless you have a tuner, which is a device that tells you the pitch of a sound, tuning might be a little difficult because you will have to rely on your ear. If you don't have a tuner, you'll have to compare the sound of your ukulele to one that's tuned. You can find recorded sounds of a standard tuned uke on many sites such as this one.

    Now whether you're using a tuner or the tuner online, in order to adjust the sound of an ukulele you have to adjust the tension of its strings by turning its tuning pegs. Each string is connected to its own tuning peg at the head of the ukulele. By turning a tuning peg you either tighten or loosen the string attached to it, making the sound higher or lower. If a note is too high it is considered sharp, if it is too low it is considered flat.
    • Tightening a string raises the pitch (higher note).
    • Loosening a string lowers the pitch (lower note).
    Adjust the pitch of each string until your ukulele is in standard tuning.

     

    Holding and Strumming

    Ok, so your uke is sounding lovely. ^_^
    Time to do some playing!


    How to Hold Your Uke

    Hold the back of your ukulele up against your body with your left hand supporting the neck and your right arm resting on the bottom edge. If you are left-handed you could hold the uke vice-versa.


    How to Strum
    To strum, point to yourself and brush the strings with your index finger by twisting your wrist. Don't just let your hand flail around. Aim at brushing the strings with your pointer finger.





    Strumming Pattern 

    On the ukulele you can either strum up or down.
    • a down strum is playing the strings from G to A
    • an up strum is playing the stings from A to G 
    When playing songs, uke players generally follow a specific strumming pattern throughout to keep a constant rhythm or beat. To practice your strumming for the ukulele, follow the pattern down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up (or DUDUDUDU).
    • D = down strum
    • U = up strum
    Practice this strumming pattern to get used to strumming both ways. Also try tapping your foot to a steady four beats while matching each strum to your foot by strumming down when your foot taps the ground, and strumming up while you're raising your foot for the next tap. This exercise will improve your sense of rhythm. Good luck and practice!

    Chords!!!

    Alright! Time to start playing some songs! While jamming out with your friends, or just making some sweet music on your own, you will be relying on chords for your melody or rhythm of a song. Chords are your friends. You will almost always use chords when you play the ukulele. They are an important part of music.

    Chords are simply a group of notes played together. When you strum your uke you are playing a chord. You can play different chords by pressing down on a string behind the little metal bars on the neck with your fingers. Those little metal bars are called frets, and the wood the frets are laid upon is called the fretboard.


    It is important to press down on a string BEHIND the fret because if you were to press down directly on top of the fret the string would make a buzzing sound when you play it.

    It is also important to ARCH your fingers so that only your fingertips touch the strings and not keep any other strings from vibrating.
       
    In this blog I will show you four commonly used chords. I will be using chord diagrams from ukulele boogaloo and my own pictures to help show the finger positions for each chord.

    To understand the chord diagrams imagine that you are looking directly at the fretboard of your uke. The thin horizontal lines are the frets, and the black circles with numbers are where you should place your fingers. The numbers tell you what fingers to use for each chord.
    • Your index finger is your 1st finger,
    • your middle is your 2nd,
    • your ring is your 3rd,
    • and your pinky is your 4th.
    You DO NOT have to follow the chord diagrams exactly for which fingers to place above each fret. As long as you cover the same fret, you can use whichever fingers you feel comfortable using.

    The first chord I will show you is the C chord, also known as the C Major chord.


    1. Simply place your ring finger on the 3rd fret of the A string. That's it! Easy yeah?





    Next will be the  G (or G Major) chord.


    1.  Place your index finger on the C string 2nd fret,
    2. your middle finger on the A string 2nd fret,
    3. and your ring finger on the E string 3rd fret.

    Try to keep your thumb behind the neck of the uke so that your fingers can arch and not touch other strings.








    D (or D Major)

    1. Place your index on the G string 2nd fret,
    2. your middle on the C string 2nd fret,
    3. and your ring on the E string 2nd fret.
    Notice that in my picture I am holding the chord differently from the chord diagram. I am only using one finger (my middle finger) to hold down the G, C, and E strings of the 2nd fret. Fretting multiple strings with one finger is called barring.



    Am (or A Minor)

    1. Place your middle finger on the G string 2nd fret. Another easy one! Yay!

    To get a clean sound with this chord you have to arch your middle finger so that you don't touch any of the other strings and only the fingertip of your middle finger touches the 2nd fret of the G string.

    You just learned four chords! Time to learn a song!



    "You Belong With Me" - Taylor Swift

    The best way to practice newly learned chords is through song! With C, G, D, and Am you will be able to play Taylor Swift's hit single "You Belong With Me"!

    The Strumming Pattern
    D DU UDU (the spaces in between the two D's and the two U's indicate a small pause as if you were strumming in between)

    The Chord Progression:
    Verse: G, D, Am, C
    Pre-Chorus: Am, C, G, D, Am, C, G, D
    Chorus: G, D, Am, C (same as the verse)

    For the majority of this song you will be following the strumming pattern D DU UDU. Repeat this pattern twice for each chord before you change to the next chord. For example, you're gonna start off with the G chord strumming [D DU UDU][D DU UDU], and then you're gonna change to C. Repeat this until the pre-chorus, which is when you sing, "she wears short skirts, I wear sneakers..." At this point the strumming pattern will change to just D D D D. Strum down 4 times for each chord then change to the next chord.

    Song Summary:
    1. Repeat the pattern D DU UDU twice for each chord during the verse.
    2. Switch to a four-beat down strum for each chord of the pre-chorus.
    3. Switch back to repeating D DU UDU twice per chord for the chorus.

     

    The Chunk

    Also known as a scratch, the chunk is a technique in which you strum all four strings of the uke but then immediately mute all four strings with your thumb, producing a "chunk" sound. This technique might take some practicing in order to get down, but it is an invaluable technique that ukulele players use almost all the time. It adds a percussive quality to your playing and is fun to use!

    In strumming patterns X = chunk

    Once you can chunk, try the strumming pattern D XU UXU for Taylor Swift's "You Belong With Me." You'll sound even more awesome than before!

    If you're still having trouble understanding what a chunk is, check out this video from Ukulele Underground!

     

    Uke Can Go the Distance!

    So that's all I have for you! Hopefully I was of some help to you on your journey to learn the ukulele. You can tune your uke, strum like the rest, play chords, chunk, and jam some Taylor Swift! That's quite an achievement! I hope, however, you don't stop there. You've learned enough to start teaching yourself. Although a small and simple instrument, the ukulele possesses a lot of potential to play more than just Hawaiian tunes. So go out into the world and discover the ukulele's hidden powers!

    Here are some helpful sites if you need more help or want to learn new songs:
    No comments:
    Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)