Ukulele Beginners: Ten Ways to Get Off to the Perfect Start

By: Al Wood

The ukulele is a relatively easy instrument for beginners to learn. After a few minutes, you'll probably be strumming a few chords. Because of its size, it is the perfect instrument for kids to learn on. To kick start your learning here are ten ways to get you off to a running start.

1. Record yourself playing. Playing and listening at the same time is like trying to rub your stomach and pat your head. It's much easier to evaluate your playing if you listen back to it and knowing what mistakes you're making is halfway to fixing them.

2. Listen very carefully to music you like. Try to work out how to play what you're hearing. There's nothing wrong with 'borrowing' ideas from other musicians.

3. When you are practicing - play very slowly. It's much easier to speed up once your fingers know what they are doing than it is to try and fix problems playing at top speed.

4. Learn how to read tab for the ukulele. Tab shows you exactly how a song is played - what string and fret to play and when to play it. There are many sites on the internet that have ukulele tab for all sorts of songs. If you search for 'how to read ukulele tab' on Google, you'll find some helpful articles.

5. Buy a reasonable quality ukulele. The very cheapest ukuleles are fine for testing the water and deciding if you enjoy the ukulele, but once you start to get serious about playing, it's well worth you getting a higher quality ukulele. $50 - $100 will buy you a ukulele that is so much better than the very cheapest makes.

6. Put good strings on your ukulele. As soon as I get my hands on a new ukulele, I immediately replace the strings. Almost always the strings that come with the ukulele sound awful and are unpleasant to play. My choice of strings is Worth. Another good brand is Aquila.

7. Hold your ukulele loosely. It is all to easy to choke the tone and volume out of your ukulele by holding it too tight. Pay close attention to how the top players like Jake Shimabukuro hold the ukulele.

8. Pay attention to other ukulele players. Watch how they hold the uke, how they strum, how their fingers move. See if you can pick up any ideas to improve your own playing.

9. Learn how to tune up properly. There's nothing that offends the ears more than an out of tune ukulele. You can buy ukulele tuners or you can download them free on the internet - I use the AP Tuner.

10. Have fun. The ukulele has a reputation as a fun instrument - keep it that way.

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