A ukulele is a musical instrument with four strings that are made originally from wood and resemble a small classical guitar. It is usually pronounced as “you-ka-ley-ley” by English speakers, but the original Hawaiian pronunciation is “ju-ke-lei-li,” which means “jumping flea.”
In 1879, around twenty-five thousand immigrants from Portuguese decided to leave their homeland to find a better life and move to the Hawaiian archipelago, which was also known as the Sandwich Islands, where they arrived on a ship called ‘Ravenscrag’ bringing along with them their machete and worked in sugar plantations, but soon they were opening their woodworking shops where they sell musical instruments and furniture. These immigrants quickly gained the appreciation of the local community and the royal family since they were excellent guitar players. This gave rise to the popularity of the musical instrument, especially when the Queen started playing the ukulele is when the whole of Hawaii fell in step and impressed on the culture for centuries.
The ukulele grew so popular in less than two decades that Manuel Nunes, Jose do Espirito, and Augusto Dias were often considered pioneers of the ukulele. And in the first decades of the 20th century, its exoticism was discovered by Mainland American tourists, which in turn just boosted its recognition.
Easiest Ways & Techniques To Learn Ukulele
Starting your musical journey well by learning how to hold your ukulele. A tremendous amount of time is spent studying the correct way of handling the instrument and bow in the Suzuki violin method. Uke is much more forgiving, but from the outset, it is more important to aim for good technique.
The instrument should be kept close to the body while standing or sitting. A lot of people use the strap to hold their device in a comfortable position, but some do not. The right forearm secures the instrument against the chest and lets your left hand have the neck, loosely, where it meets the headstock. Pick a chair without arms, if you’re sitting. Slumping back would make it harder to sit up at the edge of your seat. Try to cross your right leg over your left and let your thigh rest gently. Relax the shoulder, and do not forget to breathe.
1) Strumming
Before strumming, a side note when it comes to the hands. You have the chording hand which holds down the string, while the other is the strumming or “speaking” hand. Most people would strum with their right hands and chord with their left hands. But with their non-dominant side, some lefties find communicating rhythm difficult. They have two choices: to turn it over and formulate their chord shapes or restring their ukulele. Restringing is simple and can free lefties from frustrations. Also, chord diagrams are often drawn in the traditional fashion of the right hand.
Before strumming, a side note when it comes to the hands. You have the chording hand which holds down the string, while the other is the strumming or “speaking” hand. Most people would strum with their right hands and chord with their left hands. But with their non-dominant side, some lefties find communicating rhythm difficult. They have two choices: to turn it over and formulate their chord shapes or restring their ukulele. Restringing is simple and can free lefties from frustrations. Also, chord diagrams are often drawn in the traditional fashion of the right hand.
Besides, players can find it much simpler when the chording hand’s nails are cut out short. The strumming hands may have longer nails, so they act as picks or plectrums, as they are called in British countries.
When it comes to thumb strumming and learning your first chord, but first, what is strumming? Strumming is a form of rhythm. And rhythm in music is all about keeping a steady and consistent beat or a count that the listener can follow along with, and so as you practice the strumming patterns, you have to count out loud to a count of four. So, for basics, play one chord, which is the C major chord. To play the C major chord, place your ring finger on the third fret of the bottom string and let the top three strings ring entirely open.
There are five useful strumming patterns that you can learn as a beginner. So, for the first pattern, it’s called down, down, down, down strumming pattern. Start counting out loud to a count of four, and for each count, we are going to play a down strum.
Second, we have down up, down up, down up, down up strumming pattern. Take the first strumming pattern you learned and add in up strums between each down strum. To count these up strums, you are going to say the word and. So, it would sound like this “one and two and three and four” when you count while strumming.
Third, down, down-up, down, down-up strumming pattern. It’s kind of like a combination of the last two strumming patterns. There are only up strums after beats two and four of the strumming patterns.
For the last one, it is called down, down up, up, down up strumming pattern but on beat three of the pattern, remove the down strum. This strumming pattern is often referred to as “Calypso Strumming Pattern.” This pattern is trickier than the previous patterns.
2) Reading Chord Diagrams
Chord Diagrams tells you precisely which fingers to place to play a certain chord. When you start with the ukulele, it can be very daunting when you look at all the various chords and shapes. They are very intuitive to understand, but maybe some symbols require some clarification. If you know how to work chord diagrams, you’ll be pleased to see them on music pages because it can help you speed up learning music.
A chord diagram has 4-6 horizontal lines that vary on the location of notes and is used to place your fingers on the fretboard to play a chord.
The vertical lines represent the four ukulele strings (from left to right: G-C-E-A), and the frets are horizontal lines. The top line is the nut, even if a number is on the right side of the diagram.
The dots indicate where to position your fingers to play the chord; each dot matches a note. Often the numbers also show the finger to use:
- 1 = Index finger
- 2 = Middle finger
- 3 = Ring finger
- 4 = Little finger
Other symbols like 0s at the top are played open, which means it should not be played.
Remember that not every chord diagram starts at the nut. When you see a chord diagram that doesn’t have a thick black line at the top right (or sometimes left), a number may appear at the top right. In these situations, the top line must be viewed as the specified fret rather than the nut.
Tips for left-handed beginners, chord diagrams can be tricky. You need to build a way for the standard diagrams to be interpreted in a way that makes sense. Most left-handers imagine one of those approaches to chord diagrams:
- See the chord as a mirror image. This approach is undoubtedly the easiest way to view chord charts as chords are being formed.
- Only imitate what you can see on your ukulele in the chord diagram. It’s like using the traditional chord diagram, putting the ukulele in front of you, and pointing the fretboard forward.
3) Learn To Tune the Ukulele
To play music in modern scales, all instruments need to be tuned to exact pitches. This method is called tuning, where the music is calibrated to particular pitches. String instruments have these tuning pegs that are rotated by musicians to tighten the strings that will change the pitch whether lower or higher. Below, we will go over the different ukulele tunings in more detail.
In principle, the ukulele can be tuned to a very wide variety of tunings. A string can be set to any pitch, provided it’s within range, based on the string’s minimum and maximum tension. There are still several tunings most commonly used for the ukulele. The use of these tunings to play popular music is recommended, but other tunings may be useful for more experimental work. The bottom string on the uke is usually tuned to a note higher than the message on the second string at the right. Tunings denote this by a lower-case letter, as in the GCEA standard tuning. Each of the tuning names the four letters, and this, in turn denotes the corresponding strings on the ukulele, beginning at the bottom (the string nearest to your chest).
Go slowly, when you are tuning. To change pitch, it takes time to learn how much to turn the peg. It’s easy to over tune and split a string if you turn it too hard. A ukulele strings are strung tightly, but not so tightly, that is when you pluck them, the strings can’t move from side to side.
If your ukulele is new or hasn’t been tuned in a while, the right pitches may be in trouble. These strings are comparable to rubber bands, so they’ll try to return to their unstretched role; when the strings are tightened up in place, the effect is a flat-sounding ukulele. Tuning the instrument will also help strings retain the stretch they need to carry the correct pitch.
Don’t be frustrated if your first practice sessions need you to tune several times. If you keep your ukulele tuned every day, it will soon begin to remain in tune more regularly.
Additional Tips
Is The Ukulele A Good First Instrument?
And for those who’ve never played music before then, the ukulele is an excellent first instrument to learn than the guitar or any other stringed instrument. And here are the reasons why:
When it comes to creating a simple groove with a few notes, then using the ukulele is much easier since it only has four nylon strings that are gentle on your fingertips, and besides, you can play a lot with just one, two, three fingers.
Very affordable. Buying a ukulele won’t strain your wallet too much since it’s one of the least expensive instruments. You can also buy an excellent ukulele from $75 to $300, and different body sizes fit your budgets and needs. The reason for why ukuleles are very inexpensive is that it’s about 1/8th the size of an average guitar which means fewer materials workload involved for the instrument makers
The songs quickly adapt to the ukulele. Most popular music can be played on the ukulele, even metal. Even complicated chords can be made simple cause it has only four strings but still has its limitations.
It sounds great. If you’re an aspiring singer, then the ukulele is the perfect instrument for you since it has a rich, warm sound that puts a smile on your face and whoever is around you. The ideal pick-me-up if all by yourself in a bedroom or at a party with your friends.
Perfect for children. Because of its small stature, it would fit perfectly in their tiny hands, easy to press strings. Plus, ukulele music is usually written in tablature form, which is the most accessible form of music to read. You’d be surprised at the great educational potential that is lurking within it.
It is not intimidating at all. Unlike the other instruments like pianos and guitars feature huge ranges of notes, but with just three or four chords, you’ll be playing in no time and can be played by anyone who is not a fan of music and also by children and older people.
It’s a small and portable—ultimate travel instrument. You can take it anywhere. Very easy to hold, it’s small. There are also different kinds of sizes perfect for every one of us.
Leave a Reply