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Siivola
Dec 23, 2012

Aloha and welcome to the ukulele thread!



The what thread?

Ukulele! It's a tiny guitar-like instrument from Hawaii. It's got four nylon strings and it's played by either strumming or picking the strings. Most people use their fingers, but some use picks. The uke has a range of about two octaves and is traditionally tuned g-C-E-A with C being the lowest string. This "re-entrant tuning" is the reason the ukulele makes such a funny sound when strummed. In addition to the standard-sized (often called soprano) ukulele, there are various other types such as concert, tenor, baritone and even bass.

Tl;dr: It's basically a tiny classical guitar with a hosed up tuning.

What kind of music could I play on one?
Anything you feel like! Besides being a cornerstone of Hawaiian music since the 19th century, the ukulele was extremely popular in the US during the twenties. Dig out some Tin Pan Alley songs, join a folk jam or butcher some jazz standards, it's all good. These days you can find uke arrangements of literally anything, up to and including the Star Wars soundtrack.

Okay, how do I get started?
Buy a uke. And a metronome. Google "twelve bar blues" and "ukulele chords". Borrow a song book from the library. Go nuts.

Yeah but which ukulele?
gently caress if I know, go to the store and play around with some. :shrug: If you have big hands, you might find a tenor or even a baritone more comfortable than the comparatively small soprano.

Your dog has fleas?
I really should call a vet about it.


If you can't tell, I don't know a whole lot about the uke. :shobon: That's because I bought one on impulse (because of a thread in A/T), left it in its bag for literal years and picked it up last month. Thus far I can play a basic twelve-bar blues in C and muddle through the first ten bars of John Williams's Cantina Band. I'm learning music for the first time since high school. :iia:

What do y'all other uke-owners play?

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Chip McFuck
Jul 24, 2007

We droppin' like a comet and this Vulcan tried to Spock it/These Martians tried to do it, but knew they couldn't cop it

Cool, someone is finally starting up an ukulele thread! Ukes are incredibly fun. Been playing one for years and was a member of a ukulele orchestra, so I hope you don't mind if I share some of the things I wish I knew when I was first starting out :)

Sizes:
There are four main sizes to choose from when selecting a ukulele:

Soprano (smallest) - Concert - Tenor - Baritone (largest)

All of them are tuned the same: gCEA, except for the baritone which (the majority of the time) is tuned like the four highest strings of a guitar: DGBE. There are also two other sizes that are getting pretty popular: Sopranino, which is a smaller soprano, and Contrabass (or Ubass) which is essentially a bass version of the ukulele.

They all have their own characteristics and distinctive sounds, but there really isn't a wrong choice to make when you are deciding which size to pick up. If you can, try a couple of sizes at your local music shop to see which one you like best. Personally, I am a huge fan of the tenor. It has a really nice balance between the high and low frequencies so it's really nice to sing along with.

Brands:
Kala is the biggest brand of ukuleles and are of great quality to boot. I have never played one of their instruments and walked away dissatisfied. They also have a budget brand, Makala, which can be hit or miss. Lanikai, Kona, and Ohana are also great brands to check out. Fender makes some too but I would only buy one on sale, as they tend to be way overpriced. If you have crazy money, Martin (yes, that Martin) has a long history of making ukuleles and still makes some to this day.

Strings:
Strings come in two varieties: Synthetic (most commonly Nylon) and catgut. Synthetic strings are the standard and are made from the same material as the strings on a classical guitar. They are pretty easy to fret, durable and aren't very expensive. Catgut is the more traditional ukulele string material but is harder to find and therefore pricier. They are made from intestines and have a much softer sound that lends itself well to singing. They are super fragile however, and really don't like humidity.

As far as string brands go, the gold standard (and my personal favorite) are Aquila strings. All the major string brands, such as D'Addario, Fender, GHS, etc., also make ukulele strings.

One thing that everyone complains about when they first get their ukulele is that it won't stay in tune. While this can be incredibly frustrating, don't worry, it's completely normal! Ukulele strings are incredibly stretchy and take time to settle in and stabilize before they will hold their tuning. How long this takes will change from instrument to instrument, and could be anywhere from a couple of days to a week or two.

Tuners:
Tuners on a ukulele come in two flavors: Friction and geared. Both come with their own pros and cons, and choosing which style to purchase is entirely up to personal preference.

Friction is the most authentic, traditional way to tune a uke and works by using the friction of the tuning peg (made of either plastic or wood) against the tuner hole in the headstock to keep the peg in place and in tune. A lot of these will have a small screw on the bottom of the tuner button that you can tighten or loosen to either increase or decrease the friction of the peg. Good quality friction sets will hold strings in tune just as well as geared sets, so don't let the low-tech approach these tuners take turn you away.

Geared tuners are the same as what you would find on any other instrument, like a guitar. They use a grub screw meshed to a gear on the tuning peg to tune the ukulele. It's simple and pretty much bomb-proof.

Wood
Like an acoustic guitar, the kind of woods a ukulele is made from is going to affect how it sounds. Mahogany has a nice, mellow sound to it and tends to emphasize the bass notes, while maple does the opposite and has a nice, bright sound with a lot of highs. Spruce tops are becoming more common, and give a balanced sound with excellent note definition, though some say that it takes away the uke's distinctive character and makes it sound more like a guitar. The big daddy of them all is koa. Koa is a slow-growth tree that (as far as I am aware) only grows on the sides of volcanos in Hawaii. It is incredibly rare and commands high prices, but it has a really incredibly sweet, complex sound that it really hard to describe.

Most sub-$50 ukuleles are going to be made of plywood. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as it makes it nearly indestructible when it comes to heat and humidity, but it won't sound as good as an instrument made from solid wood.

What to look for when buying a ukulele:
A budget of around $50-$100 dollars will get you a really nice, entry-level instrument. If you can afford it, pushing that budget up to $150 will get you an instrument that will take a really long time for you to outgrow. Look for a tag or sticker that says it has a solid wood top, and that the fretboard has no sharp edges when you run your hand up and down the neck. The distance from the strings to the frets should be fairly small, and the neck should be pretty straight.

This isn't to say that cheap (sub-$50) ukuleles are crap. Well, most are, but they can be fun to bang around on and not worry about having to keep a humidifier on you. Just be aware that they won't sound as loud or as nice as an instrument with a solid top.


Anyway, sorry for the long post, just really excited about the thread!


Siivola posted:

the standard-sized (often called soprano) ukulele

I hate to be all :goonsay:, but there really isn't a "standard" ukulele. It's really more of a public perception thing as people tend to identify the ukulele with the soprano, but most professional uke music is performed on tenors.

Chip McFuck fucked around with this message at 02:23 on Nov 9, 2018

GreenBuckanneer
Sep 15, 2007

I got myself a concert-sized Ukulele by Luna ($100 came with bag), with geared tuners and I'm not sure what kind of strings because I bought it in a music store. I guess synthetic.

I have not played a string instrument before, besides trying to play on a falling apart violin (used to play the drums in high school), so I figured a four string instrument would be easy and cheap to pick up and play.

I am having a lot of fun with it. I got a First 50 Songs book which is pretty helpful, and I've been using some websites about ukuleles to learn some tricks about chord finger placement and such.

So far my fingertips hurt a lot less after a few days and a few hours of play each day, though I'm having a challenge of switching from one chord to another, but I assume that will come with time.

A few days of tuning every day is helping it stay more in tune.

GreenBuckanneer fucked around with this message at 02:08 on Nov 9, 2018

fuctifino
Jun 11, 2001

I have a baritone, concert (but tuned in 5ths) and a fretless ubass (all made by Caramel), and one instrument that also needs to be mentioned in this thread, the guitalele (mine being the Yamaha model). It's a 6 string uke, tuned the same as a guitar with a capo on the 5th fret.

Ukes are awesome.

fuctifino fucked around with this message at 03:52 on Nov 9, 2018

ewe2
Jul 1, 2009

Been playing ukes for a couple of years, I have a 2nd hand Kala soprano and a store-bought Kala concert. I've found that they really love Aquila reds for strings, they seem to bring out more sustain and volume from them. My next uke will probably be some sort of all-solid or at least a pineapple soprano.

My only big suggestions with ukes are:

* Test them out and find out what's physically comfortable to play. You should be able to hold the uke in the crook of your arm and your fingers should not be cramped down by the first few frets. Otherwise it will not be fun to play for any length of time. Kala have an issue with their nut width which is quite narrow, which is fine for young players or those with small hands, but not so much for anyone else. Obviously this advice is difficult to sustain for a lot of sopranos, but this is why I want to find a good pineapple because they're physically chunkier.

* Figure out a good way to strum. It's probably the trickiest part of uke playing. It'll take you a while to get up to any speed, but don't listen to people who say you can't strum with your thumb or a combination of your index and thumb, do what's right for you, there are no rules!

* For songs to learn: find a songbook or check out the many many great youtube videos showing you how to play the classic songs like Ukulele Lady, Devil And The Deep Blue Sea, Tonight You Belong To Me, to name but just a few! A lot of people want to play I'll See You In My Dreams, but trust me, its not a beginner's tune! Check out bands like Tuba Skinny or Temperance Seven (yes they're STILL around), who still play a lot of the trad jazz and ragtime songs that are very suited to the ukulele.

* Do try and learn the fretboard and particularly the chords. You'll find a few chords overlap with each other due to the nature of the uke's tuning, and it can get quite sophisticated because you can easily play chords which are more difficult on a guitar!

edit: also don't be fooled by all the solid top talk. Laminate ukuleles are just fine, there's no point in buying something more expensive unless and until you've played for a while and have some idea about tone on a ukulele. Your standard Kala or Lanikai or Ohana will be just fine, don't be confused by the marketing.

ewe2 fucked around with this message at 08:49 on Nov 9, 2018

Chip McFuck
Jul 24, 2007

We droppin' like a comet and this Vulcan tried to Spock it/These Martians tried to do it, but knew they couldn't cop it


This is all really solid advice. I disagree that solid tops are just "marketing", but you're right that no one should feel bad about buying a laminated top. Lam tops today are way different than when I first started playing, and a good one can sound really nice. The ebony-lam tops that Kala has been putting out are really slick!

Also, shout out to Ohana, they make really good stuff for not a lot of money. I bought an all-lam mahogany tenor from them when they were just starting out from Music Guy Mic and adored that thing. Really sweet sound and easy to play.


fuctifino posted:

one instrument that also needs to be mentioned in this thread, the guitalele (mine being the Yamaha model). It's a 6 string uke, tuned the same as a guitar with a capo on the 5th fret.

Oh man, ukulele variants are super fun! Have you played an eight string uke? They are one of my favorites, the strings are doubled so there's a chorus effect like you would get on a twelve string guitar.


Edit: Just wanted to share the video that made me want to take the ukulele more seriously. Terrible video quality as it was posted something like 10 years ago, but man, it just sounds so good!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puSkP3uym5k

Chip McFuck fucked around with this message at 17:58 on Nov 9, 2018

GreenBuckanneer
Sep 15, 2007

I knew what that link was before I clicked on it, and I'm glad I saw it again.

Siivola
Dec 23, 2012

I'd heard about it but I don't think I've ever actually watched the entire video. :eyepop:

ewe2
Jul 1, 2009

Chip McFuck posted:

This is all really solid advice. I disagree that solid tops are just "marketing", but you're right that no one should feel bad about buying a laminated top. Lam tops today are way different than when I first started playing, and a good one can sound really nice. The ebony-lam tops that Kala has been putting out are really slick!

I'm not anti-solid top btw, its just that people who sell them tell me it's all about marketing, the difference in sound is minimal. Apart from empirical evidence of build quality, it gets more and more subjective as you go along. The chief advantage of solid instruments over laminates apart from build quality is that the sound will improve over time (this is true of all wooden acoustic instruments actually).

It was George Harrison who got me into ukulele. Not just the Concert For George, but his lovely version of Devil And The Deep Blue Sea, and this video in particular:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7LDe77dQNg

I hadn't heard of the song before and I had to be able to play that.

Siivola
Dec 23, 2012

ewe2 posted:

I've found that they really love Aquila reds for strings, they seem to bring out more sustain and volume from them.
Put on a set of these just now. They do sound that tiny bit louder for longer than my previous Aguila nylguts.

But now the drat thing is going to be (even more) out of tune for a week as the strings stretch. :geno:

ewe2
Jul 1, 2009

While I'm thinking of it, check out Ukebuddy, its a fantastic resource. Even has alternative tunings for baritone and soprano. Historically, standard tuning used to be aDF#B, I'm not sure why we standardize to gCEA now. Get yourself a Shubb ukulele capo and try it!

former glory
Jul 11, 2011

I picked up a Denver Tenor Uke a few months ago on a whim to try and encourage my kids' musicality and it worked like a charm. They love jamming on it and I play it so much. It's a wonderful thing to have just kicking around.

My favourite songs to play with them so far are: Weezer's Island in the Sun, and Pearl Jam Daughter. Their favourite song to play is My Dog Has Fleas :banjo:. Anyone else have some tunes that are really well suited for the uke?

ewe2
Jul 1, 2009

Here's a great resource for Beatles songs for the ukulele. Too many examples to give, but Honey Pie is an excellent song to play on the uke. I don't play it in the original key, transposing it down to the key of F, which makes the chords much simpler.

Another way to find resources is to look up local ukulele groups, they often have websites with a uke songbook to learn from.

vez veces
Dec 15, 2006

The engineer blew the whistle,
and the fireman rung the bell.
A couple months ago I received a used Cordoba concert ukulele. I strung it up with Aquila strings and man it is a blast to just pluck away. I've played other stringed instruments, but this is my first uke. Really sweet sound out of what almost looks like a toy. The previous owner put in a pick-up with a crude hole drilled into the side of the uke for the 1/4" jack. I haven't played too much with it electrified except to verify that the pickup works, so I'm not sure how it sounds, but it's pretty in acoustic mode. I'm thinking if I ever record it, maybe I should try to mic it up and do DI from the pick-up, then mix the signals and see what happens. But I guess that's less uke chat than engineering chat.

I was totally biased against them because of the mountain of bad bluesy Indie-girl strummed songs on youtube. I was a chump.

Siivola
Dec 23, 2012

Barre chords on the first fret can suck my mass-produced nut. :arghfist::saddowns:

ewe2 posted:

Here's a great resource for Beatles songs for the ukulele.
Thanks, I really need to get into the habit of learning actual songs instead of noodling the blues.

Edit: Oh, they're just really makeshift charts. I was hoping for lead sheets for some reason. :(

Siivola fucked around with this message at 19:01 on Dec 9, 2018

GreenBuckanneer
Sep 15, 2007

Siivola posted:

Barre chords on the first fret can suck my mass-produced nut. :arghfist::saddowns:

In this being my first string instrument I can say I really hate bar'd chords.

ewe2
Jul 1, 2009

Siivola posted:

Edit: Oh, they're just really makeshift charts. I was hoping for lead sheets for some reason. :(

Still very useful and some handy voicings for chords I hadn't come across before.

Barre chords on ukueles are easy mode compared to even electric guitar, it just needs practice. If you can manage to use three fingers for the A-shape barre, good, but I use my ring finger to hold them down which is a little tricky at first but works well.

Sandeep
Mar 27, 2002

I should be working on Summoner 3 instead of engaging in political discussions
My brother, who has no musical experience, bought a uke for his daughter (8 years old), and since I play bass and guitar, he wants me to try to help her learn. I know how I would teach someone the basics of guitar (start with three open chords, learn a bunch of songs, get most of the non-barre chords learned, then power chords, then barre chords), but I'm not sure that's the best approach here. What's a good way of starting assuming no musical background at all?

Slightly Absurd
Mar 22, 2004


I've been using this app that my sister also uses called "Yousician," the premium version is kinda crazy at 15 bux a month, but the free version allows ten minutes of free lessons a day, which isn't bad. It has a bit of a guitar-hero-esque interface that's pretty easy to use. I'd imagine an 8 year old would be able to use it pretty easily, too.

Coohoolin
Aug 5, 2012

Oor Coohoolie.

Sandeep posted:

My brother, who has no musical experience, bought a uke for his daughter (8 years old), and since I play bass and guitar, he wants me to try to help her learn. I know how I would teach someone the basics of guitar (start with three open chords, learn a bunch of songs, get most of the non-barre chords learned, then power chords, then barre chords), but I'm not sure that's the best approach here. What's a good way of starting assuming no musical background at all?

That sounds like a good start, make sure she's got a straight left wrist, bends fingers at all the joints, and doesn't claw the neck. Make sure the right hand picking is appropriate (video below), not pen-holding style, and start her off with some basic syncopation. Open chords shouldn't be that complicated if the basics are there, but the basics are the easiest things to overlook with no teaching experience.

Edit: Forgot to link right hand video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdhVC0DzfFY

Coohoolin fucked around with this message at 03:18 on Jan 3, 2019

Beowulfs_Ghost
Nov 6, 2009
I had been playing guitar for years. My wife plays piano, but was jealous that my guitar was way more portable than her piano.

She got a got a cheap Luna ukulele after a few unsuccessful attempts at playing my guitar. Since it is way easier to fret than a steel string guitar, all she really needed to work on was strumming.

Coming from guitar, the uke is crazy easy to play and even more portable than a guitar, so I decided to get my own.

But i wanted something different and got a Kmise banjolele. Sounds like a banjo, plays like a ukulele. Followed some advice I found, and took off the back and shoved a rolled up wash cloth under the head by the neck. Also had to file the bridge a little to keep the A string from popping out.

Definitely recommend it to anyone who wants the sound of a banjo without going all in on a banjo.

404notfound
Mar 5, 2006

stop staring at me

Is it too late to revive this thread? I've been playing the uke on and off since about October, when I took a little intro class and caught the bug. I've been getting by with a decent solid mahogany soprano from Ohana, but just decided to put in an order for a custom-built uke from a little mom and pop joint called Bonanza. It's going to be a thinline tenor cutaway with a low G tuning, so somewhat different from what I've been used to up until now.

Having had some guitar experience, it was fairly easy for me to learn the chords and how to strum, but I'm running into the same problem again of not knowing how to move my practice beyond just playing various permutations of chords.

I'd really like to eventually get to the point of improvising/soloing, and being able to figure out songs by ear well enough to just hop in with some basic chord strumming. Anyone have some advice in that regard?

Kerbtree
Sep 8, 2008

BAD FALCON!
LAZY!
Taken a punt on a EUT-MAD from Enya. Pretty blue thing.

Kerbtree fucked around with this message at 23:14 on Aug 17, 2019

TastyShrimpPlatter
Dec 18, 2006

It's me, I'm the
I got the UAS real bad. Just picked this up off craigslist today


Pono AT with a passive pickup added by the previous owner.

ewe2
Jul 1, 2009

Ponos are lovely, I'll get one one day.

GreenBuckanneer
Sep 15, 2007



What chord can I do instead of Bm in this chart?

I find it really hard to do without completely wretching my hand placement and isn't at all natural feeling.

404notfound
Mar 5, 2006

stop staring at me

Wrenching your hand? Are you trying to use all four fingers to play it? The normal way to play that chord is to press down all four strings with your index finger, then use your ring finger to additionally press down on the fourth fret of the fourth string (it's okay if your index finger is also pressing on the fourth string because it's behind where the string is actually being fretted).

Chords that have you press across the strings like that are called barre chords, and it's actually used a lot, even in some non-standard ways. For example, you can play the D chord by barring the G, C, and E strings and then lifting up your finger a bit to let the A string play open. Playing a G chord with a mini barre (leaving the G string open) is also an easy way to transition into Em by simply adding your ring finger onto the C string.

It's still not going to feel natural compared to non-barre chords, and you'll probably have some muted/buzzing strings until you figure out how to position your finger and apply pressure in just the right way to do it without cramping up, but it's something that you should learn to do sooner rather than later.

Siivola
Dec 23, 2012

I originally got my uke to learn folk and historical music, but got distracted at some point and never did. But I want to try again, so do you guys have any recs for songbooks to look at?

I know Tony Mizen and Rob MacKillop have both arranged classical and other music for the uke, are their books any good?

Siivola fucked around with this message at 13:29 on Jan 16, 2020

Huxley
Oct 10, 2012



Grimey Drawer

Siivola posted:

I originally got my uke to learn folk and historical music, but got distracted at some point and never did. But I want to try again, so do you guys have any recs for songbooks to look at?

I know Tony Mizen and Rob MacKillop have both arranged classical and other music for the uke, are their books any good?

Describe folk and historical. Do you want to play irish jigs and reels or Neil Young? Bach's cello suites? I have a few uke-specific PDFs floating around my computer.

ewe2
Jul 1, 2009

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L38Ec75prPQ

The band plays the intro verse instrumentally, but there's actually verses too.

Huxley
Oct 10, 2012



Grimey Drawer
Sourced from the big uke forum, this person has tabbed out several hundred songs.

http://vonbiber.byethost17.com/ukulele/songs.html

And this person is into year 4 of tabbing out lute music onto a uke (though they may be using low-G, not sure).

https://renaissance-ukukele.blogspot.com/

I've pulled out a few things that interested me over the past couple of years, and also randomly dug up the cello suites and threw them all in a ZIP.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14pvvJPz3y6VcTEXcv4zgWpgCG_M7KTxA/view?usp=sharing

Siivola
Dec 23, 2012

Huxley posted:

Describe folk and historical. Do you want to play irish jigs and reels or Neil Young? Bach's cello suites? I have a few uke-specific PDFs floating around my computer.
Yes to all of the above, really. If you can imagine it played at a renaissance faire, I'm willing to try it. :hist101: However, I'd really prefer a printed book since music is one of my few excuses to get off the computer.

Edit: Thanks for the links nonetheless!

Huxley
Oct 10, 2012



Grimey Drawer

Siivola posted:

Yes to all of the above, really. If you can imagine it played at a renaissance faire, I'm willing to try it. :hist101: However, I'd really prefer a printed book since music is one of my few excuses to get off the computer.

Edit: Thanks for the links nonetheless!

I'm the same way, if I have a book in front of me I can focus for hours but put it on a screen and my brain just rolls off. Luckily I have a job where they don't really care about printer usage.

Good luck on your search!

The Sausages
Sep 30, 2012

What do you want to do? Who do you want to be?
Cool a ukulele thread.

I bought a cheap one as a prop for a tropical island-themed party, then started playing it, then bought a less cheap one, and I still can't play for poo poo but I enjoy strumming out a few chords once in a while.

And that's my story of mediocrity. Enjoy this video of knitted animals covering The Ventures :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-VWdPGGTT8

edit: looks like they do an instructional if you wanna try it for yourself. No english but that's not really a problem:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeybaQANTQo

The Sausages fucked around with this message at 10:57 on Jan 18, 2020

TraderStav
May 19, 2006

It feels like I was standing my entire life and I just sat down


Oh couldn't find this thread earlier so also posted in new gear thread:

I'm in Hawaii and about to buy this. Give me a reason why I shouldn't. Says it's laminated mahogany. Feels nice overall but I know gently caress all. Neck is straight and action seems low enough.

ewe2
Jul 1, 2009

Narrator: "...and so he did" :v:

Excellent choice. Laminate mahogany is perfectly fine for most uses, I've got laminate Kalas and they project quite well and are well made.

TraderStav
May 19, 2006

It feels like I was standing my entire life and I just sat down

ewe2 posted:

Narrator: "...and so he did" :v:

Excellent choice. Laminate mahogany is perfectly fine for most uses, I've got laminate Kalas and they project quite well and are well made.








My boys breaking it in

Akarshi
Apr 23, 2011

Now that it's quarantine times, I'm picking up the ukulele. I can switch between the Big 4 Beginner Chords pretty easily (C, G, G7, F) at this point but I cannot for the life of me figure out how to strum. My main issue is that my index finger catches on top string (G) a lot on the downstrum, or misses it entirely - so there's something wrong with my arc I think. I can do a basic thumb downstroke at least but when it comes to strumming up and down, I can't figure out how to properly do it. Anyone have any tips or video recommendations for basic strumming? Thanks!!

bees everywhere
Nov 19, 2002

Oh, what's up, ukulele thread!

Akarshi posted:

Now that it's quarantine times, I'm picking up the ukulele. I can switch between the Big 4 Beginner Chords pretty easily (C, G, G7, F) at this point but I cannot for the life of me figure out how to strum. My main issue is that my index finger catches on top string (G) a lot on the downstrum, or misses it entirely - so there's something wrong with my arc I think. I can do a basic thumb downstroke at least but when it comes to strumming up and down, I can't figure out how to properly do it. Anyone have any tips or video recommendations for basic strumming? Thanks!!

Strumming is really tricky at first, for me the moment I "got it" was the moment the ukulele changed from "frustrating" to "fun", once I figured out how to strum it was hard to put the uke down. The two most common ways to strum for me:
1. Down with the index fingernail, up with the index fingertip. This is the standard way, you're going to get the most volume out of the ukulele and you can play at a faster tempo and rock out.
2. Down with the thumb, up with the index fingertip. This is a much warmer and purer sound, you'll want to strum ahead of the sound hole where the neck meets the body, around the 15-16th fret area.

Hold your arm across your chest like you're holding a hammer in your right hand and you're about to hit a nail sneaking up on you from the left. Now make a finger gun with your hand and let your wrist go limp, loosen it up. Just kinda flick your wrist down and up. Now you can do option #1 or #2.

This is the first song I ever learned and it uses the chords you already know, starting at C major. Whenever I teach someone how to play the ukulele, I start with Forgetful Lucy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJnWviXQ6vE

Notice how he is holding the ukulele. He is sitting so he's angling it up a bit but you can also hold it straight horizontal across your body. Your forearm, just above the elbow, will rest on the bottom of the ukulele and act as an anchor. This is why you don't necessarily need a guitar strap to hold one standing up, you're pinning it to your body with your forearm and flicking your wrist.

In the video he gets a little fancy, but focus on learning the strum pattern from the first part. Down, down up * down, down up * down up down up, up down up. The commas are pauses but your hand should keep moving to keep the rhythm.

bees everywhere fucked around with this message at 03:15 on May 18, 2020

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GreenBuckanneer
Sep 15, 2007

Making progress.... (first string instrument)

Over the Rainbow: https://voca.ro/f7ijYjAWBwR
Strumming: https://voca.ro/bNbVXM56nLg

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