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On August 23rd 1879 a ship called The SS Ravenscrag arrived in Honolulu carrying 419 Portuguese immigrants. 3 of them in particular began giving nightly street concerts playing folk songs using a small guitar-like instrument they brought with them.
As the story goes, the Hawaiians were amazed by their fast moving fingers, and named the instruments “Ukulele” (Hawaiian for “jumping fleas”). Another possible translation is that the word means “the gift that came here”, from the Hawaiian words uku (gift) and lele (to come).
Make sure you can find all of the following parts on the instrument:
Body
Sound hole
Neck
Head
Bridge
Frets
Strings
Tuning Pegs
Chords:
Chords are how we describe multiple notes being played together. On the ukulele, we can place our fingers in different places to create combinations of notes, or chords.
The open strings of the ukulele are tuned to the notes G, C, E A.
Below are the first 4 chords you will learn on the ukulele and where to place your fingers.
Tips:
Practice these chords in different combinations until you are confident and comfortable playing them.
Place your fingers between the metal frets so the strings rest on them.
Push hard enough that the strings ring cleanly.
The hardest part is transitioning between chords - practice this slowly and smoothly.
You won't get this straight away - take your time.
Once you mast the four chords above, you will be able to find other chords here. However, there are plenty of songs that only use these basic chords. You can find a range of them here.
There are also plenty of tutorial and play alongs on YouTube!
We also have some further resources at the link below:
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