All about ukulele
Scales: Below is the C Major Scale on ukulele. A scale is a sequence of notesin ascending or descending order. Like a musical ladder, each note is the next consecutive step of the scale. In the C scale, the first and last notes are always C.
Chords: When more than one note is played at a time, we call it a chord. Most songs are made up of chords for the harmony, and single notes in the melody. Below are our more used Uke chords. To play a chord on the uke, use your left hand to place your fingers in the position on the fret board, then strum the strings with your right hand. Make sure to use the right finger number on the right fret!
C and A minor only use one finger, F uses just two fingers, and the G chord is a simple shape that many uke players find easy to make. If you’re a guitar player, you may notice that it’s the same shape as the D chord on your guitar.
With these easy chords, you can play a long list of 2, 3, and 4 chord ukulele songs. And we’re talking about popular, well known songs that you’ll actually want to play.
Check out the Uke Tabs and Chords in the resource tab, as well as YouTube to find a song that you'd like to learn. Remember, if you want to play well, you'll have to PRACTICE!
4 chord or less songs to try:
Strumming Patterns
Pattern 1 – All Down Strums
The first strum pattern that you should get used to is 4 down strums per bar. Try your best to keep the timing evenly spaced between each down strum. It’s really important to keep the down strums spaced evenly after you’ve finished a bar.This may all seem a little easy to begin with but keeping your timing even is incredibly important and will help you when we move onto more complex patterns.
Pattern 2 – Down Up Down Up Down Up Down Up
In this pattern we start to do some up strums. Now you’re well and truly comfortable with 4 down strums per bar, we’ll look at adding an up strum between each down strum. Your hand is already travelling upwards to return to a position to be able to make your next strum so all you need to do is catch the strings with your index finger as your hand is making that movement. Again we’re trying to keep the space between every strum completely even – think or your hand like a pendulum keeping a constant motion. When counting your strums out loud, the up strums should be spoken as the word and – counting like this 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and.
Pattern 3 – Down Down Down Up Down
We’re starting to get a little more complex now. This pattern drops out some of the up strums and becomes a lot more interesting for it. Count the strum pattern out like like this… 1, 2, 3 and 4 – strumming down on the numbers and up on the and. This may take a little getting used to and although counting out loud does sound a little ridiculous it is incredibly helpful and will get you where you want to be much faster. There’s a saying – if you can say it, you can play it. One thing to watch for on this pattern is that you keep the spacing really even between the bars. The up strum between beats 3 and 4 can throw you off a bit.