I have a friend who is having trouble learning how to strum. Do any of you know of any resources (links, youtube, etc.) that teach a solid beginner strum pattern, nothing fancy, just something to get him started. Thanks in advance!!
I found Aldrine's Uke Minutes on basic strumming (collected in the UU main site under "beginner lessons") super helpful early on in my playing. There's enough uke minutes videos to keep players occupied for many moons of ukulele playing and at all skill levels. Other than that, the only way to learn new strumming patterns is to do them. The best way to do them is to learn songs that incorporate them.
Aaron's suggestion about first clapping the strum in the Right Hand Strumming video made things click for me. There are other useful strumming techniques from him as well at the HMS site.
I also found Aldrine's suggestion in one of the early UU videos helpful. Keep on strumming when you change chords. If you can't move your left hand fast enough, keep strumming because if your transition includes an open string strum - such as when changing from D to G so it is D/open strings/G - while you continue the strum, no one notices. That way you stay on the rhythm of the strum.
it took me a year to learn just the basic straight strum and the swing strum. Maybe I spent too long on just the two most basic strums but I think it pays off to always have one or two strums that you can nail.
I usually tell beginners to search YouTube with..... Ukulele, how to............and then fill in the blank(s). For example, strum, hold, tune, fingerpick, change strings, install pickup, play E major, chunk, play triples, rolls, etc. etc. etc. Many examples, some good, some so-so, but emphasis on diversity.
Youtube.......Ukuleletricks, basic strum. Brent McQueen runs that site and has some very good instructional stuff. He is a very good communicator and presenter
