New here and clueless

Hi everyone! I joined after having this site recommended to me by some kind folks at Ravelry (a knitting and crochet community). I decided on a whim last year to learn ukulele and I bought myself a Kala KA-TG (tenor) after doing some research on what to look for and after visiting the two music shops we have to look at different types in person. To be perfectly honest, I don't even know if I bought a particularly nice model to start with but I think it's lovely and I love it's sound.

I finally tracked down where the local uke club meets and I would like to join them, but right now I can't play at all. I'd like to gain a little confidence before meeting up with them.

Now... Here's my problem. There is so much info here I don't know where to begin. I've looked at a few of the pinned threads in this section but I'm honestly overwhelmed by all of it.

Any help or direction would be appreciated!

Thanks.

Ugh. Just realized I posted in entirely the wrong place! Oops!

Inkdork said:

Ugh. Just realized I posted in entirely the wrong place! Oops!

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Not entirely. Look at the Resources sticky at the top of the Beginners page. Download Uncle Rod's Boot Camp and Howling Hobbit's chord progressions, they will give you some chords to start learning. Goggle Easy Ukulele Music and down load some C-F-G7 songs that you can hum/sing. If you need help with chords, goggle Ukulele chords and find a few chord pages, print them out and start practicing.

I hope you bought a tuner too? If not check E-bay or Amazon and order one, they are cheap and make your uke sound a lot better than playing out of tune.

Enjoy and come back here with your questions. You'll have lots.

I do have a tuner- that was one of the reasons I chose the uke I did. It had a tuner and a rather sturdy padded case as well.

Thanks for those pointers. It's almost bedtime now but I will check them all out tomorrow. I'm hoping to learn a lot here!

A lot of people have a lot of success with the materials suggested above. It's a very easy instrument to learn the basics on, so have a lot of faith! There's so much material all over the internet. I learned from YouTube and self teaching. I would just type "Beginner Ukulele" in the search bar on YouTube and there's just so much there. So many great teachers. Find out what exactly you want to learn and there is stuff everywhere.

I partly decided to try to learn it because I thought it would be fairly easy, and the other part because I was in the middle of a bipolar manic episode and that can make me impulsive.

I took organ lessons as a child and could peck out a few songs and read music (though I've forgotten how now) and later played flute in Jr high.

I don't want to offend anyone and act like if you play the uke you aren't skilled, but in my opinion, it's one of the easiest instruments to learn.

It makes me happy to read that - gives me hope! Lol

If your uke looks good and sounds good to you, then you did right! Ukulele Mike on You Tube has a lot of helpful videos for beginners, too. As well as being in tune, you'll want to make sure you're holding the uke correctly. James Hill has a very good video on this.

Starting out I wanted to watch a bunch of videos to see how people held the ukulele, what songs could be played, what they should sound like, etc.

I found YouTube and Vimeo to be awesome resources.

Some of my personal favorites are Ukulele Mike, Cynthia Lin. Ukulele Tricks and James Hill.

Ukulele Underground has a lot of very good videos with Aldrine talking about overall ukulele topics and then lessons on the songs. http://ukuleleunderground.com/song-library/ is there song library which lists the songs with their "difficulty level"

There are many good to great resources online besides videos if you do better by reading.

Don't wait to join the uke club. Most clubs have beginner's lessons and you will quickly meet and make friends with people just like you.

If your local uke club welcomes beginners you will find people who will be more than willing to help you along the way with simple things like holding the uke, basic chords, simple strumming. There may even be someone who gives lessons or know someone who gives lessons. The internet is a great resource but not everyone has the confidence to teach themselves.

Kyle23 said:

A lot of people have a lot of success with the materials suggested above. It's a very easy instrument to learn the basics on...

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No! Too many people say that.

I agree that compared with some instruments it's relatively easy to get started on but you still have to put in the time and effort and you need to be willing to persist and to recognise that you will feel pretty useless initially as you struggle to change chords, strum in time and pick out tunes. You need to be prepared to stick with it initially. You will get there if you stick at it and it certainly takes less time to sound reasonable with ukulele than, say, violin but you still need to persist through the initial stages of learning an instrument.

The uke is like other "easy" instruments, harmonica, recorder, etc. Easy to bang out some initial sounds and songs on, but just as difficult as any instrument to master. You could easily devote a lifetime to the ukulele.

Piano and other keyboard instruments are physically far easier to play than any stringed instrument.

Holding it is something I'm having issues with but I'm seeing a lot of recommendations to get a button put on and use a strap - I'm a big girl and it seems my curves are constantly battling against me.

I was immediately welcomed when I popped in to ask when the uke club meets and invited to stay but since I was with my FIL I had to pass. I'll definitely be joining them soon though.

I understand about it talking time and practice to learn - most anything does. I'm not expecting instant results, I'm just hoping for something other than endless frustrations.

At first it is overwhelming, just take your time read what you want to read. You'll be fine.

And from my experience so far everyone is really helpful here.

I'm seeing that already.

I figure if I spend an hour here and there reading threads, I'll learn something while I'm discovering resources (though I just looked thru the uke p*rn thread and wow there are some pretties!).

Your Kala KA-TG is a fine ukulele model to start out on or even continue to use. Hopefully there is someone at your local uke club that can take a look at your ukulele and make sure that is has been set up properly. Believe it or not, there are actually people who enjoy the techie side of instruments and dialing them in. You really want to make sure that the strings are not set too high because that will make it more difficult to play.

My wife has dabbled with playing the ukulele for a number of years and when we are retired she will have more time, but one thing she can do is play a C chord. Actually she has been able to play the chords to Over the Rainbow, but if she just picks up a ukulele she strums a C chord. I believe that chord ushers in the love of the instrument as it is really the easiest chord to play and just sounds nice. After that you can follow all the great advice that has already been given.

Have fun with your ukulele and welcome.

John

Inkdork said:

Now... Here's my problem. There is so much info here I don't know where to begin. I've looked at a few of the pinned threads in this section but I'm honestly overwhelmed by all of it.

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I went through this as well and it was rather frustrating, because instead of learning, I was just drowning in material that I bounced around between.

If I could go back in time, I would get no more than three books, perhaps even only two: "Ukulele for Dummies" as your study plan and course, and "Ukulele Exercises for Dummies" as your practice book which covers both strumming and fingerstyle. If I had to choose between these, I'd go with the Exercises book. The third book would be "Ukulele Aerobics", which contains weekly sets of exercises in a no-nonsense format. They mostly (not flawlessly) build up on each other and give you a good foundation. "Weekly" doesn't need to be (and in my view: shouldn't be) understood literally. I look at them as sets of learning units to work with until one is confident in their execution, before moving to the next set.

And that's where I would stop for at least the first half year, if not longer. You might want a songbook, but you can find plenty of tabs online if you want to learn a specific song. I didn't and was more concerned with learning the fundamentals. I would also only look up videos that deal with specific questions you have (instead of watching whatever pops up, which adds to the confusion and eats up your time).

Going to the club you mentioned is likely the single-best thing you can do, so don't be shy. It is likely to be the fastest way of learning. I don't know if I'd have the courage, but I'm convinced of the efficiency.

I also feel it's important to forget that you ever heard that the ukulele is easy to learn. It may well be, especially for people with background in music or stringed instruments, but having been told it's so easy, and then experiencing that it wasn't easy at all for me, made me feel both dumb and hopeless, which wasn't a good experience. People mean well when they say that, and comparatively it is probably an accurate statement (easier than getting started with a violin, for example), but it bears the potential of achieving the opposite of the desired effect.

I did a lot of reading reviews and ratings before buying and basically ended up with learning geared tuners (not friction) are the way to go and to get the best you can afford. I compared a lot of models and played with a few different types at our two music stores and I just really liked how the tenor felt in my hands.

I've honestly no idea how well it's set up. I bought it off of Amazon because I had quite a bit of gift card credit and money was an issue.

I'm about to head out to my craft room and practice a bit. No distractions out there.

And thank you for the welcome!