Help with Practice Routine/ Resources

Hello!
I just started playing ukulele about a month ago and I've been able to pick up some basic chords and strum patterns from Youtube. I've also been using Yousician (which I really don't like...) and I downloaded Ukulele Aerobics (but at week 3, I'm already feeling like it's too advanced). I signed up for UU+ and I'm in the 2 week free trial trying to decide if I should stick with it. I've been reading a lot about The Ukulele Way and that sounds like a really good program too.

Obviously, right now I don't have much structure, and I think I need some. I've been trying to figure out if I should stay with UU or TUW (I don't really want to pay for both). I've also done a lot of research on books and I guess I'm trying to figure out what some must have books are. I know so much information is available online, that books aren't really necessary, but if these books are worthwhile, I'd be fine with spending the money on them.

Anyways, I'd appreciate any insight on coming up with a more structured plan and how to move forward. I'm also going to include a list of books I've read are good and that I'm considering getting (it's a long list, obviously I wouldn't buy all of them). I'd love opinions!

Also I'm trying to find out more about Ukulelezaza. Any information you could share with me?

Thanks so much and sorry this is a bit long!!

Book list:
- Ukulele Exercises for Dummies
- The Complete What Ukulele Players Really Want to Know- Barry Maz
- Fingerstyle Ukulele- Aaron Keim
- Ukulele Fretboard Roadmaps-
- Ukulelezaza
- Understanding Ukulele Chords- Robbert van Renesse
- The Daily Ukulele

tl;dr:Started a month ago and looking for more structure in my routine than watching YT videos, using Yousician and Ukulele Aerobics. Considering UU or Ukulele Way (can't afford both). Looking for good beginner books (some are listed above).

I have not tried the UU University yet, because I've been drifting in the low-g direction, so I can't comment (looking at the index, it is excellent), but I did sign up for The Ukulele Way. So far, I'm very impressed with it, especially since you learn both playing ukulele and reading musical notation. The videos are concise, there is additional material for each (sheets, tabs, audio recordings, graphics), you can ask questions in the comments, and it's very structured, each lesson building up on the previous ones. There is also a navigator that will suggest possible pathways depending on what you want to do, but you'd probably want to start with the first book (the lessons are separated into books). Each video is available for low-g and high-g, and also exist for D tuning (you can switch between them).

I have wasted a lot of time learning randomly from a lot of different resources, and I found it rather inefficient. My theoretical knowledge far outshines what I can actually do, which is in part a result of "book learning" and jumping around between resources. I don't think you NEED a course like The Ukulele Way or UU University in order to become a good player, but I have come to realize that it's much more efficient. Having too many resources can be confusing, so a structured approach is great for me. (I still learn songs/etc outside of the course, too, but at least I now have a long-term plan/lessons I can follow at my own pace.)

idxxoutoftheblue said:

Book list:
- Ukulele Exercises for Dummies
- The Complete What Ukulele Players Really Want to Know- Barry Maz
- Fingerstyle Ukulele- Aaron Keim
- Ukulele Fretboard Roadmaps-
- Ukulelezaza
- Understanding Ukulele Chords- Robbert van Renesse
- The Daily Ukulele

Click to expand...

I'll comment on a couple of the books you have listed (the ones I have used myself):

Ukulele Exercises For Dummies - I really like this book. I think that the author, Brett McQueen, presents the material well and offers a lot of good solid practical advice for the beginner or not-quite-beginner. And there are sound clips for every exercise. I would say that this is a book to dip into rather than to work your way through from front to back. So it would be up to you how you integrated it into your ongoing learning.

Aaron Keim's Fingerstyle Ukulele - another great book for the not-quite-beginner. Obviously the focus is on picking so you would need to decide if that's something you want to spend time working on. Again the material is well presented and the overall structure is good. There are several excellent online videos that tie in with the lessons in this book and that adds a lot of extra value.

I would also look at Rob MacKillop's 20 Easy Fingerstyle Studies if you are interested in picking. You get twenty short pieces - kind of like drills but a bit more musical - each one of which helps you to focus on developing particular bits of playing technique (eg barring, triplets, arpeggios etc.). Worth checking out

First question is are you interested in strumming/singing or picking tunes/melody?

Each has a different way of learning.
With strum/sing you need to learn chords & be able to switch between them cleanly.
Whilst picking tunes/melody requires that you understand where the individual notes are on a fretboard.

Learn one method at a time, then when you've got the hang of the first, go on & learn how to do the other.

I looked at your book list. I think that you have plenty of books. I started buying books and soon realized that most of the books have the same thing in them, especially at the beginner stage. I lost interest in ukulele aerobics pretty quickly. But I think that learning to play the ukulele is pretty much learning to play the ukulele. There are no secrets, no shortcuts, nor is there an easy way. Maybe the presentation is a little different from one to the other, but the meat of it is all the same. So my advise is to take one and go with it. The one that you like the person doing the teaching. The one where the person teaching is relating to you. And then quit looking around at other ones. Because they are all teaching the same thing, and also because jumping around from one to the other just interrupts your progress.

please feel free to access the Ukulele Boot Camp materials (FREE) via the link in my signature.

the structure is to learn to play through each Practice sheet (there are 5 of them, one for each
of these keys - C, F , G, A, & D). When you can play each practice sheet from top to bottom,
at an even tempo without interrupting the flow, you will have 'mastered' the chords commonly
used in each of those keys... for song circle use primarily.

Anyway, I feel having done that, you will have established a good foundation for all your future
ukulele efforts, strumming or fingerpicking

keep uke'in',

Thanks for all the advice!

uke1950 said:

First question is are you interested in strumming/singing or picking tunes/melody?

Each has a different way of learning.
With strum/sing you need to learn chords & be able to switch between them cleanly.
Whilst picking tunes/melody requires that you understand where the individual notes are on a fretboard.

Learn one method at a time, then when you've got the hang of the first, go on & learn how to do the other.

Click to expand...

I'm interested in both, but I think I'm quite interested in fingerpicking and playing melodies. Is that a bit more difficult to learn?

Rllink said:

I looked at your book list. I think that you have plenty of books. I started buying books and soon realized that most of the books have the same thing in them, especially at the beginner stage. I lost interest in ukulele aerobics pretty quickly. But I think that learning to play the ukulele is pretty much learning to play the ukulele. There are no secrets, no shortcuts, nor is there an easy way. Maybe the presentation is a little different from one to the other, but the meat of it is all the same. So my advise is to take one and go with it. The one that you like the person doing the teaching. The one where the person teaching is relating to you. And then quit looking around at other ones. Because they are all teaching the same thing, and also because jumping around from one to the other just interrupts your progress.

Click to expand...

Thanks, and sorry if I wasn't clear but the only book I currently have is Ukulele Aerobics. The others are ones that I have seen people talk about and have considered buying. I obviously don't want to buy all of them though, so I was asking for feedback.

Uncle Rod Higuchi said:

please feel free to access the Ukulele Boot Camp materials (FREE) via the link in my signature.

the structure is to learn to play through each Practice sheet (there are 5 of them, one for each
of these keys - C, F , G, A, & D). When you can play each practice sheet from top to bottom,
at an even tempo without interrupting the flow, you will have 'mastered' the chords commonly
used in each of those keys... for song circle use primarily.

Anyway, I feel having done that, you will have established a good foundation for all your future
ukulele efforts, strumming or fingerpicking

keep uke'in',

Click to expand...

Thanks so much! I'll take a look

Look at the stickies "Resources" at the top of the Beginners page and the Syllabus for Beginners, at ~1 month in these will give you a lot of help cheaply. find a chord chart and print it out, find a Key Chord chart and print it out, get a 3 ring binder to keep you stuff in and a few dividers to sort it out. Practice every day and night too, a bit at a time to stiffen up your finger tips.

But most of all have fun and there are tons of songs with chords to download and put in your binder.

I also started a month ago. The book I use (and like) is the Hal Leonard methods book. I like to finger pick the notes and play melody on my ukulele (mainly because other people don't like my singing).

You may already know this, but just in case,

One thing about playing an instrument is practice, practice, practice. Lately, I've not practiced at all for the last 2 weeks; sure, I've played the ukulele during that time, but playing and practicing is different.

When you practice, you have a goal of learning something whether it's perfecting the fret locations, picking the right string, etc. You tend to try to improve and focus on specific areas and a lot of repetition vs just playing some song that you like and ignoring mistakes (i.e. having fun).

So, without much practice, I accept that I've not improved much the last 2 weeks. But if you practice, I'm sure what you think is very hard/impossible now will become doable with practice since you are still at the beginning stages.

One thing that is hard to do when self-teaching is judging whether you've actually learned a lesson and can move on (i.e. did you really pass the test?). Since a lot of material builds on prior materials, if you pass with insufficient skill, you may get stuck. Here, you'll have to re-do the prior lessons and truely learn what it teaches.

I do a lot of self-recording (well, I did that the first 2 weeks). It is such a pain, but that's the surest way for me to compare my playing vs the book's CD. When I hit is just right, it is very satisfying.

Anyway, you're probably more advanced than I am since I've not budged for 2 weeks; but I hope the above (being just general advice) is useful. Good luck.

Excellent points, hal1001!

When I first started out, I found the Hal Leonard Method One book and Rod's boot camp to be the most helpful written materials.

I'd highly recommend trying to get a tutor for six months. Check Craigslist or your local music shop. They don't even have to be specifically great uke players themselves - my tutor was primarily a guitar player who played around with the uke on the side, but he'd spent enough of his life practicing music and teaching others that those six months did a great deal for me in terms of getting me comfortable with the instrument, getting used to practicing, and giving me something specific to work on each week. It also helps being accountable to someone else. It was the best money I've spent on my musical education, because he helped me learn how to help myself learn.

Also, when you get to the point where there's so many things you want to learn but you don't know where to start and/or how to structure it, check out my write-up on how I do it with a simple system of note cards: https://jonthysell.com/2014/08/26/revisiting-how-to-practice-the-ukulele/

JonThysell said:

When I first started out, I found the Hal Leonard Method One book and Rod's boot camp to be the most helpful written materials.

I'd highly recommend trying to get a tutor for six months. Check Craigslist or your local music shop. They don't even have to be specifically great uke players themselves - my tutor was primarily a guitar player who played around with the uke on the side, but he'd spent enough of his life practicing music and teaching others that those six months did a great deal for me in terms of getting me comfortable with the instrument, getting used to practicing, and giving me something specific to work on each week. It also helps being accountable to someone else. It was the best money I've spent on my musical education, because he helped me learn how to help myself learn.

Also, when you get to the point where there's so many things you want to learn but you don't know where to start and/or how to structure it, check out my write-up on how I do it with a simple system of note cards: https://jonthysell.com/2014/08/26/revisiting-how-to-practice-the-ukulele/

Click to expand...

I'd love to find a teacher, but thought I'd try teaching myself first. Thanks for the advice. Completely off topic, but I'm thinking of starting a blog, do you have any advice for that? Would you mind if I PM you about it?