Clawhammer help...

I accidentally came across uker Aaron's two intro videos on clawhammer uke and was blown away. This is a GREAT sound for uke and I'd like to learn it.

Anyone here playing in this style? I'm having a bit of trouble visualizing part of the technique, namely the picking of the melody note. I gather that you pick the note with the back of either the index or middle fingernail and then bring that finger back up and do the strum prior to picking the high G string with the thumb. Is this right? It feels VERY awkward picking downward then having to bring that finger up quickly into strum position. I find myself fingerpicking upwards with my index finger which is then instantly in position for the downward strum. Comes from my guitar fingerpicking days.

Any hints/ideas welcomed.

Bump..
Doesn't anyone here play clawhammer uke?

In case you don't know what I'm talking about, check this out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRkxyEtd5Yc

There were a few topics discussed about this recently.
Check out the search or look through the uke talk section.

you described it right...

melody note, strum, thumb...

clawhammer vocab is bum-ditt-y

do it a couple thousand times, and you'll get it:wallbash::nana:

in perspective...its nothing more than the guitar's "boom-chuck" (thats country hee-haw music in case you dont know)...except its adapted for the reintrant (high-g) tuning. In the simplest form, your basic strum goes from low to high note. In boom-chuck/ bum-ditt-y, you pluck the bass note and strum...since the highest note of the strum is typically the last you'd hit on a guitar strum, on the uke you have to strum and then drop the thumb on the high g to effectively create a full traditional strum from low to high note.