Help

I'm a beginner at playin the uke and I need to know what I should be practicing at this moment...help me out...please...thankz!!

Just look up songs you would like to play online through google or this site. If they don't show you how to play the chords, look up ukulele chords on google and you will be set!

The most important thing is to enjoy what you do with it.

have a search around these forums for other beginners threads, the resource thread, and/or on youtube look for the channel "musicteacher2009"

What I am doing

I am in a similar situation as I just got my first uke a few weeks ago. In searching around the forums I found a reference to the following site for songs:

http://www.doctoruke.com/songs.html

I chose Five Foot Two which is number 99 in the list. I selected it because 1) I was familiar with the tune, 2) it had very simple chords (for me) and chord progression, 3) and it sounds fun. I read elsewhere on UU that you should first focus on getting the song committed to memory and changing chords before worrying about the strumming pattern. My practice routine basically involves trying to say the words in the song, using a simple D D D D strum pattern and smoothly changing the chords. I also read on UU that you should really focus on proper technique and form rather than speed. Therefore I am playing real slow but trying to make sure my chords sound real clear. I was real excited during my practice last night because I found that I was actually varying my strumming a little bit without really realizing it. I think this is because I am picking up the rythm of the song.

Anyway, this is what I have been doing. Again I am a total newbie and would defer to the more senior members on the forum. Bottom line: pick something that sounds fun to you and practice, practice, practice.

Good luck!

Try to learn a few of the basic chords....C, G, Am, F, G7. Play these chords, which are used in thousands of songs, slowly changing from on chord to another. I stress, play them SLOWLY until you make no mistakes. This will help to avoid "learning mistakes". Check the web for some easy basic songs that you know the melody and try to play them, again do it slowly. And before you know, you will amaze yourself!!!!
Have fun and enjoy the ride!!!!

Hey,

I'm a beginner,too . What I do is, to learn the basic chords, and learn easy songs. On UU are some great uke lessons for beginner. And a very nice and easy song is 'Over The Rainbow' or 'Island In The Sun'. Aldrine has a lot of playalongs on youtube, the most with a lesson video.

http://www.youtube.com/user/ukuleleoversoul


Dennis

I started playing aobut 3 months ago. Star playing chords. here is a good link for a good list of differrent songs all strumming. They give the chord name and where to play it and what the chord looks like for each song. The site also gives a list of every UKU chord

This link brings you to all chords.
http://www.ukulele-tabs.com/ukulele-chords-chart.html

If you click on a letter above it brings up artists names alphabetically.

If need to see it rather than read notes search for "ukulele mike lessons" on You Tube. try this link.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ukulele+mike+lessons&search_type=&aq=f

He has over 200 individual lessons out there. He also offers the printouts for some of his lessons. A handful of the lessons are for finger picking. That may be something you might want to look at down the road. Mike is a very gifted teacher that you will see. That should keep you busy for a while. It's kept me busy for 3 motnhs and will for many months more. let me know if this helps. Good Luck.