Newbie in over my head?

Three words you will often hear:

Practice, practice, practice. Just keep it up and you will see improvement in no time. Something that helps, is recording a video of yourself and watching it.

Welcome to UU, too.

Naw, you're in over yer head. Give it up. Send me your uke for safe keeping.



OK, maybe not. Since you've only just begun playing, give yourself some time. Set a goal or two. Search the forum for some 2-chord songs to practice timing and singing with. Jeez, what else were you going to do with all that time anyway? Might as well get good at the ukulele.

Practice is overrated. There are other things you can do other than practice. One trick to timing is having an internal tempo. Somewhere in the universe must exist at 120bpm and you can create that place. Just set your metronome at 120bpm and then sit down and watch the History Channel until you fall asleep. Everynight for the next year, set your metronome to 120bpm and fall asleep watching the History channel. Soon, you will develop a subconscious knowledge of 120bpm.

The only thing I can say about chord transitions is to practice. I know, it sucks. Here's what you do. Pick a song and identify your chord transitions. See how many of each change you can do in a minute. Write your score in a notebook. Every night when you play, try to beat your best score. And of course, set your metronome to the correct tempo for that song as you fall asleep to the History Channel!

Look at Krabbers video of "The Book of Love." He has prettty much turned it into a 1 chord song. Its a C chord and then dropping the index finger on e string first fret and middle finger on c string second fret when the melody tells you to do it. I've watched several videos of people playing it the "right" way and his way is better to my ear. I don't know how much you listen to music, but that is a big help too.

Here's the link to Krabbers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enAYyI3kppY

good luck!

I don't do it much when playing the ukulele, since I am not trying to play along with other instruments (yet), but when I was a horn player, silently tapping a foot to keep your beat was pretty much essential. Then, you learned to count. You would play quarter notes on the downbeat, and things such as eighth notes would be played on both the down and up beats, usually by thinking in your mind, "One & Two & Three& Four &," with the &'s being on the upbeats of your foot. Shorter notes got broken up the same way and their up/down place in the foot tap was figured out and used when you learned a song. Often when playing with a lot of other instruments, you had periods of time where you didn't play at all. It became essential during those times to keep count of the beat by counting your foot taps, or you would come back in too late or too early. Using a metronome substitutes for the foot in practice, and is more accurate.

Some of the best advice is to do what's referred to as concentrated and deliberate practice. The concentrated part means to focus on one thing at a time. The deliberate part means that you should figure out where you want to go (you already know that part, you wanna play and sing the song!) figure out what you need to do to get there, figure out how to get there, and follow those steps. For your specific case it would mean making sure you can get a comfortable hang on the shape of each chord. Just practice strumming a little bit, don't worry too much about time or rhythm. Once you can do that, work on switching between the chords. Being able to transition between chords with little effort is one of the things people listen for when determining how good a uke player is. After that, find the strum pattern you like, start simple like DUDU or UDUD. If you want something more complicated you can pick it up later.
Then focus on doing the pattern with the chord changes. The way it normally starts is that you learn the chords with your eyes, looking each time you put your fingers down, then you end up using your brain, thinking each chord and putting your fingers there, and then eventually the hands and muscle memory do the work. You don't necessarily have to get it all down to muscle memory but it helps a lot. After all of that you can try the singing on top. Keep in mind that the first weeks of practice are the hardest, but they build the most in ability. Also keep in mind that if this stuff doesn't seem too interesting, it's not a bad idea to reserve practice time to just monkey around and enjoy yourself. It's not the a great way to improve but it's important to have fun too. If practicing becomes a chore you'll probably stray away from it.

Melissa82 said:

Three words you will often hear:

Practice, practice, practice. Just keep it up and you will see improvement in no time. Something that helps, is recording a video of yourself and watching it.

Welcome to UU, too.

Click to expand...

I'm sorry Melissa what was that third word?

Melissa and Harold O make a lot of sence. Practise strumming then try 2 and 3 chord songs them move up to a tougher song. If you try something to hard to start you are setting yourself up to be dicouraged. This should be fun. When I started all of 3 months ago i printed off dozens of songs Iliked. i tryied the ones I could and 1 looked to complex I put it on the bottom of the pile for the future. I'm still not at the bottom of the pile but I am starting to see it. Good Luck and stat positive.

Melissa82 said:

Three words you will often hear:

Practice, practice, practice.
Welcome to UU, too.

Click to expand...

You have stolen my mantra. Either that or you just beat me to it. It is all about practice.

What has helped me is to tap my foot to the beat when listening to a song. It has helped me develop some sort of tempo (bad still, but better). Also, one thing that has helped me a lot is humming to a song rather than singing at first. For some reason, my brain can comprehend playing and humming much better than playing and singing. The singing will come with time I'm sure!

What can also help is clapping your hands (no uke, still on the sofa)and then picking up the uke. This is a common technique teaching kids music, and more adults would profit from this. The uke isn't going to run out the room...

Tempo rhythm phrasing is THE most difficult part and listening to some of the most accomplished uke videos even the very best IMO where all the chord transitions are down and the fingers are flying...I constantly see off rhythms, tempo (usually rushed to emphasize virtuosity) and tight little breathing room phrasing...even the body language reveals this.

Even the very best are too intent (and tense) about "doing" the piece...you're in good company.

Juan Sapatos said:

Look at Krabbers video of "The Book of Love." He has prettty much turned it into a 1 chord song. Its a C chord and then dropping the index finger on e string first fret and middle finger on c string second fret when the melody tells you to do it. I've watched several videos of people playing it the "right" way and his way is better to my ear. I don't know how much you listen to music, but that is a big help too.

Here's the link to Krabbers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enAYyI3kppY

good luck!

Click to expand...

Great video! Is he strumming or picking or a combination?

sukie said:

You have stolen my mantra. Either that or you just beat me to it. It is all about practice.

Click to expand...

LOL....she out ranks you!!!!

Melissa82 said:

Three words you will often hear:

Practice, practice, practice. Just keep it up and you will see improvement in no time. Something that helps, is recording a video of yourself and watching it.

Welcome to UU, too.

Click to expand...

Yes...:deadhorse: Practice, practice & practice. But most important is to play SLOWLY so as not to
make mistakes!! If you make too many mistakes, then that is what you will learn!! Give it some time, have
some fun and enjoy the ride!!! Oh and be very careful of catching that dreaded disease UAS!!! :uhoh:

I believe the best way to improve is to get out and play with others.
It forces you to keep time and improves your transitions between chords.
If you don't know the chord just strum while muting all the strings. When a chord come around you know you're all set to jump in.
Another hint is to sit across from the best player, then you can get a clear view of their hands and pick up some tips.
If you are shy just play soft, everyone of us was a beginner. Too many folks wait until they believe they are good enough to play in a group, bottom line is we never get there.
Find a group(s) and join in.

Wow, thanks for the helpful advice, everyone! What a wonderful community. I just wish there was a group for uke players in Iowa; no one lives here...

Aha practice is obvious. Just give it time, and you'll be switching chords like a beast!

I don't know how well this works, but I show my ukulele videos of the songs I want to learn. We watch them together...often. We practice them, then watch the videos again. It seems to help. I know how you feel; I wish there were others to play with in Kitsap County, Washington.

You should start a ukulele club in Iowa

The organizer of my Las Vegas ukulele club said she kept waiting for one to pop up and finally she just did it herself, bless her.

To an extent, I think being able to sing and play at the same time is part practice and part natural ability. Pleasedon'tyellatme!

My husband and I started playing ukulele at the exact same time, and we more or less practice together, and we more or less started with the same complete lack of musical ability. A handful of piano lessons here and there were all we had in the music department. He has to KNOW a song very well to sing and play at the same time, the song has to almost be memorized. On the other hand, for me it's easier to learn a song if I'm singing it, I feel like I have a better sense of timing. I think my brain is just somehow wired that I can separate my hands and mouth easily (maybe it's from being a teacher and the necessity of multitasking?? Talking to my students about one thing while I'm writing down another?)

But beyond that, practice practice practice. I think it's much better to learn a song you LIKE than to learn a song that is EASY. You have motivation if you like it