Strum Issues

I am new to the uke and new to music. That said, I am beginning to feel developmentally challenged.

I can play the chords reasonably well, or I can strum well enough, but I cannot do both at the same time. I can play chords to songs such as Blowing in the Wind at 90-100 beats per minute on the metronome with very few errors. That said, when I try anything other than a simple down up strum things just auger in terribly.

Is this just a patience it will come kind of deal, or do I need to be doing something different. I have only had my uke for about three weeks...still this is frustrating.

i never had that problem, but try strumming a pattern over and over until you can do it without thinking about it, and work on chord changes...?

you'll get there. One of the things that helped me is to slow things WAAAYYYY down, literally to 25% normal speed until I could do it right, then half speed, then finally full speed.

i'm with magic ^^^

i take it slow and break it down into the smallest chunks (speaking of chunks lol) but it comes with time i'd say is safe to say.

Yep - I wish there was a trick... but the answer is to practice. Just keep at it.

Also, strum what you feel - don't worry too much about "right" or "patterns"... just feel it out. It will come with time... and of course practice.

Try playing along with a recording. don't worry to much about what your doing try to make it feel right.

Time to Learn to Shuffle and mute and Chunk

First, there is a lot you can do by changing up the timing of the up down. The simplest is a shuffle strum -- think "dum da dum dum da dum." There is a music teacher on youtube -- the guy with the white hair and the hats who does a good tutorial on strum variations. Here's his channel http://www.youtube.com/user/MusicTeacher2009#p/c/AF67378C70D82D6E

Then it's time to think about the spaces in between the sound. Sound combined with the absence of sound (rests and mutes) is another way to make rhythm.

Look for Aldrine's lesson or ukeminutes or uke got mail on chunking. It helps to add rhythm interest and break up good old up down/shuffle.

With chunking and rests, the Ukulele becomes a drum (percussion section) as well as a harmonic accompaniment instrument. Then you get into dominator/jumpin flea land and you get the whole orchestra with melody added in.

There's a lot to strumming and a lot to have fun with. Take it slow and don't get discouraged..

leftovermagic84 said:

you'll get there. One of the things that helped me is to slow things WAAAYYYY down, literally to 25% normal speed until I could do it right, then half speed, then finally full speed.

Click to expand...

Yes as painful as this is it is the best way to get the strumming and chord changing under control.

One technique that Aldrine teaches is to mute the strings with your fret hand so you can just concentrate on the strumming hand and strum pattern. This worked well for me to learn more complicated strumming patterns and its something that I do in almost every practice session.

There is also an excellent e-book called "How to Play Ukulele Strums". Some real good techniques taught in it including using mnemonics to help with learning strums. Check it out at http://ukulelehunt.com/2009/07/15/ukulele-strumming-strums/.

Thanks for the tips, I have this same problem as well.
x_X

One thing I would do - hell, still do - is actually SAY the strumming I want to do out loud..."down, down, up, up, chunk"...I'd just repeat it over and over until it was a memorized groove. Then, I'd just add my hand in - that way, I would know WHERE I was making the mistake because it wouldn't match with what I was saying. This won't work for fast strumming, but just another suggestion!