How long did it take you to learn a uke :o?

I have been playing for 1 year and I think I have made some good progress. But playing uke is like life you will always be learning no matter how good or experienced you are.
 
I think the answer to this question can be misleading, if you don't know the person's background. I'm still not very good, if you measure it by how well some of our members on YouTube are, but after 9 months, I think I am slowly working my way to the more advanced tecnhiques (playing up the neck, fingerpicking, etc). I could play simple chords to most songs within a few hours, but I played trumpet and some guitar in high school, so I was aware of basic music theory and basic chords.

In our SEUkers group meetings we have occassionally taught rank beginners to play simple chords (G, C, D, etc) and simple songs within an hour or two, so I know that is possible. If you learn just those simple chords, and a few strums, you can play hundreds of songs. The rest comes with more study and practice.
 
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As a wise man once said, Nothing comes easy without practice.

I'm still learning, like everyone else. I think, learning is a life long process. No matter how well you are at the ukulele, there's still bound to be more to learn, more to try, more to meddle with. Like Jake, he IS on top of the ukulele world, but no matter what, there still is new things for him to learn.

:)
 
donzamacleod said:
I have been playing for 1 year and I think I have made some good progress. But playing uke is like life you will always be learning no matter how good or experienced you are.
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Yes, ideally, if you continue to play, you continue to learn. And like life, the uke is a journey, not a destination.
 
I think that, as people, we can learn a lot about life from our little ukulele friend...who is first: humble, second: cuddly and needs to be held occasionally, and third: knows how to make people smile from all ages and different backgrounds! Donza just said it all: we're going to keep on learning while there's still breath in our lungs. Anyone who thinks they've learnt it all is headed for a big fall at some point. I also tend to think that musical skills are relative in that there is always someone about who will be more skilful than yourself, just like there'll always be someone who is perhaps not yet at your level. We can acknowledge our good points and our weaker points and work at narrowing the gap between the two, enjoying the journey all the while...
 
The uke was my first string instrument, I could adequately play and sing to simple tune after a week. After a month I knew all the major chords and a few others and had several songs memorized. After about a year I was experimenting with new strumming patterns,chunking and stuff like that.
 
To add to my previous answer a bit, never compare your learning speed to someone who is a good guitar or banjo player (which many of the good uke players were). After imprinting the keyboard into their mind map, they can often play the uke like they have been playing for years. Its all transferable. In a reverse idea to that, my Dad has a banjo, which he never learned to play. I was visiting him recently and asked him to dig out the banjo and a beginners book. He did, and I learned a few basic chords from his book. Within a few minutes I was playing the banjo like I knew what I was doing (sort of), all because I have been practicing the ukulele. Now, I am yearning for a tenor banjo lol.
 
Learning an instrument and playing music is a lifetime journey.
Buckle up and enjoy the ride.
 
I've been playing uke for a little over a month now and I can play While My Guitar Gently Weeps fluently, so it didn't take me long to learn to play the uke (or at least learn the basics of uke - still a lot of techniques to learn).
But I learned a lot from playing guitar a few years, so I've got a lot of experience from the guitar.
 
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I've been playing for almost 3 months, and for the first 4-5 weeks i focused on just some basic scales and some songs i liked on aldrines lesson list. about 6 weeks after getting my first uke i decided to try and learn Jake Shimabukuro's arrangement of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" surprisingly easy to learn if you focus on all the tutorials on youtube. (I used slow-mo version to learn from) took me about 2 weeks to learn. ever since then i've been learning some other stuff like short instrumentals.. and 3 or 4 of aldrine's live lessons. about 1-2 weeks ago i started learning "Bandito Tyler" by Aldrine. started out with his live lesson on the chorus of it and since then i've been using a powertab of bandito to try to learn it..... VERY slowly... lol, need to practice it more... so yeah, thats a general idea of my play history.

P.S. no guitar experience :) or banjo :)
 
as a guitarist for many years, I think I was pretty quick -but I dont think you ever stopped learning the uke.

I am just a strummer, but learned the chords in the first week - I already had the fingerstrength from guitar. My strum took few weeks though as I usually use a pick on guitar, and dont on uke
 
I'd agree with others that we'll always be learners. I don't think we'll ever "arrive."

However, I learned how to play ukulele when I was around six from grandfather who had played all his life. I think I was able to learn the chords for one songs in about an evening, but then it took me many weeks or years after that to get my sense of rhythm down.

Like anything, to be good, it takes a lot of hard work and discipline.
 
I learned to play the uke in about 10 seconds That first C chord was a breeze! ;)
But it's the improving part that might be a bit rougher. Suspect it will take a lifetime. :cool:
 
I must say you slow pokes need to get it together. I have arrived! My goal was to stum 3 chords sloppily and sing off key and out of time. I'm so there. And I've only been at it for 6 mos. Set your goals low enough and you will succeed:)
 
This is what someone said to be when I ask what he thought made a good student.

He said:

Think of it as karate.
But take out all the other belts except white and black.
We all start out as white belts, total beginners.
Through hard work, determination and practice our white belt gets rough.
It gets dirty, grimy and it darkens.
Eventually it turns black.
When it turns black, you wash it.
And you're a white belt again.
 
DAPuke said:
I must say you slow pokes need to get it together. I have arrived! My goal was to stum 3 chords sloppily and sing off key and out of time. I'm so there. And I've only been at it for 6 mos. Set your goals low enough and you will succeed:)
Click to expand...

You need to slow down.

Don't burn out too fast.
 
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