Total noob wonders what step 1 is

So between March 2-8 FedEx will deliver a shiny new powder blue dolphin uke to my doorstep. With any luck it will come Saturday while my family is there celebrating my 42nd birthday so they can all ask why on earth did you get this as a birthday present to yourself and why are you trying to pick up this zany thing now?

So once the box is open and everyone has said "oooh that's pretty," what do I do?

Here is some more background on me, so you know who is asking this dumb stuff:

I am not musically literate but have a decent ear and can carry a tune. I was forced to read sheet music in grade school but forgot it all.

I play hand percussion and am a fairly accomplished amatuer, so I have some rhythm and some idea of what practice is. From that I also know that I am willing to spring a few bucks on real live lessons, but that I could learn one or two things first to make those lessons more valuable.

Here is the list of some songs I intend to learn, in no particular order, and based on a combination of musical seriousness and total whimsy:

Where is my Mind? -- Pixies
Three Little Birds -- Marley
King Volcano -- Bauhaus
Thriller -- Michael Jackson
Over the Rainbow -- Iz version, of course
All of Me -- Willie Nelson version
Solsbury Hill -- Peter Gabriel
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly -- Morricone (the UOGB version was our wedding march)
Imperial March -- John Williams
Misirlou -- Dick Dale version
Mad World -- Gary Jules version
Istanbul not Constantinople -- They Might be Giants version
Triops has Three Eyes -- They Might be Giants
Mercy Street -- Peter Gabriel
In Your Eyes -- Peter Gabriel
Snuggle Puppy -- lyrics by Boynton (music by ???)
Hakuna Matata -- Disney's Lion King
Smells like Teen Spirit -- Nirvana
Amazing Grace -- Blind Boys of Alabama version (to tune of House of the Rising Sun by the Animals)
Creep -- Radiohead
Hyperballad -- Bjork
Pure Imagination -- Willy Wonka soundtrack
The Blood -- The Cure
Summertime Rolls -- Jane's Addiction
Psychokiller -- Talking Heads
It must be Love -- Madness
Today -- Smashing Pumpkins
Always Look on the Bright Side of Life -- Eric Idle
Caribou -- The Pixies
Electric Avenue -- Eddy Grant
Ripple -- Grateful Dead
De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da -- The Police
THE ENTIRE Songs of Fox Hollow -- Tom T. Hall
Space Oddity -- David Bowie
We Are Going to Be Friends -- The White Stripes
Lots of stuff by The Ramones, doesn't matter which since they all sound the same
Should I Stay or Should I Go -- The Clash
London Calling -- The Clash
How Soon is Now -- The Smiths
Panic -- The Smiths
Girlfriend in a Coma -- The Smiths
Ravel's Bolero

http://www.chordie.com/publicbooks.php?show=details&songid=103773

Hi Noob, welcome to UU!

Get on YouTube and check out Ukulele Mike - he has lots of videos and lessons and will get you playing ASAP! Learn a vamp in C (easy) and impress everyone when you take it out. Just learn a few easy chords - c, g, a, f - and play to the beat of "Jingle Bell Rock".

Thanks for the advice. I'll check them out. Does he have a "how to tune something you've never laid eyes on before" video?

That said, AAIGGGHHH! I HATE Jingle Bell Rock! And here I thought I'd have a good nine months to be free of that song.

There's a good chance that free tutorials exist of all these songs. If not, there will at least be ukulele tab on them that's easy to follow. You'll find that there's enough free stuff on the internet that you can get learn to play by having your ukulele positioned right between you and a computer screen.

pootsie said:

Thanks for the advice. I'll check them out. Does he have a "how to tune something you've never laid eyes on before" video?

That said, AAIGGGHHH! I HATE Jingle Bell Rock! And here I thought I'd have a good nine months to be free of that song.

Click to expand...

This should get you going - http://www.get-tuned.com/online_ukulele_tuner.php... Also there are tons of free iphone and Android tuning apps.

pootsie said:

.....That said, AAIGGGHHH! I HATE Jingle Bell Rock! And here I thought I'd have a good nine months to be free of that song.

Click to expand...

LOL, me too but it's a good down, up, down beat and you've got a head start on Christmas now.....

I am a huge fan of Uncle Rod's Boot Camp and Howlin' Hobbit's Chord Progressions, both free, online, printable, and easily read offline. I put Boot Camp on flash cards and carried these around for months, practicing any time I could.

pootsie said:

So between March 2-8 FedEx will deliver a shiny new powder blue dolphin uke to my doorstep. With any luck it will come Saturday while my family is there celebrating my 42nd birthday so they can all ask why on earth did you get this as a birthday present to yourself and why are you trying to pick up this zany thing now?

So once the box is open and everyone has said "oooh that's pretty," what do I do?

Here is some more background on me, so you know who is asking this dumb stuff:

I am not musically literate but have a decent ear and can carry a tune. I was forced to read sheet music in grade school but forgot it all.

I play hand percussion and am a fairly accomplished amatuer, so I have some rhythm and some idea of what practice is. From that I also know that I am willing to spring a few bucks on real live lessons, but that I could learn one or two things first to make those lessons more valuable.

Here is the list of some songs I intend to learn, in no particular order, and based on a combination of musical seriousness and total whimsy:

Where is my Mind? -- Pixies
Three Little Birds -- Marley
King Volcano -- Bauhaus
Thriller -- Michael Jackson
Over the Rainbow -- Iz version, of course
All of Me -- Willie Nelson version
Solsbury Hill -- Peter Gabriel
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly -- Morricone (the UOGB version was our wedding march)
Imperial March -- John Williams

Click to expand...

If you are not getting the uke set up by the person you are buying from you may have to tinker with it first.I have just bought a Dolphin and out of the box it was unplayable. I had to change the strings they are not proper strings that come with it. Also I had to file the frets down level to stop fret buzz.
Maybe i was unlucky .

If your looking for some reading before it comes, check out

http://ukulelehunt.com/

there's lots of good stuff to increase your anticipation.

Also visit this form's resource site:

http://www.ukuleleunderground.com/forum/showthread.php?15464-Ukulele-Resources-(Updated)

Have fun

Thanks all. I will be looking up all of that stuff!

Welcome to UU!

Here's a basic tutorial on tuning a uke: http://ukuleleunderground.com/2008/12/uke-minutes-33-how-to-tune-your-ukulele/

More basic stuff here (start on the last page and search for basic material):
http://ukuleleunderground.com/category/ukeminute/page/16/

I called the seller to find out about the strings, and they told me that Kala switched from GHS and now all dolphins come with aquila strings standard. So I have that going for me at least!

Those little Dolphins are pretty cool - I was looking at them the other day and may end up with one (or 6....LOL). Get a good chromatic tuner - Snark is one - as that will allow you to both tune your uke and when you get to where you want to tune to another key (you will) it will work for you. Alot of the uke only tuners just tune to gcea and aren't flexible for alternate tunings.

Dolphins are a great uke value; arguably the best sub-$80 value. They're a great go-anywhere or loaner uke. But if you intend to continue playing the uke long-term, I would strongly suggest that you start studying (and saving up for) solid wood ukes in the $200-300 range. You will have a much better learning experience with a higher quality instrument.

Book version comes with cd!

Welcome to the forum and congratulations on your new little Dolphin ukulele!

For learning to play this is an excellent book and it is very thorough. Pay no attention to the title, though it should be called "Ukulele for Smarties".

It will get you up and running quickly.
Find it here:
http://www.amazon.com/Ukulele-Dummi...799X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1330552703&sr=8-1

Good luck and have fun!

I've been playing for three years. I have 22 ukuleles, including three vintage Martins and a vintage Gibson. I am SERIOUSLY thinking of picking up a Dolphin. I just need to decide what color I want. And, hopefully, find a seller that actually sets them up somewhat.

pootsie said:

Where is my Mind? -- Pixies
Three Little Birds -- Marley
King Volcano -- Bauhaus
Thriller -- Michael Jackson
Over the Rainbow -- Iz version, of course
All of Me -- Willie Nelson version
Solsbury Hill -- Peter Gabriel
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly -- Morricone (the UOGB version was our wedding march)
Imperial March -- John Williams
Misirlou -- Dick Dale version
Mad World -- Gary Jules version
Istanbul not Constantinople -- They Might be Giants version
Triops has Three Eyes -- They Might be Giants
Mercy Street -- Peter Gabriel
In Your Eyes -- Peter Gabriel

Click to expand...

Out of all the songs on that list (that I've heard of), I'd probably recommend starting with "Three Little Birds".

It only has three chords. They're all common, major chords: A, D, and E. (Or you can put the song in the key of C to make the chords easier: C, F, and G.)

Pretty much any strum pattern you can muster up will work just fine with it, so you don't really have to worry about that.

Good luck!

JJ

Good to see you have a list of what you want to learn already!
The way I started out was finding songs i liked and learning to play them if it was easy enough, then I just practiced the songs over and over until i could get progress through a few random chords easily.
And now I've learned quite a number of Jake Shimabukuro's and Aldrine's songs

OHBOYOHBOYOHBOYOHBOY
The fedex tracker says my pacakge is just a few miles away!
:music:It will be here tomorrow and I am ready to strum my way to a big old smile!!!!!

Oh, and I was listening to Jake Shimabukuro's "Thriller" and my wife was all like "only you would would be into that" and I was all "nuh-uh, I found a whole community of us!"