Learning Notes in Ukulele

IndeEdISuper · Mar 30, 2012

Hi,

I'm a violin player who wants to learn the Uke. I don't know how to go about starting to learn the Uke. Most places teach chords and being a violin player I'm used to learning individual notes and playing scales. I'm also used to reading sheet music and not tabs.

What is the right way to learn how to play the Uke? I don't mean to offend anyone but is the reason why most people playing the Uke read tabs because they can't read sheet music or is it that reading sheet music just isn't the right way to play the Uke?

Thanks

janeray1940 · Mar 30, 2012

Can't speak for "most people playing the uke" but among my circle of uke players, there are quite a few of us who read both standard notation and tab. Sometimes tab is useful because on the uke there is often more than one place to play the same note, and tab can help you determine easier fingering. But reading standard notation is an advantage because you can take any lead sheet and play it.

Reading sheet music is definitely not the *wrong* way to play the uke, but it's not the *common* way. My instructor teaches me from both standard notation and from tab, but unlike a lot of uke instructors he's a multi-instrumentalist, so that approach may be an exception rather than the rule. So my recommendation to you would be that if you want to learn uke, either find an instructor who can follow this approach, or teach yourself from books that are written in both standard notation and tab (John King's books come to mind).

TheOnlyUkeThatMatters · Mar 30, 2012

Welcome to UU!

There's no right or wrong way to play ukulele. There's plenty of ukulele sheet music available. You will want to learn the basic chords, as a lot of uke music indicates the chords by name only, while indicating the melody with musical notation, tab, or both. Personally, I prefer sheet music to tab. (Tab fails to indicate rhythm, so if you aren't familiar with a song, a tab is useless.)

My faaaavorite method book is May Singhi Breen's "New Ukulele Method". It's out of print, but if you can find a copy for a reasonable price, it's a terrific resource.

Of course, there are tons of free online resources. One great resource for classical and folk music is available here. Also, click the "Learn to Play the Ukulele" link above for lots of good, quick video lessons.

didgeridoo2 · Mar 30, 2012

Learn with sheet music and scales if you can. Tab is easy.

Lori · Mar 30, 2012

You might take a look at these books. The Ukulele in the Classroom series:
http://www.ukuleleintheclassroom.com/books.htm

–Lori

didgeridoo2 · Mar 30, 2012

Lori said:
You might take a look at these books. The Ukulele in the Classroom series:
http://www.ukuleleintheclassroom.com/books.htm

–Lori

Those are great books, Lori. We use those to teach through the James Hill Uke Initiative. If you already read music, you should breeze through pretty quickly. These are geared toward teaching music literacy using ukulele.

Ken Middleton · Mar 30, 2012

janeray1940 said:
Can't speak for "most people playing the uke" but among my circle of uke players, there are quite a few of us who read both standard notation and tab. Sometimes tab is useful because on the uke there is often more than one place to play the same note, and tab can help you determine easier fingering. But reading standard notation is an advantage because you can take any lead sheet and play it.

Reading sheet music is definitely not the *wrong* way to play the uke, but it's not the *common* way. My instructor teaches me from both standard notation and from tab, but unlike a lot of uke instructors he's a multi-instrumentalist, so that approach may be an exception rather than the rule. So my recommendation to you would be that if you want to learn uke, either find an instructor who can follow this approach, or teach yourself from books that are written in both standard notation and tab (John King's books come to mind).

I very much agree with this answer.

Using conventional music, as on a classical guitar, would probably be the "best" way if it weren't for that 4th re-entrant string. If you are using that string a lot (as a drone note, for instance) or dividing up your tune over several notes (in campanella voicing), then reading tab is, in my opinion, much easier than using modern guitar notation.

Remember too that in the distant past most guitar and lute music was written in tablature e.g. John Dowland's music.

jungleturtle · Mar 31, 2012

It depends on the type of music you want to play, too. If you're going to play strictly fingerstyle arrangements then standard notation, possibly supplemented by some tab, should work great. But if you want to accompany yourself on uke while you sing, or play in some sort of contemporary musical combo or band, then learning the chords is kind of important. It's not that hard to learn chords, however, especially if you already have some musical background. Just take it slow and have fun with it.

IndeEdISuper · Apr 1, 2012

Thanks for the input!

Learning Notes in Ukulele

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