My fingers don't want to cooperate. . . .

LuisR

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So today was my very first lesson. I viewed the Ukulele 101 "Intro" video. It was very informative, and I know I'll have my work cut out for me this week practicing my C, F, and G chords. I have no idea how I'll get the G chord right with that weird finger placement, but I will work at it every day.

My strumming fingers, though, are another story. I understand I need to use the following procedure:

Point at myself with my index fingers, and strum down, and then up, rotating my wrist and not my whole forearm.

Okay, well the problem is that on have the strums, I'm not touching all the strings. And almost every time on the way up, it's very clumsy and not a fluid sound at all. I'm trying using the side of my fingertips, my nails, the tops of my fingertips, nothing seems to work.

Does this happen to everyone, and it's just something I'll have to work through? Or should I try something different? I don't want to get used to any bad habits off the bat.
 
Practice, practice, practice.

In time you'll look back and wonder how you could ever consider the fingering for the G chord to be awkward. :)

For the strumming, the key is to relax. While you want the strumming motion to come from your wrist rather than your elbow, that doesn't mean your forearm isn't going to move at all - if it's anything like mine the forearm will kind of twitch a bit from the muscles controlling your wrist. What you're looking for is fluid movement and minimum effort. If you're concentrating on locking your forearm down motionless and "clamping" it to make sure that all the strumming motion is coming from your wrist then your movement won't be fluid and you'll also tire quickly from the extra effort.

Likewise, your fingers, including the index finger that you're strumming with, should also be relaxed. Don't put a lot of effort into locking it into a perfect 90 degree angle from your hand - just get a comfortable "pointing at my belly" posture. You'll find when you do this that your fingertip will probably curl in just ever so slightly which I think has two advantages (I don't know how the experts feel about this, though, so take with a healthy dose of skepticism). Anyway, for me I like the tip curled in just slightly because 1} this makes the fingernail instead of the tip of my finger the contact point with the strings (I can't grow the nail out long because my main gig is bass and a long index finger interferes with smooth string walking) and 2} it turns your finger into sort of a spring so you can move your hand in closer to the strings and the finger will ride up slightly as you strum so you make good strong contact with all four strings.

Most important thing, though, is relax. No part of your posture should be strained or "locked" when you play.

John
 
Thanks, oldephart, for that great advice! I think I will just try not to stress out about it too much. It's probably like anything else. I remember being terrified when I learned to drive a car or ride a motorcycle, but now it's a piece of cake.

Thanks again!
 
Hi LuisR I too am an old hand of two weeks uke playing!! I also wondered at the 'G' chord. There are lots of diagrams showing which frets and which strings to finger but little to tell you which fingers to use. I am playing the 'G' quite easily now and i just bar accross strings AEC (the three nearest the floor) 2nd fret with my index finger and place my middle finger on the 'E' string (2nd string nearest the floor) 3rd fret. Prior to this I was fiddling trying to use seperate fingers for each dot on the chord diagram. Please can someone confirm if barring the first three strings is indeed the right way to play 'G'?
 
Harrylime, there's no 'correct' way to play G. You can use the barre fingering you describe, or any three fingers. It depends on context.

The most usual one for beginners to learn is:
Index finger on 3rd (C) string, 2nd fret
Middle finger on 1st(A) string, 2nd fret
Ring finger on 2nd(E) string, 3rd fret

If that seems too crowded, you may be holding your wrist too far back towards you. Try allowing it to hang down more naturally.
 
Hello,

You may want to do some reading reference the "pinky-G". I wish I had at least started-out learning it, along with Index, Middle & Ring fingering. There are a lot of times, depending on chords, that it is easier and faster to transition to and from it. I use it some now but it is not as "natural" feeling yet.
It is:
Middle finger on 3rd (C) string, 2nd fret
Ring finger on 1st(A) string, 2nd fret
Pinky finger on 2nd(E) string, 3rd fret
One example of ease and speed is transitioning from the G chord to the E7.

By the way, there are a lot of different fingering charts for uke chords on the net. Many have "accepted standard" fingering identification on them.

Continuing to practice,

Tom
 
No, you're not alone with heving trouble strumming fluidly, we all go through it. I spent a day, literally, just strumming up down up down. Then the following day (I was on holiday!). One trick is to muffle the strings by putting a folded tissue under the strings near the nut, and not doing chords....makes it easy to sit and watch the tv, let your hand do the exercise, and your mind be on something else. When you start muffing, take a break for 10 minutes or so, then off again. In fact I still use the muffle if I am learning a new strum....my brain doesn't cope well when overloaded, lol.

And welcome to the wonderful world of self made music :)

Cheers
 
At first my fingers would get get caught in the strings or I'd miss half of them; the whole thing felt so awkward and weird. I thought I'd never be able to lightly skim over the top of all of them. But it really only takes a couple of days to get past that!
 
Hello,

You may want to do some reading reference the "pinky-G". I wish I had at least started-out learning it, along with Index, Middle & Ring fingering. There are a lot of times, depending on chords, that it is easier and faster to transition to and from it. I use it some now but it is not as "natural" feeling yet.
It is:
Middle finger on 3rd (C) string, 2nd fret
Ring finger on 1st(A) string, 2nd fret
Pinky finger on 2nd(E) string, 3rd fret
One example of ease and speed is transitioning from the G chord to the E7.

By the way, there are a lot of different fingering charts for uke chords on the net. Many have "accepted standard" fingering identification on them.

Continuing to practice,

Tom

+1 on the "pinky G" - this works great when you're playing G shuffles because you can play the G-G6-G7-G6 sequence really easily (play the G with the pinky down on the second string, the G6 with both pinky and index lifted, and the G7 with the index finger down on the second string.

In general it's best to learn both different forms and different ways of fingering the same form for many of the chords because doing so really helps you play different progressions smoothly. It's not necessarily that you should sit down and concentrate on learning chord forms and fingerings (that can be kind of boring) but, as you practice and learn new songs think about the best way to get from chord to chord within the song and learn the extra fingerings and such as you go.

It's not unusual for me to play the same chord three different ways within a single song!

John
 
Would it be bad if I had the habit of strumming down with my thumb, and up with my index finger? Right now it seems the most comfortable, and I'm hitting all the strings on the way down and up, although the up strum is a bit weaker than the down.
 
Try and feel comfortable when you practice and accept that its gonna take a while for it all to become fluid.
Once you have got you mind in that mode, you can then start to relax and enjoy the whole learning experience.
You're in for a great ride!! Enjoy!!
cheers
Gary
 
Would it be bad if I had the habit of strumming down with my thumb, and up with my index finger? Right now it seems the most comfortable, and I'm hitting all the strings on the way down and up, although the up strum is a bit weaker than the down.

No problems using your thumb for the down, and the index up, that is two thirds of a fan stroke, one of Mr Formby's signature strums....inovation is good, that is how variety of playing is developed...if it works, use it....the only rule I can think of off the top of my head that should be adhered to is to not use the thumb for the chords...
 
This may be in bad taste...BUT...you could always cut your thumb off and rig it up to be used as a Capo!:D (i just couldn't help that, sorry!!!)
 
Would it be bad if I had the habit of strumming down with my thumb, and up with my index finger? Right now it seems the most comfortable, and I'm hitting all the strings on the way down and up, although the up strum is a bit weaker than the down.

No, if that works for you now, that's just fine.

Ultimately you want to be able to strum multiple ways, to build up more complex patterns. Most people start doing down and up with the index finger, but that still leaves them the task of learning later to integrate the thumb. You've integrated the thumb straight away, but left until later the task of strumming both directions with either thumb or index.

So the order is a bit different, but there's no problem with that!
 
I really appreciate the advice, there are some great tips here. Believe it or not, I think I now prefer the index finger on both down and up! I've been working at it, and although the thumb is more comfortable, I find that if I use the thumb on down strums, it tends to catch that A string a bit hard.

One more question though, do you all find that on down strums, you tend to smack the box a little? I always graze my nail on the sound box after strumming down past the A string. Is that normal, or am I doing it too hard?
 
I really appreciate the advice, there are some great tips here. Believe it or not, I think I now prefer the index finger on both down and up! I've been working at it, and although the thumb is more comfortable, I find that if I use the thumb on down strums, it tends to catch that A string a bit hard.

One more question though, do you all find that on down strums, you tend to smack the box a little? I always graze my nail on the sound box after strumming down past the A string. Is that normal, or am I doing it too hard?

You should avoid hitting the soundboard or the neck except when doing so intentionally. Sometimes this can be used to good effect for a percussive element - but if you do it all the time it just tends to be annoying. Also, you'll find that it tends to show up much more clearly in recordings so it's best to learn to strum without hitting anything but the strings, then introduce intentional percussion when you're ready.

John
 
I am playing the 'G' quite easily now and i just bar accross strings AEC (the three nearest the floor) 2nd fret with my index finger and place my middle finger on the 'E' string (2nd string nearest the floor) 3rd fret. Prior to this I was fiddling trying to use seperate fingers for each dot on the chord diagram. Please can someone confirm if barring the first three strings is indeed the right way to play 'G'?

As far as a confirmation on if this is correct. There's always multiple ways to do chords. You way of barring the first three chord works. As far as using separate fingers try:
g string- open
c string- pointer finger 2nd fret
e string- middle finger 3rd fret
a string- ring finger 2nd fret

Hope this helps!
Cheers
 
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