Finaly chunking

I picked up this instrument in late June of this year. I've been practicing almost every day but one of the things that has proven really tough for me is getting the chunk strum down. It does not seem to be used much by CT uke players even though it shows up in pretty much every lesson on here. I have an instructer and every time I asked him about it he would show me things like holding all four strings for a chord and lifting your fingers to get the same result. This is a great technique, especially if you want to control the sustain of a chord. The problem is that it does nothing for all those open chords that so many songs seem to consist of. The pinky mute is another good one but I am sometimes already using the pinky and keeping my index in reserve for an easier chord change.

Today, for the first time I was able to do a down up chunk up down, up up chunk up down strum and make it sound decent. It was one of those uke learning moments that just made me stop, laugh, and feel really good about the breakthrough I had just made. So this post is a big thank you to everyone on here who has taken some time to post video or write up an explanation on how it's done. I can honestly say I would not have gotten this strum without UU and it's members.

THIS IS PROOF THAT A LITTLE PRACTISE, YOU CAN ACHIEVE WHAT YOUR AIMING FOR


i salute you sir. I can also tell everyone that i practised alot with the strumming to get it right.
i still cant do the pinky mute =[

thats great man! chunking is fun! i guess i progressed quick. real quick im able to put "lets dance" and i have been playing only since july.... but nice man nice! keep practicing the possibilities are endless!

keep practicing it with just a jumble of chords, and that same strum and you will be good to go! You'll find that it gets easy over time and just keeps getting more fun!

It took me a few months to get chunking down too. I just didn't understand how to do it, and always thought that you just hit the top of the uke. D: After scuffing up the koa beyond recognition, I revisited Aldrine's video and realized that you just have to smack the strings and mute them at the same time.

Right now the strum-picking (like in the most recent live lesson) is beating the crap out of me. I spent most of my weekend annoying relatives with it.