A road-map for beginners?

Hey all, I'm a long time fan of this website! You all have inspired me to pick up the ukulele, so thank you.

Now, the thing is I'm in the MIDDLE-EAST! and no one even knows what a Ukulele is, but I want to learn one no matter what. I ordered a Lanikai LU-21 -- and it will be here in a few days!

So now my question is -- NOW WHAT? I have no musical experience, and won't hear a LIVE ukulele for a while yet. So can you guys gimme a direction? Goals to try to accomplish? and how to accomplish them?

Do not be afraid, I won't be offended if you dumb your answers down to retard level. For now, at least.

oda said:

Hey all, I'm a long time fan of this website! You all have inspired me to pick up the ukulele, so thank you.

Now, the thing is I'm in the MIDDLE-EAST! and no one even knows what a Ukulele is, but I want to learn one no matter what. I ordered a Lanikai LU-21 -- and it will be here in a few days!

So now my question is -- NOW WHAT? I have no musical experience, and won't hear a LIVE ukulele for a while yet. So can you guys gimme a direction? Goals to try to accomplish? and how to accomplish them?

Do not be afraid, I won't be offended if you dumb your answers down to retard level. For now, at least.

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Hey Oda! Welcome! That's exciting that you ordered your first ukulele.

A great place to start is to watch a bunch of the videos on this site. Aldrine is a fantastic teacher. Some of the earliest ones are about the basics. Get a good chord dictionary or find one online.

And then just strum away and have fun! Happy that you're here!
-Heather

Hey Oda,
I suck at the uke but my students think I'm as good as Jake. So with that said I bought my first uke with a chord chart and jsut started learnig chords. I started out with G, C, and D. Then I just looked for songs I wanted to play and prayed they contained chords I knew. I don't know any theory and notes. I can't read tab so I kinda play by ear but I can't really do that. I jsut learned some chords and then experimented with finger placement. Once I find someone to play with I hope that all changes.
Good luck and stay alive out there.

Do what I did....
Get your uke, learn the basic chord positions....then get on youtube and look up as many ukulele tutorials as you can and practice practice practice!

Also...Introduce as many people in the middle east to the uke as you can! I'm trying to do the same here in Alabama!

-carp

Easy! Tonya's provided the solution (which I use often!):

http://ukuleletonya.com/files/beginner_lesson_pkg.pdf

Wuddup oda,

I love the fact that you want to learn no matter what. UU is a great damn site. I wish UU was up when I was just starting out. This place is awesome. As for the road map your asking for; The web has so many talented players that share their love with others (for free). No real road map, do your thing. I say Mcgiver it. just make sure you have a chromatic tuner. You might be gifted with ear skills and use the sound bytes they have online. I had a pitch pipe when I started and lol that was not working out. Played the hell out of surf out of tune for awhile. One thing that helped me alot was being able to sing a song before I started learning it on the uke. For some odd reason, songs that I knew how to sing were really easy to play. Probly rhythm??? idk, but that really helped. Oh yeah, one more thing really really important. "Got the tabs?" those words are your friend. Just ask, people like to share.

Welcome Oda

jus press ...as Led Kaapana said. The beauty of Ukulele is that you learn everytime you pick it up. For the first year I played Ukulele I was just trying to learn a few simple chords (such as C, G7 and F), getting my fingers used to the frets and develop a clean sound strumming. Internet is a great source (see above posts) and free. Plenty of good instruction books, CDs and DVDs available as well. I got started with H.M. 'Heeday' Kimura's books ("How to pick and strum the ukulele", available by Elderly Instruments or on Amazon), with fairly easy arrangements. Jumpin Jim Beloff has lots of stuff, but can be quite demanding at first. Ralph Shaw's instruction DVDs are quite easy to follow. These are just a few examples.
Still, it comes down to play, play, play. The longer and more you do, the better you get naturally.
So cool...maybe you start a new wave of Middle Eastern Ukulele players.

Oda,
Welcome! UU is full of helpful information, especially Aldrine's lessons. The stuff he teaches is what many pay to learn. Watch all of his videos over and over. Check out the youtubes from members for inspiration and just play from the heart! You'll find the more your practice, the better you get. As an adult, the learning curve seems a bit slower compared to when I was younger, but ah, still can learn, just gotta practice 10 times harder, ha! Who knows, you may be a virtuoso in hiding. Strum on!

I just want to say welcome! I cannot add anything that has not been said. In a nutshell practice, internet lessons, Books , Dvd's and Most imortant Ukulele underground. This site has it all. check out this thread and this one. Also every Wed. there is a live lesson online, Aldrine is a great teacher.

This is one that I'm following. It's coming along slowly but I hope it will pay off in the end.

"Here's a basic lesson plan, that's in order to follow:

1. Learn all the major, minor and 7ths chords.

2. Learn the basic chord progressions.

3. Learn strumming techniques.

4. Learn the chord scales.

5. Learn picking techniques.

You basically need to know the foundation of playing (chords, chord progressions and strumming) before going into picking.........that's how I learned!! Practice everyday and it'll come!!"

(taken from http://www.easyukulele.com)

Hi There,

The Best thing to do is to learn a few basic chords to begin with, (Id Say C, G, D, and F) Here is a link to a chord chart http://www.ukalady.com/CChart.htm

This Video here Should get you started with some basic stuff http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=APYXhN8yUg0 I know it says 'learn the ukulele in 10 minutes', but for a complete beginner its not gonna happen. It took me three days before i could follw it properly

Once you have learnt a few chords find a simple song that you like, and start off very slowly. Keep playing and playing and it will start to come together.

The internet it full of lessons and tutorials. There are some great ones here at ukulele underground (but mabye too hard for beginners?) and as alaaji said have a look at www.Easyukulele.com. And there are loads all over youtube.

I you have any questions feel free to ask and good luck!

Don't worry,you are gonna learn quick and find a new joy in your life!