Greetings, Earthlings... what's with all the small, stringed instruments?

MD_UkeLuvr

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After thinking about it for the past few years, I just took the leap and bought my first uke. It's an Oscar Schmidt OU-6 tenor, and she's a beauty! I'm very excited about learning to play and becoming a card-carrying member of the ukulele community (you folks do have membership cards and a secret handshake, right?).

I live in the U.S. state of Maryland, north of Washington DC. When I'm not creating content for government Web sites, I can usually be found biking or hiking, making jewelry or photographs, and now practicing the uke.

As a total noob in ukeland, I can use all the help I can get. Give me a shout-out and suggest some super-easy popular songs I can learn to bolster my confidence.

Be well and be kind to others -

Scott
 
Have you discovered chordie.com, Scott? It's a vast catalog of tunes with chord diagrams, tabs, and lyrics, and you can change the default "guitar" setting to get ukulele chord diagrams and different fretting options, tunings and keys. Print out the ones you like and assemble your own songbook.

Ukulele.nl/chordfinder.php is another great learning tool with available, printable music/diagrams. Azchords.com is also good, though it lacks the chord diagrams. There are lots of similar online resources.

You picked a great uke to begin with, and not just because I too own an OU6!

How about Lennon & McCartney's "All My Loving" as a simple, familiar song to learn?
 
Hey there Scott. Just a suggestion. Think of a few songs that you love, ones where you are very familiar with the melody and a good idea of the lyrics and go on anyone of a number of websites like ultimate guitar or chordie and get a song sheet for the chords. Some you may have to dismiss as too hard, but probably you will find some simple 3 or 4 chord progressions and you can also usually auto transpose to a different perhaps easier key. I think I saw an interview w/ Jake S. And when asked about what tip he would give to beginners, he said to pick songs you love. These will drive you to play more and will keep practice fun. That doesn't mean start w/ crazy hard stuff, but you will find things YOU want to play that are doable, and this will be better than having anyone else make suggestions.
 
Welcome to the insanity Scott!! :) After playing guitar and piano for almost 30 years, the past 5 with the ukulele have been the most fun and rewarding! I gave my daughter a Uke in 2009 at 11 and she's still playing at 15, writing songs too! We hope to get some video and recordings to share soon. We use ukutabs.com a lot to find simple versions of songs. Keep on playing!
 
Aloha Scott,

Welcome to the UU and are humble forums...have fun and enjoy...alot of friendly and helpful members giving advice and then there's the deals in our ukulele marketplace..
Happy Strummings..congrats on your osacr schmidt...my second uke was a OU2 and it is one of my favorite ukes to this day
 
Welcome to the board. All the advice above is good. There are a lot of videos and songs online to get you started. Just shout out if you need help with a particular one.
 
Wow, thank you all so much for the warm greetings and the wonderful outpouring of beginner encouragement!
The suggested Web sites are an embarrassment of riches, and the beginner's songs many of you recommended seem like a perfect initial goal.
I think I'm really going to like it here, in the Underground.
Thanx again, and I look forward to chatting with you kind folks again in the near future -

Scott
 
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