The Right Way to Play ...

As a newbie trying to get better, I've taken a few lessons in ukery from different teachers, and have plans to do more of that. Mostly I'm an autodidact, and there is a world of material available, but sometimes I make mistakes in learning stuff, and those can can get ingrained.

Harder to unlearn a bad habit than to start from scratch.

When I was learning to play guitar, I made the first-position open G-chord using my fore- middle, and ring fingers. Had I swapped the pointer for my pinkie, the shift to to G7 would have been a lot easier, and when I got to barre chords, that would have made those easier, too. Not that it was "wrong," but it was less efficient.

What I learned was that it was like playing pocket pool -- you had to be thinking ahead to your next shot as you made the one now.

As sometimes happens here on UU, I have gotten contradictory advice from different teachers. I know there have been more than a few threads on each of these things, but I'm interested in seeing if anybody has addressed or considered them together …

One teacher offers that I should always use my wrist as the strum engine; another says to put more arm into it.

I play tenors, and mostly sitting with one propped on my lap, neck up at a classical-guitar angle. In this position, strumming action is easy to effect with wrist or a larger arm motion, and I'm able to play up the neck.

I have climbed out of the chair a few times and played whilst standing, since there might not always be a chair for me if I am out and about. In this position, strumming primarily with arm-action doesn't work very well, and fingerpicking is more difficult, since I need the pinch twixt arm and body to hold the instrument in place

One teacher allows as how I should strap the uke, and that solves that problem. The other says I can use the wrist and keep the arm for supporting the uke, and thus I won't need a strap.

I have a couple of straps and no particular bias for or against them, so that isn't an issue.

Having access to YouTube, I have seen really good players who sit or stand and who do it strapped or not, so I know one can manage either with enough practice. But like the G-chord, I'm looking for experiences of efficiency, so the question is, at least for somebody less than a year into it with few chops, which way is apt to give you more bang for your buck?

I can woodshed out the wazoo, and maybe live long enough to be able to do it both ways and behind my head upside down, but if you have worked this out, how would you direct a newbie down that road? Try to learn both at once? Concentrate on one first, then the other?

Thanks.

P.S. Oh, the title? It was my attempt at irony. I know there's no "right way …"

I find it much easier to play using a strap, especially when finger picking. If I don't have to grip the body of the uke with my arm, my picking hand is much more free to move. Not having to worry about gripping the instrument lets me concentrate on fingering/picking/strumming, so I'd say it's more efficient for learning to use a strap. Playing a tenor standing up, without a strap, is nearly impossible for me.

I find that on small ukes (concerts and sopranos) a strap gets in my way more than helps. On tenors and baritones I use a strap if I'm standing, but generally not when sitting. That doesn't mean that it's "the right way" though - just that it's what works for me.

Around here we often tend to say that "the right way is the way that works for you" - which isn't always 100% true because down the road you may find that what worked for you has painted you into a corner for something else. However, in the case of using or not using a strap that really isn't so much of a potential problem and I think it really is safe to say "pick whatever seems to work best for you and then stick with it."

BTW, your guitar G7 chord is interesting because actually you learned it the way that 95% of players would say is correct - I was just the opposite and learned it using the pinky because one of the first songs I learned had a G-G7-G bounce at the end of the phrases. However, it turns out that is relatively rare compared to the many, many flat-picking country runs that are much easier to accomplish if you use the other way of making the chord!

John

When I started playing, I really struggled without a strap. After I got one (the Uke Leash, which I eventually converted to a full strap), I could focus my full attention on playing instead of holding, and my only regret is that I waited so long. Now I'm about 3 years down the road, and sometimes when I pick up the ukulele to play, I don't put the strap around my neck immediately. I guess I'm learning to play without one, but I'm not consciously spending any time on that goal.

For me, trying to play without a strap was holding me back. If you feel that way, then use the strap. I assumed I would always need a strap, but now that I've been playing for a while, I think I could probably learn to play without one, although I don't see any reason to do so.

I didn't use a strap for years. I started using one last summer and I think it's awesome. I don't have to worry about dropping my ukulele any more.
Aldrine really emphasizes using the wrist versus the arm. I try. Really I do. It's hard. But he makes a good case for it. I try really hard to do what he suggests.

Bet the instructor who said "use more arm" was primarily a guitarist.

PhilUSAFRet said:

Bet the instructor who said "use more arm" was primarily a guitarist.

Click to expand...

Got it in one, Phil.

Since I learned to play a nylon-string classical guitar, flat strumming wasn't in my wheelhouse. Mostly I fingerpicked or plucked chords, I didn't even own a flat pick. When I needed to strum, I used my thumb or the back of a fingernail. So this teacher, who mostly plays steel-string acoustic, strums a lot more, and I dunno, which is why I asked.

The uke sounds better strummed for some things than my guitar seemed to, so I'm good learning that, though it gets weird with downs and ups and down-down-up-down, thumb versus finger(s). Mostly, if I can do it with my thumb and it sounds okay, that's where I go ...

I refused to use a strap for the first couple years I was playing - I thought it was silly, especially since I play soprano. Then I tried a friend's uke, which had a strap on it, and it was - absolutely life-altering. Like an instant 150% improvement in my playing. Until then, I had no idea how much the awkwardness of holding a strapless uke was holding back my playing!

Neither of my uke instructors has ever had anything negative to say about my use of the strap, and I like that it makes me both a better and more versatile player (unlike some... strapless ukers I know, I prefer to stand rather than sit - no muss, no fuss, no chairs!). It's a tool that helps accomplish a goal, simple as that. It's the "right way" for me, for now.

That being said, there is a downside - and this really is the only downside I've encountered in five years of playing - it's really, really hard for me to test out other ukes that don't have strap buttons. Right now I've got access to a Kamaka Ohta-san that could be mine if I just said the word, only trouble is - I can't really decide if it's comfortable to play or not since it doesn't have a strap button, which makes playing it really awkward for me. And I can't try it with a strap button unless I buy it.

But hey, there are worse problems to have

There is no classical body of work that sets the standard for the "right" way to play the uke.

Every instrument player will have all kinds of variances in how they do it. In the end that contributes to your personal style and sound. I find it better to hold the instrument higher. When I started out - coming from guitar I held it more like a guitar. For me holding it higher works. However, anatomically I find that holding it lower I have to deal with interference from my breasts whereas higher up they can aid it hold it up - a kind of "boob shelf". I doubt that would help you.

Look in the mirror...

You say you're an autodidact, but you seem to spend more than a fair amount of time agonizing over who said what, whether these others disagree, and then? You ask others yet for guidance. There's an old saying that you might find interesting: "How do you go about becoming an autodidact? The answer is simple: any way you want."

And therein lies your answer.

There isn't one person here (well, maybe there's one, lol) who hasn't grazed through the Land of Google searching for a better way, finding and trying one idea, and then later finding perhaps a better one, taking one from Column A and another from Column B. In the end the answer is staring you in the mirror. You have an issue - say your "G" fingering - and if you find a better way you use it. If something doesn't work, you discard it, again like your forefinger G, and treat the new G as if it were a new and different chord, call it G2 if you'd like. You don't have unlearn anything.

Capish? OTOH you might consider shopping for teachers, flip a coin or make your best choice, stick with that teacher and do it his/her way in a completely dedicated fashion for say 6 months and reevaluate. The Chinese masters who took on a new student made a simple deal. They agreed to teach you and take responsibility for your success, while you agreed to set aside disbelief, and agreed to be a student and learn solely from that master.

No camping overnight at Walmart for the Black Friday special on master classes, lol...

Kayouker --

I believe I said I was "mostly" an autodidact, and I guess we don't have the same definitions of "agonizing," or "more than a fair amount of time."

The old saying you offer is cute, if maybe a tad facile. What I see when I look in the mirror is a newbie who wants to get better. I know a few things. Past that, the mirror isn't offering much ...

Here we have this wonderful resource in UU, and one of the ways I have found useful in learning things is to see how people who already know how to do it got there. I mean, why re-invent the wheel? Comparing and contrasting this with that gives choices that maybe I'd never get to on my own. Sure, I could head into the forest and find my way through it on my own. Sometimes that works. Experience is a great teacher.

Sometimes a guide is useful. He can point out things you might miss whilst blundering around looking for a path.

I don't mind doing the work. I am not looking for the Magic Shortcut. I was asking for the benefit of experience, and if gazing the mirror is yours, good for you, and thanks for offering it.

Capish?