Beginner--instruction question

Cyo

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Howdy,

I'm expecting to get my first uke in the mail shortly and I'm quite excited. (Kala KA-STG) I haven't picked up a stringed instrument in about 25 years and was really bad at playing them back then. Of course, this just means I have more upside available!

My question is about finding an instructor. My concern is that if I go to the local music shops, I'm likely to get a good guitar player who also teaches ukulele. Since I'm going to be a stone cold beginner, does it matter if the person is a guitar teacher first and just does uke teaching as a side? It would seem a dedicated uke teacher would be preferable since they wouldn't just be adapting their guitar skills.

I'm certainly going to be availing myself of all the tools available online, but I think having some in person training at the beginning would have value.

Suggestions?
 
I've gone down both routes and I think it all depends on what you want. For example, I want more technical/theoretical instruction. In my experience the guitar instructors were better able to do that. The guitar instructors had more of a grasp of the big picture of musicality. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the ukulele instructors taught how to play the ukulele, the guitar instructors taught how to play music with a ukulele. So, again, it all depends on what you want to do. And it also depends on the instructor. My generalization is obviously based on the people I met with...but there are instructors all over the world. I am sure there are ukulele instructors that would fit me perfectly...but I don't have access to them.

My practical advice is to go the music shop's instructor with a critical eye. Evaluate that person on his or her merits, and decide if they are taking you where you want to go. Is the person, for example, open to looking at youtube videos with you and customizing the instruction so that you can play what you see. Is the person too pig-headed ("This is the ONE way to do this or that"). Does the person fit with your personality. Those are the things that would matter to me.
 
I've gone down both routes and I think it all depends on what you want. For example, I want more technical/theoretical instruction. In my experience the guitar instructors were better able to do that. The guitar instructors had more of a grasp of the big picture of musicality. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the ukulele instructors taught how to play the ukulele, the guitar instructors taught how to play music with a ukulele. So, again, it all depends on what you want to do. And it also depends on the instructor. My generalization is obviously based on the people I met with...but there are instructors all over the world. I am sure there are ukulele instructors that would fit me perfectly...but I don't have access to them.

My practical advice is to go the music shop's instructor with a critical eye. Evaluate that person on his or her merits, and decide if they are taking you where you want to go. Is the person, for example, open to looking at youtube videos with you and customizing the instruction so that you can play what you see. Is the person too pig-headed ("This is the ONE way to do this or that"). Does the person fit with your personality. Those are the things that would matter to me.

I second all of this.

Learning the mechanics of the fretboard and plucking/strumming technique will only get you so far.

Making MUSIC with the instrument is something that starts beyond all that.

Once you have the basics down, making MUSIC, and doing so dynamically and expressively, will be a more rewarding experience.

There is an emotional component that one has to FEEL, otherwise just 'playing' becomes a monotonous and robotic 'performance'.

If you do not have chemistry with the teacher, then you will resist whatever is being shown to you, but if you jive and feel good with the teacher, you will be motivated to practice more, and thus learn faster, and improve both your playing technique and understanding of music in a more satisfying way.
 
I think that one of the most important things is to let your instructor know where you want to go with your ukulele and how you visualize yourself playing it. I took voice lessons and that was the first thing my voice coach asked me. He said, "tell me how you see yourself singing." I thought that was a great approach. If you see yourself in a coffee shop playing for an audience or on a street corner busking, then your instructor can take you in that direction. If you feel that you want to challenge yourself with the technical aspects of playing, if you want to become a classical student of ukulele, then your instructor can take you there. Otherwise the instructor has to guess what you want to do which leads to a lot of drudgery and time wasted on something that doesn't keep your interest. So my advise would be to spend some time before you even get started trying to decide where you are going on your journey and tell your instructor. I think that a good instructor should then be able to map your instruction to help you do that. If an instructor just has a general syllabus for everyone I would go looking for someone else. You aren't paying good money for one size fits all. You can do that on youtube.
 
Thank you for your responses. Being older, I do have a clear idea of what I want to achieve and what should be realistic. I think that I should be good with someone who can help me focus on my specific goals as long as they can help me keep from developing bad technical habits.

At least initially, I just want to focus on good strumming and chord changing techniques. The simple strumming of the uke and the easy, comforting sounds that result is all I'll need to be content for the foreseeable future.
 
I recommend the app ‘Yousician’. You can play free for about 15 minutes every day, but I have a subscription and it’s really worth it. It teaches you both strumming and lead, fingerpicking, chords, and everything you need to know. Every week there are challenges so you stay motivated.

I use this app for one year now after 5 years of ‘jumping in’ on websites. I learned more in that one year than in the 5 years before. And I still have a lot of fun.
 
Basically all of the teachers I've ever had were guitar teachers who were also uke teachers. But they were very different from each other.

Lots of subtle differences, but I can summarize them: the best teacher knew what the triple strum was and the other teachers did not know what the triple strum was. I wonder if asking a teacher "can you teach me triple strum technique" is a good litmus test.

To be a bit more specific about it, the teacher who knew what the triple strum was also taught me more things that were specific to getting the most out of a uke. Not just ways to strum a uke, but also versatile chords that are particularly easy to make on a uke. He also had several ukes and advised me to play them and see which one I liked the best before I bought a new uke.

This guy was clearly very interested in the uke as its own instrument in a way that some teachers aren't. But he came from a guitar background as well.

I've been trying to think of good questions to ask a teacher as a litmus test and I'm honestly not sure if there are. Basically, uke instruction is a weird thing and is kind of unique among instruments. Almost every instructor teaches it, but a lot of them have never been into playing it themselves. I think that might be the best way to gauge it - to ask them about their own uke-playing experience and see how much they seem to like it.
 
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I never thought I'd enjoy learning the ukulele from a guitar player.
Until I met Stu Fuchs.
 
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