How long before you could play your first song?

ukantor said:

When people say the ukulele is easy to play, I understand that to mean it is easy to sing a song and accompany yourself with a few simple chords. If you want to play melody lines - successions of single notes - then the uke would not be top of the list of instruments I would recommend.

John Colter

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I have never met any instrument that was easy to play.

So after steady work and lots of bungles I was able to (on 3/4 speed) follow a tutorial and play "Country road" and also a passable version of "Lava" (I lava you). Loooong ways to go before anyone should ever hear me, but I am having fun. I am still having trouble controlling the strumming hand. It likes to cut loose and do it's own thing, strumming pattern be darned. I am still working through the "ukulele for the ignoramus" book.

Kherome said:

So after steady work and lots of bungles I was able to (on 3/4 speed) follow a tutorial and play "Country road" and also a passable version of "Lava" (I lava you). Loooong ways to go before anyone should ever hear me, but I am having fun. I am still having trouble controlling the strumming hand. It likes to cut loose and do it's own thing, strumming pattern be darned. I am still working through the "ukulele for the ignoramus" book.

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Cool. Then you did it. I'm glad you made it. I will mention that you'll need to come to peace with the strumming stuff because it never ends. You'll practice right hand technique and then you'll notice that your left hand is holding your progress back. Then you'll focus on the left hand and then the right hand will suffer. On and on it will go. You'll get better and better, but the better you get, the more you'll need to improve. That's the fun of it all.

I picked up a uke on Christmas Eve and was playing Jingle Bells and a few other holiday songs the next day. I first pulled up a site that had the 11 most important chords and learned about six of them. Then, I googled the songs. One reason I did well is that the songs are so well known to me.

Try kid songs, carols or anything else that you know really, really well. After I did the Christmas songs, I learned The Hokey Pokey for the grandkids I was seeing that day. Three chords - C, G, G7. They still ask me to play it and remember that Christmas day.

actadh said:

I picked up a uke on Christmas Eve and was playing Jingle Bells and a few other holiday songs the next day. I first pulled up a site that had the 11 most important chords and learned about six of them. Then, I googled the songs. One reason I did well is that the songs are so well known to me.

Try kid songs, carols or anything else that you know really, really well. After I did the Christmas songs, I learned The Hokey Pokey for the grandkids I was seeing that day. Three chords - C, G, G7. They still ask me to play it and remember that Christmas day.

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I have learned "twinkle twinkle little star" "you are my sunshine" and I'm working on some other "folk" songs from the book I mentioned above. But in addition to that I've been using youtube tutorials that claim to be for beginners too.

Kherome said:

I got my first ukulele a little over a week ago. (Amazon) Being new, it was not the best decision and I ended up returning it because the quality wasn't really there as it was a cheap model. (I didn't know any better, but I've learned more since I joined here)

I have another on the way, but in the mean time I was able to borrow a uke from a friend (who doesn't really play either, but happens to have a uke). This one is of substantially better quality than the one I sent back and I found the difference kind of amazing. The sound is so much better, I didn't realize it until I played with this borrowed one but the one I returned had a bit of a flat sound to it, kind of bland and blah. Plus no matter what I did I always had a buzz on certain chords. The borrowed uke is amazing! It's like going from listening to music on crappy laptop speakers to some kind of amazing surround sound.

That said, having been at this for a bit over week now, I still can't manage a whole song. I've been following a YouTube tutorial that is trying to teach "Riptide". People in the comment section are like "Gee I watched this video once and I'm playing Riptide like a pro! Thanks!" Me, I'm able to partially grind out the song, sort of...with some hesitation. I seem to struggle going from A to G, and my strumming hand gets a little wild and starts doing it's own thing, like a two year old child strung out on Easter candy.

Someone please tell me that I'm not the only one who's been on the same tutorial for a week and still haven't mastered it? I really love playing, I just stink at it at this point. I'm not quitting, not in any way is that a concern. I just want to hear that other people had slow progress but ended up a reasonably good player at some point? I don't expect to ever be like Jake S or anything, but darn if I don't feel as clumsy as a new born horse trying to figure out it's legs.

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I haven’t read the full thread (yet) hence I go back to the original post and question “how long before you could play your first song”?

For me it was about four weeks but there are loads of factors to that so please don’t take answers too literally.
# I play other instruments and have for years so that was a real help.
# I learnt in a group with other beginners lead by a really good teacher, he’s a good player too but the type of teacher who pulls gently pulls achievements out of you.
# I turned up at a Uke Club, still being barely able to change from one chord to another, and just joined in. No one complained, we all sang and played, everyone had fun. My first song was ‘played’ and I never looked back.
# My first sessions at the Uke Club weren’t pretty, they were mentally challenging and I probably sucked. However, no-one cared ‘cause: they were just pleased to see another starter, they believed that I’d improve and (importantly) they remembered being a new starter themselves.

For what it’s worth I’ve been playing for several years now, I continue to get better and still take lessons from time to time. If I were to judge myself against the folk who post videos here then I recon it will be about a decade before I’m around that level. That skill gap doesn’t stop me enjoying what I do and making a useful contribution to the Uke group that I play in. It’s all a journey and I’d advise beginners to be not overly concerned by what they can’t do and to enjoy what they can.

A lot of folk believe that the Uke is an easy instrument to play, after all it’s taught to primary school children. The truth of the matter is that the Uke is easy to physically pick up and is relatively inexpensive, both good reasons to use them in schools. However they are also used because, in addition, they can produce quite complex music requiring rhythmic skills, use of chords and use of individual strings - all good for teaching/demonstrating music theory too. Playing a Uke to a high standard is hard, but just playing something on a Uke is easy - I love that inclusivity.

Ok Kherome. You are following the instruction but you are having difficulty. I do not wish to argue. I was only pointing out that it takes time to learn correct fingering and chord transitions. Riptide is an easy Am, G, C tune with a bit of F at the end. If you already have spent some time learning the basics slowly then it is an easy tune to strum although achieving a good snappy right hand also takes time.
You will find good advice here but You do what works for you.