I began learning ukulele with the Beloff Daily Ukulele books. I would pick a song I liked and learn the chords and then strum and sing the song with the melody that was already familiar. My strum pattern was the melody of the song. I learned a large number of songs this way and got pretty proficient.
Then I started watching YouTube ukulele tutorial videos which taught playing the chords in a fixed strum pattern and laying down the melody by singing over this fixed strum pattern. I found this a difficult adjustment at first but I'm getting better at it especially if the pattern is simple like a triplet strum or simple swing.
The songs I learned by playing the chords with the melody sound to me as good and often better than playing fixed patterns. It seems to me that the right hand by playing faster, slower, louder, softer can bring so much more feeling to a song than I can get playing a calypso or other strum to a common C, Am, F, G7 chord progression. I notice that if I play to the melody (though it may not sound like Kimo Hussey) the song is always recognizable. If I play a songs chord progression with a pattern sometimes it's not clear what song is being played until you add a melody with vocals or another instrument.
My current path is learning more chord/melody arrangements which I really like. I've noticed many new players struggle learning to put a melody over a fixed strum pattern and wondered why this appears to be the recommended method.
Then I started watching YouTube ukulele tutorial videos which taught playing the chords in a fixed strum pattern and laying down the melody by singing over this fixed strum pattern. I found this a difficult adjustment at first but I'm getting better at it especially if the pattern is simple like a triplet strum or simple swing.
The songs I learned by playing the chords with the melody sound to me as good and often better than playing fixed patterns. It seems to me that the right hand by playing faster, slower, louder, softer can bring so much more feeling to a song than I can get playing a calypso or other strum to a common C, Am, F, G7 chord progression. I notice that if I play to the melody (though it may not sound like Kimo Hussey) the song is always recognizable. If I play a songs chord progression with a pattern sometimes it's not clear what song is being played until you add a melody with vocals or another instrument.
My current path is learning more chord/melody arrangements which I really like. I've noticed many new players struggle learning to put a melody over a fixed strum pattern and wondered why this appears to be the recommended method.