Learning plan for a total noob?

So now that I have bought the black Flight TSU35, and it should be on it's way to me shortly, I need to come up with how I am going to start learning.

Seeing how I had a fixed budget for a Uke itself, it should logically follow that I cannot afford to pay someone for lessons, so I will have to sort of "self-teach" I guess, using written guides, guides on YouTube, and other places.

I assume that it'd be best to first learn the fundamentals like the most important/common chords, and then timing for example, before going on to learning some simple songs, would I be correct about that?

I guess that for learning chords, I could simply print-off a chord diagram and practice one chord at a time until I've got it down.

I am a big Marilyn Manson fan, so I think that it would be cool to eventually be able to play something like "The Beautiful People" or "The Dope Show" for example on a Ukulele, should certainly sound interesting, considering people don't usually associate Ukes with that genre of music, at all.

Any other recommendations for me?

You can go a long way with YouTube tutorials. There are a ton of them out there and you have to figure out which teachers suit your style and skill level. A lot of teachers do both simple and complex tutorials so don't write someone off right away if something is too complicated

"The Ukulele Teacher" is the most popular, Cynthia Lin, Ukulele Cheats are a few others that come to mind, but there are a ton of others that I'm sure will get added below.

As was mentioned in another post, get a tuner app for your phone. The strings will stretch a lot for the first few weeks and you'll generally want to check your tuning daily anyway. A clip on tuner is more convenient, but not required for home use if you don't want to spend the money. The Ukulele Teacher has an app that probably has tutorials as well as being a tuner. Once you figure out a few chords, there are a ton of songs you can play that only use 3 chords or fewer.

UkeLib chords app (android, don't know about apple) is a good resource.

If the tuner you receive with the ukulele works, so much the better. If not, I recommend the "D'Addario PW-CT-12 NS Micro Headstock Tuner", $12US, bargain.

Our own Barry Maz has a lot of beginner tips on his webpage: https://www.gotaukulele.com/p/beginners-guides.html ; videos: https://www.gotaukulele.com/p/ukulele-beginners-videos.html

For tutorials on specific tunes: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1HlihY-iNtOemAlYQq3GXQ

hope this is helpful!

here's a shameless self-promotion plug for my Ukulele Boot Camp (see link in signature below).
if you are a beginner may I suggest that you skip over the second line of chords in each
Practice Sheet... for now. They will be a little more difficult to form in the beginning so you
can skip them until you are ready

UUer ChoirGuy has graciously created Practice Sheet videos on YouTube which you can access
and use in your practice times. Search Ukulele Boot Camp.

keep uke'in',

Uncle Rod Higuchi said:

here's a shameless self-promotion plug for my Ukulele Boot Camp (see link in signature below).

keep uke'in',

Click to expand...

I checked it out, it's amazing. Thank you for the very useful PDFs, it's nice to just have the chord diagrams right there to look at and practice. I am going to print it out, and turn it into a booklet.

Sure!

And please share it with whomever needs it!

I'm glad you like it. Please check out ChoirGuy's YT videos.
they are a wonderful way to practice. You may even be able
to slow down the tempo or speed it up as you progress.

Enjoy and keep uke'in',

As a beginner and ever since the most useful thing that I do is to play with others. Seek out other players, listen to them, join in with them, be inspired by them and receive motivation from the activity. If there isn’t a group that you can get to then seek out individual players (maybe by some careful local add’s and maybe through here).

Seems there's a few good sources to use, thanks everyone. Between the sticky at the top of this forum, and Uncle's Boot Camp, I should be good.

Twiggy said:

Seems there's a few good sources to use, thanks everyone. Between the sticky at the top of this forum, and Uncle's Boot Camp, I should be good.

Click to expand...

That main practice sheet in Uncle Rod's has been really helpful to me just learning how to do the chord transitions. I just started with Key of C, but now I just run through the whole sheet
I found this and used it to practice to start too
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1X03y011kk
Lots of sources for your strumming, etc. A lot of people use James Hills' course.
Yes, the noobies sticky is great.

Uncle Rod Higuchi said:

here's a shameless self-promotion plug for my Ukulele Boot Camp (see link in signature below).
if you are a beginner may I suggest that you skip over the second line of chords in each
Practice Sheet... for now. They will be a little more difficult to form in the beginning so you
can skip them until you are ready

UUer ChoirGuy has graciously created Practice Sheet videos on YouTube which you can access
and use in your practice times. Search Ukulele Boot Camp.

keep uke'in',

Click to expand...

I started out with Uncle Rod. He has launched a great number of careers. Anyone who is just starting out and asks me, I point them in his direction.

Just learning chords for nothing is totally boring. I mentor some people and steer them toward very simple songs where they can practice the chords they learn. Some with two chords that have an easy change are best such as Jambalaya that just have a C and G7 chord, but maybe you can find one from MM that's as easy and more up your alley. Also don't neglect the right hand and watch some videos on plucking and strumming.

I also encourage people to learn basic scales and melody playing when they start. This can also help if you want to learn how to read music scores.

Some folks like the one-step-at-a-time building approach (more my style) and others like the 3-chords-50-songs and learn the rest as needed. Coming from playing the piano on and off (mostly off) since childhood, I knew the importance for me of learning chords and progressions as a first step in approaching a fretted instrument. I'm not interested in being a strummer and hummer (singer) but have set my distant sights on chord/melody, perhaps soloing and jazz. So, for me, Uncle Rod's Ukulele Boot Camp was the perfect place to begin.

You have lot's of choices. Whatever you choose, the most important point is to practice, practice, practice ...

Yes, playing with other folks is important, but it's not the end all, be all.
Try James Hill's Ukulele Way. Of all the instructors I've been around, I've learnt the most from him. By far.

Uncle Rod Higuchi said:

here's a shameless self-promotion plug for my Ukulele Boot Camp (see link in signature below).
if you are a beginner may I suggest that you skip over the second line of chords in each
Practice Sheet... for now. They will be a little more difficult to form in the beginning so you
can skip them until you are ready

UUer ChoirGuy has graciously created Practice Sheet videos on YouTube which you can access
and use in your practice times. Search Ukulele Boot Camp.

keep uke'in',

Click to expand...

I second and third this recommendation. Practicing along with ChoirGuy's YouTube videos make it even more fun.

Buy the book, First Learn to Practice. If you practice right you will progress much faster.

Find a local uke group and play with them regularly. It is a big motivation as well as good socialization.

While learning chords and strumming is important, I would spend at least some time on the specific type of music that you enjoy most. You can probably get what you need off of YouTube. I read multiple similar recommendations here, as well as the advice to favor YouTube over book purchases. I now concur; the few books that I bought largely gather dust as YouTube is overall better.