I want to second the recommendation of Matt Stead's beginners course. It's organized, comprehensive, free and very well done.
www.mattsteadukulele.com
Thirding! He really does start at the VERY beginning, and does it in a way that I found enjoyable to revisit as a novice who could have benefitted from a little more direction.
These are
substantial, too, most at least half an hour, up to an hour, but without being a drag. He's a very gentle, open soul - obviously not uncommon in the ukulele community, yay! - but he's also clearly delighted with all this.
Again not uncommon among people who've taken the trouble to share their knowledge, but Matt also giggles, a
lot. It's adorable and infectious, and as a giggler myself, makes me aware of the exceptional joy I find with him.
The courses are amazing, but you really, REALLY need to check out his Kanikapila Monday live jams. They harken back to the old way of learning -- "watch this, now you try, now let's do it together" -- that's so much more engaging than staring at chord charts and song sheets and trying to keep everything straight.
(Not that Matt doesn't ever use printed material. Just not for this, although he does provide lyrics and other support material. The point of the sessions, though, is to be more open, and focus on the pleasure of playing.)
Here's the kicker, the thing that will change your life. He bases this around chord numbers, so you're going to learn some theory, explicitly in the context of helping you play THIS song, right NOW. It's a delightful (that word again) playful look at how understanding a little theory helps you turn chord sequences into words and sentences. You'll find your learning and your playing progress will go so, so much faster!
It's kind of like learning a foreign language. You have to learn a few basics, but your progress speeds up when you stop looking up every single word in the dictionary. At some point, you have to start talking. LOL "Music theory" is a scary way of saying "how chords work, and how they make songs." You don't need to grasp it all, but that moment when you feel a song turning from a pile of chords that you have to wrestle individually, into an elegant, portable WHOLE that you can comfortably navigate, well, that changes
everything.
I also can't emphasize how much sharper and more engaging his repertoire is than any other teachers I've encountered. One's mileage will vary here, of course, but you're every bit as likely to encounter twee indie (a label that Matt embraces) like Belle and Sebastian or The Go-Betweens as The Beatles, Dylan, and Beach Boys. Plenty of Hawaiian music, gospel, and blues too, including MANY songs that I've not seen anyone else teach...
...but the main thing is that you'll discover that YOU CAN DO THIS, and even better, that you can do more than you imagined.
Me, I take no pleasure from improvising, but if you're interested in learning to solo, these sessions will get you going from the start. I almost don't want to tell you how he does this because it almost seems like magic, and everyone deserves to see it at least once without knowing how the trick works.
You may hear "theory" and "improving" and assume that you're not ready yet, but I'm begging you, don't. Jump on this
now and save yourself months of wasted time. I hear people ask all the time, "Why should I learn theory? What does it matter?" You'll find the answer here. Learn more, faster, easier. Why would you wait to do
that?
Honestly, though,
everybody should get in on these. Definitely not just beginners. I can barely believe that anything this awesome exists. No matter how embryonic your skills, you'll be able to play along. No matter how advanced your skills, you'll be challenged. It really is magical!
Here's the first in the series, where he introduces chord numbering, the personalities and roles of the chord types that those numbers represent (it helps a LOT to understand these), and how little things like adding another finger or changing the rhythm of your strum can open up new possibilities.
There are a handful of "appointment viewing" events in the uke world for me. The UU podcast, The Ukulele Site podcast,
@4stringboy's
Fingerstyle Fursday, and
@bazmaz's
Got A Ukulele weekly reviews, are the biggies...but Kanikapila tops them all for me. The balance of approachability, challenge, and inspiration is amazing to me.
There's also a TON MORE on his channel. After the Beginners series is another full series of Intermediate videos, series for Next Steps, Playing Up The Dusty End (that's right, a whole series on
inversions), another on jazz standards, a series on clawhanmer, lots of song-based one-offs, a chord melody playlist that pulls from several of his series, and I know I'm leaving stuff out. It's all free, no Patreon, but I think you'll find yourself saying yes now and again to his occassional and subtle requests for donations.
So you should definitely check out the beginner series he offers, but please, please, please don't miss the Kanikapila sessions! And for anyone who hasn't explored his channel yet, please don't let the enthusiasm that I and others on this thread have expressed for his beginner tutorials think that he stops there. Quite the contrary -- he goes as advanced as anyone I've yet seen, so no matter where you are or where you'd like to go, you're going to find plenty here to keep you busy.
Good luck,
@Elysium82 and don't forget to breathe. It can be a lot in the beginning.