How many of you are self-taught?

alaaji

alaaji

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How long did it take you to learn your first song and what was it? How much do you practice a day, week or month?

I'm really curious because I work in the middle of nowhere (North Africa) and I only get to the States once every couple of years. There isn't anyone here who has ever heard of an ukulele much less played one. They do have some interesting instruments here though. So, I can't take lessons and Ukulele Underground along with Youtube are my only outlets to the uke world.

I try to practice when I can but work and family are my main priorities. I have all the major, minor and 7th chords down with a few chord progressions. Strumming is still a bit of a problem but it's coming along. Anyway, I needed a barometer to see if I'm progressing a good pace for someone with no musical background and no teacher.

Thanks!
 
Can't say anything about myself, but my older brother it totally self taught. He started with standard Kelii, a chord book, and a song book.
As for your question, he played like mad when he started out. then he decided to slow it down to maybe a half-hour everyday practicing, so it wouldn't lose it's thrill. But, no matter what, he played every single day, even if it wasn't practicing. He got the basics down in less than 3 weeks, then he was off. 10+ years, he's figuring out songs by ear and everything

I dno, it depends on how big a part of your life this is gonna be, and on your schedule. Like you said, work and family are important, but how important is music? John Mayer spent how many years, again? ;)
 
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i taught myself man. I started with a cheap purple mahalo soprano and with gently weeps tabs. and tried playing and learning off youtube also. I learn how to strum and different picking techniques. I always played the ukulele everyday, not sure how many hours but i didn't miss a day. Gave it a break for probably 6 months then hit back harder than ever.
Didn't have a Chord book ever. Just tried learning different Chord progressions online, then scales etc..
 
Some may not learn on their own. Others do. I started playing the guitar in the 1960's. It took me exactly 14 minutes (I timed it. The newstand <that's what we called bookstore's back in the day> owner told me he would refund me the price of the book if I could not play a song in 30 minutes) to play my first song! A week later I was playing guitar and singing in my school and was instantly "cool". I still have that book. It was written by the former guitarist of Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. I did play clarinet and sang in school bands and choirs, prior to that, so I understood music and music theory.

Here's the book:

http://www.alibris.com/booksearch?q...or=Mottola&browse=1&cm_sp=works*listing*title

The ukule has identical chord shapes as a guitar, so I was playing the ukulele instantly. G on guitar is C on a GCEA tuned Uke. C on a Guitar is F on a GCEA tuned uke. F on a guitar is Bb on a GCEA tuned uke. D on a guitar is G on a GCEA tuned uke. B on a guitar is E on a GCEA tuned uke...

Tonya has put together some great lessons, here:

http://ukuleletonya.com/files

I've used Tonya's Beginner Lesson Plan:

http://ukuleletonya.com/files/beginner_lesson_pkg.pdf

to teach well over a hundred how to start playing a uke.

As I recall, my first song on the guitar was "Red River Valley". Ric
 
To add to that, since I started playing the ukulele, I've attended workshops with Jim and Liz Beloff, Aldrine Guerrero and Rayan (not to be confused with Eldrine and Rayon! LOL!), Britney Paiva, Fred Thompson, Pat Enos, Herb Ohta Junior, Joey Villena and Derick Sebastion. It's kind of like a toolbox. You keep adding new tools to make the job right. Ric
 
It's weird think I've been playing for almost a year and a half. It feels like I've played it as long as I've played violin/viola. I've been teaching myself mostly, getting chords for songs and stuff like that. Then the Ukuhooley formed and I go to our meetings every other month. We had Dan Scanlan to come to our first meeting, and Steven Sproat came another month but I missed him. Pete Howlett might be coming next month (Which I'm very excited for, Pete!) and Steven Sproat might be coming again in April.

The first song I taught myself was Iz's Somewhere Over the Rainbow. I learnt the chords then got the strum down. I was able to impress lots of people with my wee flying V ukulele. However I know now that those flying V's are the worst ukuleles you could possibly get your hands on. But I loved it then and I gave it to my friend who likes it now.
 
I taught myself.. at first, I learned a little bit of guitar from this guy on the internet so I gained a little knowledge and experience from that, and then I got my ukulele and I bought a book with it which I used for like a week. I later tossed it when I realized I didn't need it anymore.... I had already learned how chords work and playing them and what not. My first song I learned was "Somewhere Over the Rainbow". It took me awhile to learn because memorization of all these new chords and weird chord progressions. I now practice almost everyday... or I used to until recently when they got taken away from me
:(

But anyway yeah, I really am impressed and glad to see someone in North Africa taking there time to get to ukulele underground and play the ukulele..
My advise to you is to keep it up. Strumming should come to u eventually.. It'll just click and coming up with your own strumming patterns will come easy. Also, another big step into strumming is learning to "chunk/scratch" and or "pinky mute", which can be learned through Ukulele Underground's Uke Minutes. That is if you don't know how.
 
Uke wasn't my first instrument. At the time I picked it up, I'd started teaching myself guitar and knew a bunch of chords on that, with a pretty horrible lack of strumming technique. It took moments to figure out some nice sounding chords by ear and once I'd downloaded a chord chart (majors, minors, various 7ths, mainly) found for the first few weeks it was a little difficult to remember the uke fingerings for chords I could do on guitar with ease if I left it more than a few days between practices.

Later on down the line, I did maybe 30-something hours of guitar lessons all up, which really helped me with confidence with strumming (which had improved over time) and improved my sight-reading skills (I can read for piano okay but never really practiced anything with harmonies for fretted things until the teacher gave me specific guitar music), which in turn made it easier for me to focus on music theory and a sounder understanding of chord make-up and progressions.

But never a uke lesson was had. For that matter, I've never actually met anybody who could play the uke any better than somebody let loose on one for half an hour yet.

Sounds like you're doing really great, though! Just keep at it; anything is possible with determination and patience.
 
I self-taught myself after looking through pages and pages of websites and pages and pages of phone books for ukulele teachers in the Midlands,UK
Two years later - i play 3 hours a day after school

my first song i learnt was: wipeout - the surfaris


and then two years later i came across ukuleleunderground and youtube :D and those two have really pushed me forward on my little ohana sk-35g :)
 
I started just three months ago. There was absolutely ZERO music training, experience or talent ahead of time. I just figured it was something I wanted to do and it couldn't be too hard (I 48 and don't think anything is too hard).

With a $25 Vineyard concert uke and electronic tuner, I started taking lessons from Chad Watson http://www.chadwatson.us/ because he was associated with my local guitar store. He had a uke book and I selected Under the Boardwalk due to my familiarity with the tune. I have since learned about UU and other internet resources for tab, ideas, and techniques. UAS dictation now puts the count at 4 ukes in the house.

Too late for the short story, but suffice to say I see Chad once a week for music theory and practice. And our Woodland Hills group meets Sundays at Mike'ele McClellan's. If I didn't work/practice on my own, I wouldn't know what kinds of questions to ask at the lessons.

I have a book or two, but rely mostly upon internet downloads when looking for another song. Playing with others and recording myself is how I mark progress.

Africa? Sounds exotic from here.
 
I am self-taught with 0 music background. My first song was the traditional version of Some Where Over The Rainbow (strumming). It did not take to long to learn the song because when I received my first ukulele towards the end of 2008 I searched the Internet for basic ukulele chords & strumming techniques. I found some helpful videos that I practiced daily for an hour or two learning to change through chords & strum smoothly before tackling any songs. Also during my search I found a link to Ukulele Underground :shaka: All I can say is I am so glad I clicked that link!
 
homesickness was my motivation...

Hi all,

I started learning while I was living in Japan. I got a bit homesick on my third study abroad to Japan and thought I'd buy myself a cheap import uke simply to pass the time and to fuss around with basic chords.

From there I found a few tutorials online and bought a chord book (in Japanese) and taught myself a few of the Ka'au Crater Boys songs such as 'Surf' and 'You Don't Write' and a handful of other cool local songs that were quite popular at the time.

It was quite therapeutic and I carried that chinese import uke everywhere I went since then....winter, summer, spring or fall. I found that in more cases than not people were attracted to the uke or fond of having traveled (or wanting to travel to Hawaii) and would often listen in on some of the songs or at least look over and smile. It really didn't matter if we were at a friends house playing over a "nabe" dinner or on the platform awaiting the next train. People love the uke in Japan, almost as much as they seem to love Hawaii, itself.

To say the least, it really gave me a sense of identity as well in being from Hawaii and although I wasn't great at playing it sure was nice to share the 'Aloha' of Hawaii through our little four stringed friend from there on out...

Mahalo for reading through...

best,
Shawn

http://ukulelefriend.com
 
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The internet taught me! :) Granted, I already had a musical background - but never played a string instrument in my life!

I think that's one of the best benefits of the instrument though! There's no "wrong" or "right" way to play it (of course - different techniques will give you better results) - but the way you hold it, strum, pluck, etc... varies from person to person. The uke is such a user-friendly instrument that I believe you go far with just teaching yourself.

Plus, I don't have the discipline of hardcore practicing anymore - so THERE! :p
 
alaaji said:
How long did it take you to learn your first song and what was it? How much do you practice a day, week or month?

I'm really curious because I work in the middle of nowhere (North Africa) and I only get to the States once every couple of years. There isn't anyone here who has ever heard of an ukulele much less played one. They do have some interesting instruments here though. So, I can't take lessons and Ukulele Underground along with Youtube are my only outlets to the uke world.

I try to practice when I can but work and family are my main priorities. I have all the major, minor and 7th chords down with a few chord progressions. Strumming is still a bit of a problem but it's coming along. Anyway, I needed a barometer to see if I'm progressing a good pace for someone with no musical background and no teacher.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I'm in a similar situation, I live in South Carolina. When people down here see a Uke they draw their shotguns in fear, spit chew in your eye and run and get their husbands.

I've been to two 1 hour workshops in the four years I've been playing so I guess I am self taught. Strumming (right hand technique) is the key to it all. First song I learned by heart was Digga Digga Do an old Dorthy Fields number. That was two years ago. Always played by looking at the music before then. Now I hate playing by looking a the music and know 100 or so + songs by heart.
 
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I am self taught thanks to the internet. I have been playing for a year now and Jody Kamisato taught me my first song via you tube. I have absolutely no prior experience and that probably shows but I love playing. I am thinking about taking some lessons to take my playing up a notch. The problem is the nearest place is in Chicago about an hour away. Truthfully, I would have never learned how to have played, if it wasn't for all the great people out here.
 
internets...the place where you can find virtually everything now.


i've always wanted to play but never could find a place to buy a uke at [parents are paranoid of credit card scams etc. w/ ordering online] so when i finally got mine, it was straight to the internet to look up chords and songs. :)

then after it was just all practicepracticepractice
 
totally self-taught, though I'm still not real good either. What I've been doing is just finding songs I really like, and if I can, finding a cover of the song on youtube so I can get a feel for how it should be strummed. And then that cover is all fancy schancy strumming, so I find another cover. Eventually I find a video that some guy made of his 5 year old playing the song, and it's usually a strum that I figure I could manage. And then I just keep going through it until I know it well enough to sing along! Now it's getting to the point where I can mostly figure out a strum myself. That was always the thing I was most insecure about, but it really does come with time.

With fingering, I just don't think about it. I see how the chord is supposed to be, and then do what I can to get my fingers over there. Through time, again, I've found ways to finger some things better so that I can get on over to the next chord quickly. It's really something that you have to let your fingers tell you, not the other way around.

As long as you have the internet, you can learn more ukulele than you'd ever want to know (Hmm... could you ever not want to know more?)

Good luck!
 
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