New Uke For Xmas (2021)

If you’ve got a new ukulele for Christmas or are considering taking up playing one, you’ll soon find there are lots of on-line resources to help you, whatever your level:

• Two useful free guides for beginners can be found from Ukulele Hunt‘s Alistair Wood – So You’ve Just Got Your First Ukulele & Ukulele Tricks‘ Brett McQueen – Your First Ukulele Lesson and Then Some.
• In 2018 we published a Twelve Days Of Ukemas guide to give you different things to try out over the holiday period, recommending some of the most useful sites and reliable tutors, suitable from total novice to intermediate & advanced players, and in many styles of playing, teaching & music genres. Check out each day for much more detail:

Day & Summary	Day & Summary
01 –  Helmut Bickel – Fingerstyle	02 – New Uke For Xmas – Useful sources
03 – Bernadette’s 30 Day Challenge	04 – Songs & Songbooks – eg MUJ
05 – James Hill’s Uketropolis	06 – Danno Sullivan – Play It Daily
07 – Cynthia Lin – Tutorials	08 – Phil Doleman’s Two Minute Tips
09 – Samantha Muir – Classical Uke	10 – Ten Thumbs Productions – Tutorials
11 – Richard Hefner – ezFolk Lessons	12 – Stuart Fuchs  – Tips & Tutorials

• Have a general look around this website, as we pick out a wide selection of our favourite tools & tips, on-line uke lessons, songbooks, chords, music theory, forums, equipment & other website resources. In particular, my musings on what helped me when I first got my uke as a complete beginner may prove a useful summary if you’re totally new to playing.
• Joining a local group is always a boost – whether you are a beginner, improver or expert player. Due to the pandemic, this might not be an option face-to-face currently – but look out for the many online gigs, strumalongs, lessons and festivals that are happening wordwide from groups, tutors and performers.
• If you need advice on buying an instrument, Barry Maz has a wealth of independent reviews on Got A Ukulele as well as other handy info to help get you started.

Good luck & happy strumming!

Jeanette

 

New Uke For Xmas (2020)

If you’ve got a new ukulele for Christmas or are considering taking up playing one, you’ll soon find there are lots of on-line resources to help you, whatever your level:

• Two useful free guides for beginners can be found from Ukulele Hunt‘s Alistair Wood – So You’ve Just Got Your First Ukulele & Ukulele Tricks‘ Brett McQueen – Your First Ukulele Lesson and Then Some.
• In 2018 we published a Twelve Days Of Ukemas guide to give you different things to try out over the holiday period, recommending some of the most useful sites and reliable tutors, suitable from total novice to intermediate & advanced players, and in many styles of playing, teaching & music genres. Check out each day for much more detail:

Day & Summary	Day & Summary
01 –  Helmut Bickel – Fingerstyle	02 – New Uke For Xmas – Useful sources
03 – Bernadette’s 30 Day Challenge	04 – Songs & Songbooks – eg MUJ
05 – James Hill’s Uketropolis	06 – Danno Sullivan – Play It Daily
07 – Cynthia Lin – Tutorials	08 – Phil Doleman’s Two Minute Tips
09 – Samantha Muir – Classical Uke	10 – Ten Thumbs Productions – Tutorials
11 – Richard Hefner – ezFolk Lessons	12 – Stuart Fuchs  – Tips & Tutorials

• Have a general look around this website, as we pick out a wide selection of our favourite tools & tips, on-line uke lessons, songbooks, chords, music theory, forums, equipment & other website resources. In particular, my musings on what helped me when I first got my uke as a complete beginner may prove a useful summary if you’re totally new to playing.
• Joining a local group is always a boost – whether you are a beginner, improver or expert player. Due to the pandemic, this might not be an option face-to-face currently – but look out for the many online gigs, strumalongs, lessons and festivals that are happening wordwide from groups, tutors and performers.
• If you need advice on buying an instrument, Barry Maz has a wealth of independent reviews on Got A Ukulele as well as other handy info to help get you started.

Good luck & happy strumming!

Jeanette

 

New Uke For Xmas (2019)

If you’ve got a new ukulele for Christmas or are considering taking up playing one, you’ll soon find there are lots of on-line resources to help you, whatever your level:

• Two useful free guides for beginners can be found from Ukulele Hunt‘s Alistair Wood – So You’ve Just Got Your First Ukulele & Ukulele Tricks‘ Brett McQueen – Your First Ukulele Lesson and Then Some.
• Last year we published a Twelve Days Of Ukemas guide to give you different things to try out over the holiday period, recommending some of the most useful sites and reliable tutors, suitable from total novice to intermediate & advanced players, and in many styles of playing, teaching & music genres. Check out each day for much more detail:

Day & Summary	Day & Summary
01 –  Helmut Bickel – Fingerstyle	02 – New Uke For Xmas – Useful sources
03 – Bernadette’s 30 Day Challenge	04 – Songs & Songbooks – eg MUJ
05 – James Hill’s Ukulele Way	06 – Danno Sullivan – Play It Daily
07 – Cynthia Lin – Tutorials	08 – Phil Doleman’s Two Minute Tips
09 – Samantha Muir – Classical Uke	10 – Ten Thumbs Productions – Tutorials
11 – Richard Hefner – ezFolk Lessons	12 – Stuart Fuchs  – Tips & Tutorials

• Have a general look around this website, as we pick out a wide selection of our favourite tools & tips, on-line uke lessons, songbooks, chords, music theory, forums, equipment & other website resources. In particular, my musings on what helped me when I first got my uke as a complete beginner may prove a useful summary if you’re totally new to playing.
• Joining a local group is always a boost – whether you are a beginner, improver or expert player. We’re a very friendly club based in Lewisham which meets every Tuesday for free jamming sessions. Everyone is welcome & we pride ourselves from having members from all over London, Kent & Surrey. We’re back strumming in the New Year from Tue 7 Jan 2020. Contact us for more details.
• If you aren’t near Lewisham, do check out the Mighty Ukulele for Londonwide gigs, events & UK clubs or Uke Hunt’s extensive clubs & groups listings covering  UK & Ireland; Europe; USA & Canada and Australia & New Zealand for a local group.
• If you need advice on buying an instrument, Barry Maz has a wealth of independent reviews on Got A Ukulele as well as a schedule of uke festivals and other handy info to help get you started.

Good luck & happy strumming!

Jeanette

 

Killing The Blues

Tyler at Ten Thumbs Productions is doing a Ten Day Blues Challenge in October, releasing ten different blues tutorials on various techniques & topics, including PDFs of each lesson. The crash course aims to take you from beginners’ blues to intermediate level, basic shuffles to soloing and pull-offs to pentatonics. Even if you already play a little blues, there’s bound to be something for you to learn with him.

Complete all ten challenges any time during October – as explained by him in his video – & optionally enter the draw to win a ukulele. It’s free and open to everyone.

(Winner will be picked on 1 Nov, based on effort rather than skill.)

 

Twelve Days Of Ukemas – Day Twelve

Stuart Fuchs is another great performer I found early on with a clear & relaxed teaching style, predictably through some of his Beatle posts. He plays a wide variety of styles which reflect the versatility of the uke – here are links to a few YouTubes with him playing on a couple of road trips (a spot of Bob Marley up a mountain top and Billy Joel in the desert); concerts showcasing jazz medleys and stunt ukulele; followed by some more sedate Bach and Brazilian pieces.

I was lucky enough to attend two of his workshops at the 2018 Ukulele Festival of Scotland (UFoS) – Ukulele Zen (giving practice tips, such as how to play more easily without too much tension) and Fingerpicking Skills – & they were really interesting and useful.

He has lots of free stuff in his store (look in the FREE TABS section – most have videos to accompany them in his YouTube Channel); several different YouTube themes (eg Beginners’ Ukulele; Ask Stu Feature; Ukulele Lessons (weekly); Ukulele Circus Skills; Rockabilly for Uke (containing Rock & Roll numbers – to support the book of the same name); Chord Solo Tutorials (supporting another book); Blues; Jazz; Gypsy Swing etc); some good books (such as Rockabilly for Uke – aka Uke-a-billy) and he also offers Skype lessons.

(Stuart has recently set up a Patreon page and is busy adding extra content there from as little as $2 per month, for those looking to obtain more detailed lessons and techniques.)

Here’s one of his Beatle medleys:

I hope you’ve found this short Twelve Days Of Ukemas series informative. People learn differently: whilst some prefer dipping in randomly, others fare better with a more structured approach, or find paying for a formal course or membership motivates them to progress better. With any luck, we’ve introduced you to some new sites and tutorial sources to help you vary and structure your practice so you can improve your uke skills for the New Year!

Jeanette