Matt Stead found that there were plenty of lessons out there for complete beginners, but not so much content for folk as they improved and wished to learn more advanced playing techniques. He decided to set up several series of free structured video courses, giving all the details you’d get from face-to-face lessons with him. He hopes to encourage people to learn those good habits at the very start that make your playing easier and stop you becoming bored by progressively honing your skills in fresh areas.
They are well worth investigating and would certainly help you spice up the tunes you do. Why not try out a couple a week in your practice to see what new methods you can accomplish over a few months?
Ukulele For Beginners – Thirty videos taking you from choosing a size of uke, tuning up, holding a uke & whether to use a strap, playing different types of chords clearly, changing chords easily, how to strum correctly, working out how to strum to any tune (without learning lists of ‘strumming patterns’ by rote!), playing in waltz time (known as 3/4 time), using sheet music, making your playing more interesting with dynamics and swing, fingerstyle, intro to playing scales, learning the fretboard and picking out melodies by ear.
Intermediate Ukulele – Twenty-five videos covering topics such as creating chord melody arrangements, adding percussive sounds to your strumming (eg chucks/chunks, muting and drumming), playing triplets, alternating thumb picking, accents & syncopation, twelve bar blues, mastering the E chord, hammer-ons/pull-offs/bends/slides, moveable chord shapes, soloing with pentatonic scales, transposing songs into different keys, circle of fifths, turnarounds and diminished chords.
Ukulele Next Steps – This course is still in development but videos so far include jazzy chords, chord melody, creating two-part harmonies and three moveable chord shapes you can play all over the fretboard.
Playing Up The Dusty End – Twenty-four videos showing you how to become more adventurous in your playing by using the possibilities of opening up the whole fretboard. Learn all the notes with simple tricks and melodies, improve your barre chords, use moveable chord shapes effectively, play jazzy songs, chord melodies and pentatonic scales across the fretboard to improvise and solo.
Uke Theory – Thirty videos imparting useful skills that help you understand how music works. Unlock the fretboard by learning about the different scales – chromatic, major, minor & pentatonic, how chords are built, common chord progressions, twelve bar blues, circle of fifths, reading tablature (aka tab), using suspended & augmented chords (sus & aug), modes, intervals, time signatures and reading music.
Warm-up Exercises from Matt’s Beginners Ukulele Course – see his YouTube Channel for more.
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:
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:
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.
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:
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:
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.
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:
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:
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.
PS For those of you wanting the answer to the other UK number one single than Bohemian Rhapsody to contain the word ‘fandango’, it was this classic song.
The first song to be number one with the same version; the only two-time Xmas chart topper with the same version and one of only two UK number ones containing the word ‘fandango’ (put a comment below if you know the other – or I’ll give the answer in a few days!), Bohemian Rhapsody is arguably Queen’s best-known track.
Sam Laming provides a four-part tutorial (tabs provided from the second onwards):
I Want To Hold Your Hand gave The Beatles their first UK Xmas number one & – more importantly for them – was their first chart-topper in the USA. It was also one of two singles rerecorded in German, as Komm Gib Mir Deine Hand (the other being Sie Liebt Dich).
The Academy & Grammy Award-winning ballad Moon River was performed by Audrey Hepburn in the film Breakfast at Tiffany’s as well as featuring in instrumental form. The song is synonymous with Andy Williams, who used it at the start of his TV show for many years.
However, it’s Danny Williams who released the chart-topping single.
A rather pretty style of playing ukulele is campanella (from the Italian for ‘little bell’), a way of picking which allows multiple strings to ring at the same time, creating a harp-like sound.
Jonathan Lewis devotes his site Jon’s Ukulele to campanella fingerstyle ukulele, including some interesting examples of Celtic, medieval, Baroque & folk tunes. He has a number of tutorials on there, including a useful free How To Play Campanella Ukulele guide. Many of his posts and YouTubes include a tab of his arrangement.
Recently he made the following free book available for circulation. It contains ten traditional tunes (some are known by different titles in various regions):
Campanella Ukulele: Ten Morris tunes now available to download for free (or a contribution if you insist). I may expand it at some point in the future but as I’ve been promising to publish the tabs for a long time I decided to release it now.
Here’s the link to Gumroad
Go to my YouTube to hear all of the tunes, there’s a playlist of Morris tunes
People of Lewisham's Ukulele Club 