Many of the top ukulele players you see at festivals also run excellent workshops, where they impart their extensive knowledge to attendees. Peter Moss started playing the uke when he was eight and has been performing for over fifty years. He posts ten minute uke lessons, ukulele shorts (tips ideal for watching on a phone) and also tunes arranged in parts for groups on his YouTube channel. Unusually, on his Patreon page, one of the membership levels gives you an online monthly one-to-one lesson with him, which is excellent value!
Here’s part of his How To Play A Ukulele In 10 Easy Steps series, explaining the differences with a baritone (which is tuned differently to the other uke sizes):
When you are busy it can be good to find more effective ways of using your practice time. Fiona Berry from Learn Music Together runs two Facebook groups called Music Lessons & Practice: Learning & Understanding and Musician in the Making where she shares daily tips, ideas and videos from her experience as a music teacher, to help people improve their skills. In addition to answering questions in the groups, she also runs workshops & gives individual tuition sessions.
For example, when making mistakes many people either just ignore them & keep playing, or start a song again from the start. Instead, you should stop, examine where you’ve gone wrong & play that part through slowly several times until you can reliably play it correctly, working up to the correct speed for the song. Subsequently, when playing the piece you should return to the places that give you difficulty and play them a few times first, before going back to play the tune in full. This means you rehearse the tricky sections more frequently and it will become easier to play the entire song accurately & smoothly.
You can download Fiona’s free Practice Tips Guide with ten useful ideas to try out.
Written to suit any instrument, it’s particularly good if you are venturing into playing chord melody, as she gives several examples using sheet music, which would aid you to focus on the detail efficiently. But the suggestions also work well with songsheets or tab, as you can take small portions of a verse, chorus, riff or solo section and work on those individually where you are having issues with chord changes, rhythm or singing a melody.
Stu Fuchs (aka Stukulele / Ukulele Dojo) is doing a new series of beginners’ videos, starting with the basics & progressing as he teaches his latest class. He says these are for anyone who wants a refresher or check to see if they need to get out of any bad habits they’ve picked up whilst playing. This first one covers strumming; keeping rhythm; accenting the backbeat; fretting chords without too much tension; & a simple strumalong to Jamaica Farewell. In Week Two he introduces 3/4 time & plays a long-distance duet with you of Amazing Grace.
There are also plenty of other interesting items & tutorials on his website, at all levels, so do have a look round.
Tyler Austenfield, from Ten Thumbs Productions produces several free uke lessons every week, from how to play various songs from beginners to intermediate level and different techniques, such as fingerstyle, blues & chords (barres, progressions etc). A section on music theory is planned soon. Here is part one of his recent fingerstyle course: Read the rest of this entry »
Here’s a fun lesson from the excellent Stu Fuchs (aka Stukulele) talking through moveable chords & playing syncopated Afro-Latin rhythms. He gives some nice tips on how to play lightly to avoid those hand cramps & also a few useful ways to keep the beat, including singing along with your metronome: Read the rest of this entry »
Chris has spotted an interesting series of YouTubes from Phil Doleman, whom he describes as ‘half of the erstwhile Re-entrants, fantastic player and teacher and all round really top bloke’.
Phil is producing a number of Two Minute Tips aimed at beginners. So that gives you time to watch & also to practice his suggestions in your ten minutes. Read the rest of this entry »
Over the last few weeks, both Chris & Simon have mentioned how useful it can be to play the same song in a number of different keys, to expand your repertoire to learn the full range of chords. It is also a good way to start understanding more about music theory; to see how chords relate to musical keys & begin understanding how transposing works (ie putting tunes in another key).
If you look on several song sites, such as Chordie or Tontonremy & find a song you want to play, there are options on the page to trranspose it, so with a quick press of a button, you can have the song in a new key. Or you can use the PLUC Transposing Tool to work it out manually. Read the rest of this entry »
Over the last few weeks I’ve had a number of different discussions about how people go about practicing – where to find the time; what people do; how to keep it interesting etc.
Stopwatch: Creative Commons sheko.ru
One of our new members contacted me to say that he would be too busy over the Summer to attend club nights but would return in the Autumn, adding that he’d then hope to have time to practice & keep up with things. Particularly as he’s a beginner, I suggested he try to fit in some regular daily practice,
I know it’s hard when things are busy but if you can, try your best to do just ten minutes to keep your hand in. Pick a time you can make every day for having a quick strum on the uke (eg first thing in the morning before you get busy, while you’re waiting for dinner to cook, when the TV adverts are on etc). Some folk set a timer! Read the rest of this entry »
People of Lewisham's Ukulele Club 