A lot of beginners have trouble playing barre chords. The Ukulele Teacher gives a great lesson on how to master this technique no matter what size your hands.
Category Archives: Ukulele Guides & Lessons
Left Hand Finger Dexterity Exercise: Ukulele Mike
Scales can often seem a chore but Ukulele Mike demonstrates a relatively simple exercise that will strengthen and improve the flexibility of your left-hand fingers. This looks like an exercise that will make a difference while being easy to learn for beginners and for those with less flexible hands.
Movable Ukulele Chords Tutorial by Manitoba Hal
Another great tutorial from Manitoba Hal to expand your chord and playing knowledge. He explains moveable chords for the ukulele in an easy to understand way.
Blues Tutorial: Manitoba Hal
For those who love the blues here is a more advanced tutorial on how to improve your ukulele blues progressions from Manitoba Hal.
Ukulele Lesson: Careless Whisper
What better way to remember a great performer than to keep playing their music. Here is an easy ukulele lesson on how to play the strumming pattern for George Michael’s Careless Whisper given by guitarist and ukulele player Eric Blackmon.
Baritone Uke Tutorial
Manitoba Hal demonstrates a great variation of an old favourite on the baritone ukulele. This should also be of interest to other uke players as you can play the same chord forms with the usual GCEA tuning in the Key of C.
Ukulele Strumming Lesson
If you want to improve your strumming technique, here is a great tutorial from James Hill that is well worth the 12 minutes plus of viewing time.
Two Fundamental Ukulele Strumming Patterns
Two of the most common strumming patterns for ukulele are the Church Lick and the Calypso Strum. Many beginners may have come across these strums before but know them by no name or different names. If you wish to play with others or play more difficult songs it is important to know the name of the strum pattern being used.
Ukulele Mike has two good videos to demonstrate both of these strumming patterns and they are both in 4/4 time. He also stresses that you must practice both using a straight strum and a swing strum, to the extent that your “muscle memory” allows you to play them both ways automatically. Repetition is the key.
The Church Lick:
Can be written as:
- down-down up / down-down up down-down up /
- d.du / d.dud.du /
Ukulele Mike demonstrates this as a Straight 8th note strum and as a Swing 8th note strum. This is also useful for changing chords within a bar (Ukulele Hunt).
The Calypso Strum:
Can be written as:
1. / down-down up-up down up / down-down up-up down up /
2. / d.du.udu / d.du.udu /
The Calypso strum is also known as the Island Strum or for guitar players the Rock Strum. It is widely used in popular music and as Ukulele Mike explains in his video, can be played as a Straight 8th note strum or a Swing 8th note strum.
Both songs, He’s Got the World In His Hands and Jamaica Farewell, that Mike mentions as suitable for learning the Calypso strum are in The Ukulele Club Songbook.
Happy Strumming.
Zilla
Bayside Ukes member.
Ukulele Strumming Patterns
Here are some useful links to the Ukulele Hunt website for anyone wanting to teach themselves ukulele strumming:
Bayside Ukes
Chord Melody Video Tutorial
This video tutorial may help you with your ukulele practice.
Chord Melody Improvisation Tutorial by Ukulele Mike Lynch (USA).
Pat
Bayside Ukes Member
baysideukes.com 