Lessons
Here are 5 Ukulele Lessons for Absolute Beginners. These lessons can be used by anyone picking up a uke for the first time. They can also be used by any of my pupils who want to brush-up on their skills.
Lesson 1 teaches you how to tune a ukulele.
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Lesson 2 teaches you how to pluck the open strings and play your first song.
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G….C..E…A
Os-ti-na-to,
G…………C…….E..A
Squash tom-a-to,
G….C……E….A
Le-mon cur-ry.
G………….C……E….A
What’s the hur-ry.
Lesson 3 teaches the basis down stroke strum with the forefinger of the right hand.
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Lesson 4 teaches three “one-finger” chords that can be used to play several songs
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The three important one-finger chords:
orange = A minor
yellow = C major
blue = easy F major
“Way Haul Away” is played just with the A minor chord alternated with a gentle tap to the body of the ukulele. See Play Along (1) for lyrics and chords.
The A minor chord ( orange spot) played with the middle finger.
The most useful one-finger chords are C Major and “easy” F Major.The song “Ukulele Boogaloo” uses C and F. Songs such as “You Are My Sunshine” and “Mama Don’t Allow” can also be played with just C and F. See Play Along (2) for lyrics, chords and recordings of all three.
The C Major chord (yellow spot) played with the third finger.
The “easy” F Major chord (blue spot) played with the first finger.
Having become a fluent player of the easy F chord it is time to practise playing the full and more accurarte version of the F major chord. The full F chord requires two fingers.
To play the full two finger version of the F chord, you start with the easy F fingering (first finger on the blue spot) and then finger the Am position (second finger on the orange spot). Practise playing this two finger version of F and changing to the C chord and back again.
There are only a limited number of songs with two chords but literally thousands that have three chords! Lots of simple pop and folk songs are based on the “three chord trick”. Having become fluent players of C and F we now need to master the G7 chord. It will need quite a lot of practise because it involves holding down three strings. Look at the photos below.
Once you can play G7 and change smoothly to C and F have a go at playing along with “Ukulele Junction” in Play Along 3.
