WEEK 1
Welcome aboard gang!
Here are the handouts from our first session together:
Beginners Uke – Feb 2017 Update
We looked at C Major, A minor, F Major & G Major.
Have a good practice of each shape. Make sure when you strum each chord that all 4 strings on your trusty ukulele ring clean and true.
Here’s a YouTube video with a backing of C, Am, F & G. This has drums, bass and guitar. It is at 60 beats per minute (bpm) and the appropriate chord lights up as it is being played.
See if you can strum each chord in and change as the chord changes on the backing.
We’ll revisit these shapes and this progression during Week 2.
Strumming Technique: Stay relaxed with your right hand. Make sure the wrist is relaxed and that there is no tension through the forearm and within the fingers. I go with my index finger only, with the nail striking the strings on the downstroke and the flesh of the index finger hitting the strings on the way up (if I’m electing to strike the string on the way up that is). Strumming technique is quite personal though and most individuals have subtly different approaches.
Strumming Patterns: Remember to really internalise the “1 2 3 4” count, with a downstrum on each number we count. That would give us D D D D. Once that is really locked in, start to add in upstrokes. First practice “1+2+3+4+” – “DU DU DU DU” then work on “1 2 3 4+” – “D D D DU” and then if you’re feeling really adventurous start to work on variations. We looked at some during Mondays session, and we will be looking at more over the coming weeks.
I’m going to be unveiling a selection of chords each session from now on. For now stick with the C, G, F and A Minor we covered in the first session and if you get chance start to look at C7, G7 and F7, if you don’t have time before Monday then don’t worry, we can cover them at the start of the session.
WEEK 2
We covered a 12 Bar Blues in C this week, for which we can use C Major, F Major & G Major.
Below is a very basic example of the performance of this, which should help get you going.
I hope this will serve to give you an idea of what you’re aiming for. Here I’m using the strumming pattern D D D D (four downstrokes), once you feel comfortable experiment with different strumming patterns.
Strumming Technique: Stay relaxed with your right hand. Make sure the wrist is relaxed and that there is no tension through the forearm and within the fingers. I go with my index finger only, with the nail striking the strings on the downstroke and the flesh of the index finger hitting the strings on the way up (if I’m electing to strike the string on the way up that is). Strumming technique is quite personal though and most individuals have subtly different approaches.
Strumming Patterns: Remember to really internalise the “1 2 3 4” count, with a downstrum on each number we count. That would give us D D D D. Once that is really locked in, start to add in upstrokes. First practice “1+2+3+4+” – “DU DU DU DU” then work on “1 2 3 4+” – “D D D DU” and then if you’re feeling really adventurous start to work on variations. We looked at some during Mondays session, and we will be looking at more over the coming weeks.
I’m going to be unveiling a selection of chords each session from now on. For now stick with the C, G, F and A Minor we covered in the first session and if you get chance start to look at C7, G7 and F7, if you don’t have time before Monday then don’t worry, we can cover them at the start of the session.
WEEK 3
We’ve looked at:
The melody for “Happy Birthday”, which was sounding great. If anybody is having any problems reading the TAB diagram that I handed out then let me know.
We also looked at “Oh When The Saints” – See Week 4 below for recordings.
WEEK 4
Oh When The Saints
We spent a bit of time revisiting “Oh When The Saints”.
I said I’d upload the recording at a reduced tempo. Here they are (these were done in a noisy staffroom this afternoon, so aren’t quite the quality I was striving for, but you should get the idea):
Just melody at 75% tempo
Just chords at 75% tempo
Both melody and chords at 75% tempo
Here they are at 100%:
Here is a recording of just the chords:
Here is a recording of just the melody:
Here is a recording of the chords and melody together:
WEEK 5
12 Bar Blues in A – with the chords A7, D7 & E7. Use this progression to practice your strumming. Talking of which…..
Strumming – again
The latter is an issue we’ll keep revisiting.
It is well worth combining your time practicing strumming with the use of a metronome.
Here is a link to a free online one – https://www.metronomeonline.com/
Your foot tap should coincide with the click/beep and I suggest starting off with the metronome set to 80 beats per minute. Just practice strumming a downstroke on each click/beep:
1 2 3 4
D D D D
Once the feeling of this is internalised practice strumming:
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
D U D U D U D U
I also think it is well worth practicing:
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
U U U U
Here you will be just strumming upstrokes off the beep/click of the metronome.
Why not get crazy and try:
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
D D U U D U
All of these have as audio examples (links below). I used some music notation software to create these and unfortunately it didn’t have a Ukulele sound, so you’ll have to make do with piano. You should get the idea though. If you encounter any problems with these let me know.
A good time to take stock of what we’ve covered so far.
Basic Chords. We started with C Major, F Major, G Major and A Minor. You may by now feel okay fretting these with your left hand and strumming a basic pattern with your right hand. Perhaps you also feel comfortable playing between these chords in time at a moderate tempo. If not, don’t fret (excuse this terrible pun), this can be your next challenge – to play in 4/4 |C|Am|F|G| so that you play a bar of each chord and transition to the next chord in the sequence in time for “beat 1” of the next bar. If this at first feels tricky, don’t worry, start at a tempo where you feel comfortable and build this up as you fingers develop the required muscle memory. If changing from one chord to another is still feeling like a significant challenge in itself, then really break down the process. See if you can visualise which of the left hand fingers should be at which fret on which string – for example, if you were struggling with G Major, see if you can talk yourself through how this should be played without looking at the fretboard of the ukulele. I’d think “okay, take second finger, put it on the second fret of the A string, take the first finger, put it on the second fret of the C string and take the third finger and put it on the third fret of the E string, finally I’d visualise that when strumming I can be giddy and unleash my right hand across all four strings. Really, until this process feels comfortable for each chord in our vocabulary we might always come up with difficulties changing between them.
Strumming. We’ve discussed at length the options in terms of strumming technique. The most important thing at this stage is that whatever your chosen method, it feels comfortable. I’m not overwhelmingly fond of the use of a plectrum in the right hand, and if I recall correctly nobody is using this method at the moment. We’ve looked at strumming patterns and spoken about how tapping our (right or left) foot in time with the pulse really helps us lock in rhythmically. Make sure you’re comfortable strumming downstrokes on 1 2 3 4. Then try to add in the various configurations of upstrokes. So far we’ve only looked at rhythms that use crotchets and quavers. Ensure you feel comfortable playing D D D D. Then DUDUDUDU. Once they feel secure at different tempos try D D D DU. Then go crazy and try the other rhythms that we’ve looked at.
Expanding our chord vocabulary. For those of you who feel comfortable with the chords we looked at in the first couple of weeks start to think about adding in a couple more each week into your vocabulary. Don’t try to pick up too many too quickly. The sheet I gave you on Monday with the common chord progressions in different keys is intended to provide you with materials for the next few months – don’t feel you have to master those chords and changes any time soon.
Remember to set yourself small manageable targets and don’t be afraid of being very specific. The two ingredients that will see you reach a standard of ukulele playing that you are happy with are sustained practice over a significant period of time.
If you decide over the next week all that you want to work on is being able to change from A7 to D7 while strumming using the D D D DU pattern to do that, make sure you tailor your practice accordingly. Achieving that over a seven day period is something to be very pleased about. I realise I’ve given you lots of materials already, but don’t feel as though they’re there to be mastered each week. It may take many months of revisiting certain studies to feel as though they’re really comfortable.
We’ll recap all of the above and the other bits we’ve looked at on Monday, then take a one week break after which we’ll return refreshed and ready to continue our journey towards ukulele mastery.
DRUNKEN SAILOR
Here are some little recordings, which may prove useful for practicing “Drunken Sailor”. These are at 80bpm, which is perhaps a little slow for this tune – feel free to up the tempo once you’re feeling comfortable at this speed.
Just chords:
Just melody:
Both:
WEEK 6
Skye Boat Song
Here are some recording that may help you with your practice of “Skye Boat Song”.
They are in this DropBox Link:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/n2ir3wg61362750/AACT6GCeWXUkhM-itNc7BrHka?dl=0
Below are links to drum backing tracks at different tempos. I hope these prove useful.
Also below is a link to the notation, tab and chord structure for Oh When The Saints, which is in the key of C. There was an earlier hand out of this, but I can’t recall if everybody got it.
I’ve also attached charts for a couple of new tunes, like the one for “Oh When The Saints” the melody lines up with the chord change so you can see where you would change chord.
Amazing Grace – Uke tab and chords
Love Me Tender – Uke tab and chords
Drum track 90bpm
Drum track 100bpm
Drum track 105bpm
Drum track 110bpm
Week 7
There was a little intrigue in the room yesterday evening when a second possible fingering of D7 was unveiled. A little explanation is below, should you be sufficiently interested. I won’t be offended if you aren’t, just be aware that as with lots of stringed instruments, we can voice/finger/fret/play most chords in a choice of different ways on the Ukulele.
In the first version we looked at we had:
G string – 2nd fret – Note of A
C string – open – Note of C
E string – 2nd fret – Note of F#
A string – open – Note of A
You’ll note the distinct lack of a “D”. This might strike you as odd, but there is enough sonic information present in this voicing of the chord to tell our ears that “this is D7”, if you were playing with a keyboard instrument or bassist, they’d no doubt be accentuating the “D-ness” by playing a “D” somewhere in their part, probably in a much lower register than the Ukulele can manage.
If we look at the notes in a D7 chord (the intervallic spelling of which is R 3 5 b7) we have:
Root: D
Major 3rd: F#
Fifth: A
Flat Seventh: C
You’ll see that this version gives us the Major 3rd, Fifth, and Flat Seventh. All very important tones in a D7 chord.
The version that was unveiled yesterday (with the bar at the second fret across the G C & E strings and then the 3rd fret of the A string) has:
G string – 2nd fret – Note of A (the fifth we need)
C string – 2nd fret – Note of D (hooray – the root note makes an appearance)
E string – 2nd fret – Note of F# (that really useful Major 3rd again)
A string 3rd fret – Note of C (another fifth)
This version gives us all 4 notes in a D7 chord.
Both shapes give us the information we need. We’ll talk more about voicings and inversions in a couple of weeks!
Below is a .pdf version of a sheet of blank ukulele chord diagrams, which you may find useful.
And rough recordings of ‘Love Me Tender’
Chords Only
Melody Only
Rough Demo
Eight Days A Week
Here is a video covering the melody for “Eight Days A Week” by The Beatles.
Here is a video covering the chords & strumming for “Eight Days A Week” by The Beatles.
Brown Eyed Girl
Here are some videos that should help with “Brown Eyed Girl”:
Don’t forget, should you have any questions at all about any aspect of the Beginners Ukulele course do not hesitate to email me at paul.jenkinson@coda.org.uk
