Learning the ukulele is easy, and it’s a journey that should be FUN!! Anyone can learn to play simple songs at their first lesson, and this article will show you what to expect. Whether your first lesson is in our studio, or online, our professional music instructors will insure that you’ll be playing fast!
Playing the ukulele is FUN and Easy!
The ukulele is easy to play because it has only 4 strings, and almost all chords use all 4 strings, so, unlike the guitar, there is no muting needed. Also, many chords are just one or two fingers, so they’re easy to learn. Lastly, the nylon strings are much easier on the fingers than steel guitar strings – and much less pressure is needed to get a clean tone.
So, where do you start? Let’s learn the ukulele the easy way! Here’s what you can expect at a first lesson.
1) Learn to tune your instrument.
If you have a tuner, we’ll show you how to use it. If you don’t, we’ll use a free app which you can download yourself, and we’ll work with you to make sure you can tune your ukulele on your own.
2) Learn your first chord – ‘C’.
The ‘C’ is particularly easy, using just one finger. A “C” chord chart is below. If you don’t know how to read this, and we expect that you won’t, don’t worry – we’ll show you!
3) Learn to strum the right way.
Strumming can be challenging. We’ll start you off with a very basic quarter note strum which is all you need to learn some simple songs. We’ll work up from there once you’ve mastered that.
4) Learn some simple one chord songs!
Now the fun begins! We’ll start off with some simple one chord nursery-rhyme type songs that you can play and sing along to. Do you have young children, or grandchildren in your life? They’ll love to sing along with you and your ukulele!!
After you’re first lesson, you’re playing songs! Congratulations! Where do we go from here? If you decide to take more lessons, you’ll learn:
1) More chord shapes to use with your simple songs (learn “A”, “G” and “D” chords next).
2) Transitioning between chords so that you can play more songs.
3) Once you can transition between chords relatively smoothly, you can learn some pop standards, such as ‘Brown Eyed Girl’, ‘I’m A Believer’ and more!
So, as you can see, we really try to have you learn the ukulele the easy way! Just a few simple steps is all it takes for you to begin strumming and playing songs!
