What To Expect at your first Ukulele Lesson

first Ukulele lessons

We teach ukulele to students of all ages and skill levels!

So you’re thinking about taking ukulele lessons, but are a little nervous about what to expect at your first ukulele lesson. Well, relax and read the next few paragraphs; we think you’ll see that ukulele lessons are fun, and (thanks to our patient instructors) not as intimidating as they first appear.

When you arrive for your first ukulele lesson, you may first be shown around the studio, and then introduced to your ukulele instructor. Your instructor will likely ask you questions regarding your general music background; for example, have you learned an instrument or sung in a choir before? Do you have any experience performing in front of people? What are your goals for your lessons? These questions will help the instructor to format the lessons based on your individual experience level and goals.

Then comes the fun! It’s time so play!! Well… almost. If you are new to ukulele, your instructor will teach you to tune your instrument. Tuning can be a daunting task initially for beginners, bit with a little guidance and practice, it becomes quite easy.

Finally, it’s time to play! Adult lessons focus on learning chords, strumming, and (after a couple of lessons) learning songs. Learning to read is optional, and quite honestly many accomplished ukulele players have never learned to read traditional sheet music (you’ll be learning to use chord and lyric sheets as that’s how in the future you’ll learn new songs). For younger students, learning to read sheet music will be incorporated along with chords and strumming, as learning to read traditional sheet music will be important if they decide to pursue a music career.

Once you can learn a few chords and some basic strumming, your instructor will pick a song that is appropriate for  your skill level. The goal is a song that you’re both familiar with, and would love to learn to play. Of course, based on your skill level your first few songs you work on may not be the songs of your dreams, but the goal is to get there.

If you stick with ukulele lessons, you’ll see the following happen:

  • You’ll be able to strum along to relatively simple songs within just a few weeks.
  • You’ll learn to download and play songs, for the most part, on your own.

    first Ukulele lesson

    Learning to play the ukulele is fun!

  • Your fingers will quickly develop ‘invisible’ calluses, and the discomfort from playing will go away.
  • Your ear will develop and you will hear music differently than before. You will understand pitch better. You’ll be able to better distinguish individual elements in music.

When do all these great things happen? It varies on the individual; their background, their natural abilities, and the amount of time they spend practicing. Regardless, we see improvements in all of our students. Of course, not everybody is a Jake Shimabukuro, but everyone can learn to play ukulele, and the speed at which they learn is based on how much time they spend practicing.

Last but not least, an incredibly important element of general musicianship is performing skills. For this reason, we hold bi-monthly recitals, and we hope to see most of our students (especially younger ones) participate in these free recitals. Although many students find performing initially a challenge, after a couple of performances it becomes less stressful, and more fun! Students that have performed in several recitals often look forward to future events, whereas at first they dreaded them.

We hope that, after reading this, you have a better idea of what your first ukulele lesson will be like should you decide to start. If you’re interested in scheduling a lesson, either in-studio or online, you can do so below. You can see our instructors HERE.