Beginner Ukulele Tips

Well, you’ve just got your very first ukulele. What are you going to do now? What should a beginner learn? How can they avoid getting bored with the instrument or stuck in a rut?

To help you get your ukulele playing under way, this article is going to give you ten tips that will get you started.

1. Buy the best ukulele you can afford – the more you invest in your playing, the more you’ll want to practice.

2. Build your repertoire early – it only takes three chords to play a whole bunch of songs. Once you have a few songs under your belt you’ll be able to play for people.

3. Learn to tune the ukulele – too many performances have been ruined by out of tune ukuleles. This is the first, and most important, step to making sure you sound great.

4. Learn to hold the ukulele – make sure you don’t smother all the tone out of it.

5. Join a group – the fastest and funnest way to get better at playing the ukulele.

6. Practice very slowly – And when I say slowly I mean snails pace. So slow that it’s impossible to play it wrong. When you can play it this slowly, gently increase the tempo.

7. Replace the strings – using a high quality string such as those by Aquila will improve the way your ukulele sounds. Particularly if it was fitted with low quality strings to begin with.

8. Use your ears – take a careful listen to your favourite songs. What appeals to you about them?

9. Find ukulele videos – and study them carefully. Watch how the great ukulele players such as Jake Shimabukuro and Roy Smeck play. Get pointers on their technique. Adopt and adapt their style of playing to suit your own and how you like to play.

10. Enjoy your playing – this is probably the most important tip of all. If you hate what you are doing – you’ll end up putting the instrument down and never picking it up again. If your practice is getting boring and you feel yourself slipping into a rut, try playing something entirely new and different to rediscover that passion.