Last week, we looked at 3 Easy Songs You Can Fingerpick on Ukulele Today. In the spirit of fingerpicking, and now, the upcoming holidays, it’s a perfect time to learn how to fingerpick some Christmas carols.
In this lesson, we’re going to learn how to fingerpick “Good King Wenceslas” on ukulele. This song is perfect for beginners, and if you’ve been fingerpicking for awhile, your family and friends will love to hear you play it this Christmas!
[Continue Reading...]Last week, I posted 3 Easy Songs You Can Fingerpick on Ukulele Today.
When you download the sheet music for these songs, you are presented with a musical staff and tablature.
After a couple emails, I realize we’ve looked at how to read music, but one thing we haven’t looked at yet is how to read tabs.
Music tablature, or tab, is a simplified form of musical notation used for stringed instruments like the ukulele.
Most people learn a new piece of music by using tab. Unlike a regular piece of music, tabs show you exactly where to play the notes on the fretboard.
Let’s take a look at some examples of tablature.
[Continue Reading...]In this lesson, we’re going to learn some basic solo fingerpicking songs on the ukulele (songs that don’t have a vocal accompaniment to them). As a way to learn the correct fingerpicking techniques and to get our fingers moving, we’re going to learn three awesome nursery rhymes.
If we’re able to play these songs without a hiccup, we’ll be really well equipped to learn more difficult songs in future lessons.
Last week, I gave you a quick crash course on how to read music. In order to learn these fingerpicking songs, we need to know a little bit about reading music. So if you haven’t already, you might want to refer to last week’s post on how to read music.
[Continue Reading...]Being able to read music is an extremely powerful skill.
For myself, growing up, I played piano and ukulele. I relied very heavily on my ear to learn how to play songs. I’m very thankful for my ear, but this really limited me in the types of songs I could play.
So, for example, whenever I would visit my grandparents, it wasn’t uncommon they would want me to play a hymn on piano for them, or if it was around Christmas, a carol. They would put the songbook in front of me, and unless I knew the hymn or carol from memory, I would freeze or have to fumble my way through it.
Whenever I looked at a piece of music, I was completely intimidated by it.
[Continue Reading...]Today, I’m going to teach you one of the most important skills you can possess when it comes to playing ukulele (or any type of music for that matter): how to transpose a song.
There are many reasons why you would want to transpose a song.
Have you ever tried playing a song on the ukulele but found it to be impossible to sing along with because the key was either too high or too low? To fix this problem, you might transpose or change the key of the song or chord chart to make it easier to sing.
A lot of songs are written in weird keys like Eb, F#, or Db. The chords found in these keys aren’t the easiest to play on ukulele, so you might transpose the song to a different key with easier chords.
Transposing allows you to be really creative. You might transpose a song to get a specific tone from a different set of chords. You also need to transpose a song if you’re trying to arrange two different songs to flow together in the form of a medley (e.g. Somewhere Over the Rainbow –> I’m Yours).
You never know when you might need to change the key of a song, so let’s take a look at an easy formula for how we can do this.
[Continue Reading...]This is the third and final lesson (and video lesson) of a three part ukulele fingerpicking blues lesson series. If you missed it, be sure to check out part 1 and part 2.
Just a couple days ago, we learned a fingerpicking pattern we can use for the 12-bar blues. In this lesson, we’re going to learn a second fingerpicking pattern. As much as these patterns can be used for the blues, they can also be used for other popular songs.
[Continue Reading...]This is the second post (and video lesson) of a three part ukulele fingerpicking blues lesson series. For the first lesson, I introduced the structure of the 12-bar blues. Get that lesson here. Stay tuned in a couple days for part three.
Now that we’ve learned the 12-bar blues on ukulele, it’s time to learn a couple fingerpicking patterns that we can use with this form. These fingerpicking patterns are great if you are a beginner to fingerpicking, but they are just as useful if you want to get some new ideas.
[Continue Reading...]This is the first post (and video lesson) of a three part ukulele fingerpicking blues lesson series. Once you’re ready, go ahead to part two where we learn a fingerpicking pattern to go with this.
The blues has arguably been one of the most influential genres of music in the past century. The chants, spirituals, and songs of African-American slaves in the 19th century gave birth to the genre, while descendants of slaves carried their legacy into recorded form in the early 1900s.
When people think of the blues, they typically think of a man with a raspy voice singing and playing along with a guitar. While this is a common expression of the blues, it’s not unlikely that in the early to mid 20th century people would sing and play the blues on their ukulele too.
In this lesson, we’re going to take a look at one of the most popular chord progressions in traditional blues music known as the 12-bar blues. The blues are characterized by simplicity, repetition, rhythm, and pure emotion.
[Continue Reading...]Have you heard of Sophie Madeleine? If you haven’t, then you need to know that she is one of the most interesting, creative, lovely, and captivating ukulele players you’ll have the pleasure of listening to these days.
Just a few days ago, Ms. Madeleine started into her 30 days of cover songs. For thirty days straight, she is releasing a video of a cover song each day. This will lead up to the release of a new music video of her first single “Oil & Gold” from her album The Rhythm You Started.
[Continue Reading...]If you follow Ukulele Tricks on Twitter, or if you are friends with us on Facebook, you probably saw a video I posted earlier this week of me playing my ukulele in Central Park.
While I was there, I took my ukulele to Central Park to record some videos just for fun. Out of the blue, an older gentlemen came up to me and told me he wanted to sing the song “Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue” while I played it. I figured, “Why not?!”
[Continue Reading...]