Are you the kind of ukulele player that wants to deeply understand their instrument?

Have you ever wanted to know the notes of the fretboard and how they interact and relate in meaningful ways to make music?

That’s what this lesson’s about. In this two-video lesson, you introduce yourself to the world of major scale theory on ukulele starting with the chromatic scale and major scale.

The major scale is the foundation of music you make on ukulele.

Learning the major scale is important if you ever want to compose, arrange, or write your own music. The major scale also demonstrates a meaningful relationship between notes on the fretboard. This understanding allows you to become a more creative musician and ukulele player.

By the end of this lesson, you’ll know how to make a C major scale and play it in first position.

Let’s begin!

One of the most popular ways of playing ukulele is in the style of chord melody – sometimes referred to as solo fingerpicking.

Chord melody is a style of playing ukulele where you strum the chords and pick the melody at the same time.

Both Jake Shimabukuro and James Hill come to mind as masters who have brought so much attention to this way of playing ukulele with chord melody songs like Hallelujah and Billie Jean.

A lot of my students will ask:

“How do I arrange a chord melody song for ukulele?”

You too might have a desire to play in this style. Perhaps singing and strumming isn’t your thing but picking the melody is. If that is you, then, here’s what you eventually need to know to arrange and come up with your own chord melody songs.

Practice can get a bad rap.

For me, it’s conjures up scary images from university of slaving away in a dark, sound-isolated practice booth that smelled like leftover body odor from the last person who was in there sweating it out.

A standard music practice room – what I like to call the “stink box”

Practice actually stunk!

However, I’ve discovered it doesn’t have to be this way. Practice can be fun, while also being intentional and focused, allowing you to achieve your goals of making the music you want to make on the ukulele.

However, most of us don’t know how to practice.

Effective practice that helps you improve starts with:

1. Your Reason
2. Your Place
3. Your Focus

Let’s look at how to discover these and come up with a rock-solid method for practicing the ukulele.