The song Jingle Bells will forever be a must-know Christmas song.
It’s a song you can strum, or as you’ll learn today, you can fingerpick.
In this lesson, you learn to fingerpick the chords and sing Jingle Bells with the chords and ukulele tabs included.
Let’s get to it!
[Continue Reading...]It’s that time of year to dust off the Christmas songs and get into the holiday spirit!
In this lesson, you learn a chord melody or solo fingerstyle rendition of Jolly Old Saint Nicholas.
This means you play the chords and the melody of the song at the same time!
Lots of fun awaits.
In the following video, take a listen to Jolly Old Saint Nicholas now.
[Continue Reading...]There’s so much fun to be had playing country and bluegrass songs on the ukulele.
In this lesson, you learn an upbeat rhythmic country and bluegrass strum that you use to learn a famous song called Billy Boy.
Are you ready?
[Continue Reading...]Note: This is a guest post from Eduardo Uke of EasyUkuleleSongs.com.
Hello my ukulele friends! I have a question for you. Have you ever felt stuck while learning to play the ukulele?
Then this is the perfect time we go over the ultimate guide to learning how to play the ukulele faster.
From my experience playing different instruments, the most difficult part is getting stuck with the feeling of no progress.
If you’ve ever felt like there is a stumbling block in your way or a barrier holding you back from getting to the next level of your ukulele learning journey – then this guide is for you my friend.
The goal of this guide is to completely remove stumbling blocks in the form of bad habits and incorrect routines. Once these are out the way, just imagine how fast you will see progress and breakthrough in your ukulele adventure.
[Continue Reading...]Today, I bring to you a remarkable story from Laurie Kallevig of the Survivor Girl Ukulele Band project.
Survivor Girl Ukulele Band is using the healing power of music and love through the ukulele to bring restoration and hope to survivors of human trafficking in Kolkata, India.
Survivor girls–girls who have been rescued from forced prostitution–are able to come and be apart of Survivor Girl Ukulele Band and learn how to play the ukulele, finding confidence, joy, and freedom.
I had a chance to speak with Laurie and learn more about this inspiring little ukulele band.
[Continue Reading...]After more than a year and thousands of hours of work, Fingerpicking Tricks is here.
We’re so excited!
Fingerpicking Tricks is a brand new online video lesson course giving you an easy-to-follow, step-by-step method to becoming a master of fingerpicking on the ukulele.
The course is designed for ukulele players who wish to go beyond the basics of playing the ukulele and explore four distinct styles of fingerpicking the ukulele: pattern-based fingerpicking, arpeggio-based fingerstyle, melodic-based fingerstyle, and solo fingerpicking.
You have everything you need to become a proficient fingerpicker on the ukulele.
Learn more about Fingerpicking Tricks here.
[Continue Reading...]Over the past few months, I’ve been working on an exciting, new Ukulele Tricks project! Today, I get to reveal it to you.
I’m thrilled to announce a new, interactive Ukulele Tricks’ lesson book titled Learn Ukulele Today, now available on the iTunes iBookStore.
Learn Ukulele Today, packed into an iBook format for the iPad, is one of the most interactive and intuitive, all-in-one lesson resources I’ve ever created to learn to play the ukulele, featuring a beautiful interface, easy-to-follow audio demonstrations, high-resolution images, and detailed ukulele notation, tab and sheet music.
For the aspiring, brand new, beginning ukulele player, Learn Ukulele Today is a complete crash course to learn how to play ukulele, covering everything from how to tune and hold your ukulele to playing actual songs. Everything you need to start playing the ukulele and improve your skills is right at your fingertips. This interactive 44-page book, formatted specifically for the iPad, is jam-packed with the most essential parts to playing the ukulele like […]
[Continue Reading...]As many of you know, this past year was a busy one for me between writing Ukulele Exercises For Dummies and continuing to provide support and instruction in my online ukulele course Ukulele Strumming Tricks. To celebrate and reward myself, I treated myself to a new ukulele made by my friend, the master and world-renowned luthier, Mike Franks.
Needless to say, I’ve been really enjoying the new ukulele (!), and I wanted to tell you all about it. I’m also getting a lot of questions about it after playing it in one of my recent video lessons 5 Effective Strumming Patterns for Beginners, which I hope to help answer here.
[Continue Reading...]Incase you missed it, just more than a month ago, my new book Ukulele Exercises For Dummies released in various places around the world.
Ukulele Exercises For Dummies is a practice-based ukulele book that helps you improve your skills on the ukulele in many different styles including strumming, fingerpicking, soloing, learning the fretboard and much more. Learn more about the book and get a sample chapter here.
If you picked up a copy of the book, thank you so much. I can’t express enough how grateful I am for your support. So far, the response has been very positive. I’ve been thrilled to hear how people are using the book to improve their ukulele skills.
Here are just a few of the fantastic reviews and testimonials I’ve received from different readers for Ukulele Exercises For Dummies […]
[Continue Reading...]Barre chords can be the hardest kinds of chords to get down on the ukulele, but if you are able to play them, you unlock a whole new selection of chord variations and positions to choose from to add variety to those same old, boring chord progressions.
In this lesson, I give you some tips for your consideration that can help you play barre chords more cleanly and easily on the ukulele.
Incase you’re unfamiliar, when you play a barre chord, you are required to use a finger to fret or press down on multiple strings. Common examples of barre chords include: D7, Bm, Cm7 and Bb, as shown in the following diagrams.
Barre chords can be quite hard to switch to and fret, but give these quick tips a try to conquer these chords and open up some new possibilities in your ukulele playing.
[Continue Reading...]