Welcome to Ukulele Tricks’ Brand New Look

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Big things are happening here at Ukulele Tricks.

As you probably have noticed, we have a completely brand new look! If you’re reading this in your email inbox or RSS reader, be sure to head over to Ukulele Tricks to check out the new design.

Over the past month, I’ve been working a lot of long days and nights to get this new design ready to go. I’ve spent a lot of time planning, coding, and tweaking because I’ve wanted everything to be just right for you.

This update is a HUGE step forward for Ukulele Tricks, and I hope that you really like it.

When I designed the new look, my goal was to make things look cleaner and easier to find. For example, members of the Ukulele Strumming Tricks video lesson course can login to the course from the top of any page now!

Overall, there aren’t any major changes to the way the site is organized, so you should be able to find everything alright. I encourage you to click around and explore! If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to post a comment below.

Please be patient with me as there might still be some kinks in the design that I have to work out.

What do you think of the new design? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Post your comment below!

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16 Best Ukuleles to Buy This Christmas… Without Breaking the Bank

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With Christmas right around the corner, there isn’t a better time to learn how to play the ukulele.

We’ve looked at the 5 Best Ukuleles to Buy for Beginners, but through the discussion in the comments of that post, there have been a lot of other great recommendations from all of you that I missed.

So in this post, I’m taking your suggestions and looking at 16 best ukuleles to buy… without breaking the bank.

Honestly, there are hundreds of brands and options out there, so I know I’m going to miss some, but these ukuleles I’ve either played or I’ve heard really great reviews from you.

These ukuleles are perfect for beginners and beyond.

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How to Fingerpick “Silent Night” on the Ukulele

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In this lesson, we’re going to learn how to fingerpick “Silent Night” on the ukulele. As you probably know, it’s a very beautiful Christmas carol, but it sounds especially great fingerpicked.

If you’re a beginner to fingerpicking, this will be a great song to learn.

I will say that “Silent Night” presents a bit more of a challenge than the previous fingerstyle songs we’ve looked at, however, do know that the challenge is a good one!

For an easier song, you might check out last week’s video lesson where we learned how to fingerpick Good King Wenceslas, or you might check out 3 Easy Songs You Can Fingerpick on the Ukulele.

In this video, I demonstrate “Silent Night” on the ukulele and give you some tips and tricks for how to play it. Be sure to download the sheet music and tabs below the video, so you can follow along!

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How to Fingerpick “Good King Wenceslas” on Ukulele

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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!

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How to Read Ukulele Tabs

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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.

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3 Easy Songs You Can Fingerpick on Ukulele Today

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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.

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Start Reading Music in 30 Minutes or Less

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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.

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The Best Way to Transpose a Song

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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.

Reason #1: Singability

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.

Reason #2: Playability

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.

Reason #3: Creativity

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.

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Ukulele Blues Fingerpicking Lesson for Beginners: Pattern #2

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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.

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Ukulele Blues Fingerpicking Lesson for Beginners: Pattern #1

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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.

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