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.