One of the reasons to love playing ukulele is that you can make music in many, many different styles with your ukulele.
One of the most inspiring and expressive ways to play ukulele is fingerpicking the ukulele.
In this beginner-friendly lesson, learn how to fingerpick. It all starts with a rock-solid fingerpicking technique. Tomorrow, you’ll take your new skills and fingerpick a simple, easy song.
In this lesson, you:
- Discover which fingers you use to pick the ukulele
- Learn how to position the fingers on the strings
Discover Fingerpicking Technique
There are two main ways of picking the ukulele–the Four-Finger Picking Technique and the Alternating Thumb Picking Technique. In this lesson, I show you the Four-Finger Picking Technique.
Note: The Alternating Thumb Technique is only covered in the full Fingerpicking Tricks online video lesson course.
As the name implies, the Four-Finger Picking Technique is a way of fingerpicking the ukulele using four fingers on your picking hand, with each finger assigned to pluck one of the four strings on the ukulele.
The thumb (represented by a p) is used to pluck the top g-string, index finger (represented by an i) to the C-string, middle finger (represented by an m) to the E-string, and ring finger (represented by an a) to the bottom A-string.
To practice this technique, pluck each string in succession starting with the top g-string, as shown in the following example. Don’t worry about playing a chord right now–just pluck the open strings.
Don’t know how to read ukulele tab? It’s easy to learn. We got you covered. Download the handout here.
The above example is counted in four, as indicated by the 4/4 time signature. Each pluck gets one count (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.).
5 Tips For Fingerpicking the Ukulele With Ease
1. While picking, your wrist should be straight, extending from the forearm. Your fingers should be relaxed and bent slightly, as if you were lightly holding an imaginary golf ball in your hand. Aim to pluck the strings where the nail and flesh of the tip of your finger meets.
2. Make it your goal to make each string ring out with equal volume and tone. For example, the string you pluck with your thumb should not be significantly louder in volume than the string you pluck with your ring finger.
3. Take it slow at first and keep it relaxed. Any tension in your picking hand works against you in the long run slowing you down and making your picking less accurate. Remember, it only takes a little bit of contact with the tips of your fingers to produce a sound from the strings. Think about just grazing or “kissing” the strings with the tips of your fingers.
4. If you’re new to fingerpicking, be patient. It takes time for your fingers to build up independence from one another and get used to the motion of picking the ukulele. Don’t be discouraged; you can do it!
5. You aren’t required to grow out your nails to successfully fingerpick the ukulele. Longer nails produce a brighter tone and attack, while shorter nails produce a warmer, darker sound. The length of your nails comes down to personal preference. I prefer to keep the nails on the fingers of my picking hand just a few millimeters long past the flesh of the fingertip.
Your Practice Objectives
Great work this lesson! That wasn’t so bad was it?
- Practice the Four-Finger Picking Technique making your picking sound even through the entire pattern.
- Try the Four-Finger Picking Technique over alternative chords, such as Am, F, and G7. Search and discover new chords in the Ukulele Tricks Chord Library.
Be on the lookout because tomorrow you take the Four-Finger Picking Technique and fingerpick your first song.