Beginner Ukelelle Guide | Learn Strumming, Chords, & First Song!

1. Intro To Uke Course: Hi, my name is Ashley crease. And in this course you're going to learn how to play the ukulele. The very first thing that I'm going to teach you is how to tune your ukulele. And I'm also going to teach you how to strum. I'm going to teach you two basic strong patterns, and I'm gonna teach you all of the major chords. So I'm going to teach you about the minor chords, going to teach you how to play your very first song. Let's go ahead and get started. 2. How to Tune your Ukelelle: Hi, my name is Ashley crease. And in this course you're going to learn how to play the ukulele. Let's go ahead and get started. The very first thing that I'm gonna teach you is how to tune your Ukulele. So go ahead and grab your smartphone. And what I like to do is use an app called ukulele to nerve free. It looks like this in the App Store. Once you have that, open it up. And this is what it looks like. Once you have that open, go ahead and start by playing your very first, the top string, which is the G string. You could either install this app or if you already have a digital one, you can use that as well. But you're basically going to start off by, by tuning it with these knobs right here. So go ahead and start tuning it by turning this right or left. So let's go ahead and get it untuned. I can hear that that's off. So now I'm going to look at my app and I am going to open it up. Now I have to push this away from me, so I'm gonna turn it this way to make it so that it goes a little tighter. That was it. That was the G string. Now let's go ahead and do the C string. Now you can go ahead and find the C string, which is the second string. Follow it all the way up. It comes up here to this farthest knob on your side facing you. So you'll turn that right or left depending on whether you need it in order to get it to that middle, as middle green as you can. That's how it is for this app. Next is the E string. You can find this as the second one up. And you're going to follow it all the way up to this far away one right here, facing down. Now that you know where the E string is, you're gonna be able to move this forward and backwards. So let's go ahead and make it out of tune. Made it go way to the left. Watching this. Watching me tune this. I'm going to be picking at this. We're going to go like this. You can see that it was in the yellow. I'm gonna try and get it to the green. And so I'm gonna do that by moving this. Not that way. You can see it changing the opposite direction. There it is, That is now at e. Now go ahead and go to the a string, which is the very bottom string. And it connects it right here. And you don't want to overdo this because if you pull it tighter and tighter and tighter, you can eventually break the string. But it's pretty basic of like when you're on, let's say the C chord. And it looks like you're going into the d. Like you want to go back the other direction and then let's say you go back a little too far and now you're at B, then you're going to want to tighten it up until you get to see again. So hopefully that is helpful. That is how you tune your Ukulele. So now that your ukulele is tuned, we're going to move on to the next step. I'll see you in the next lecture. 3. How to Strum : Welcome back to this next lesson. In this lesson I am going to teach you how to play your very first chord. I'm going to teach you two different very, very simple chords on the ukulele. And I'm also going to teach you how to Strom. I'm going to teach you two basic drum patterns and so let's go ahead and get started on that. Here is the first chord that I'm gonna teach you. It is the C chord. In order for you to play the C chord, the first thing that you're gonna need to know are the frets. And so here is what this chord looks like on a chart. This is the C chord. And if you're looking at this and you still don't know how to read it. I'm going to explain it to you. So this is the very first fret. This is the very second fret. This is the third fret. So as you can see, there's a little dot on the very bottom of the third fret that is on the a string. And so go ahead and take your pointer finger, going to press this string down and hold it down. That is the C chords. So the third fret is this spread that has the little dot. So you're gonna go to the a string. And now you get to play it out. So you're gonna go and have each, you're going to have each string ring out. So we're just going to use our thumb for this. And we're just going to go ahead and play it by pulling your thumb down across all of the strings. Great job. You just learned your very first chord on the ukulele. Hopefully that wasn't too difficult. Now that you know your very first chord, I'm just going to go ahead and teach you the very second chord that you'll learn in the, we'll get into strumming. The second chord that you're going to learn is going to be on the second fret. First fret, second fret. You're going to go to the very top string, which is the G string. Just like the last one, you're just going to hold that down, press it down, and then we're going to strum it and have it ring out. So here is a close-up of this, just like this. Now we're gonna go back to the C chord, which is the third fret, the very first string, just so you can see it really well. I'm basically just pinching it like this. Then I'm gonna come back up here. Great job. Now you know the C chord and you also know the a minor chord. Excellent. Now you're going to learn how to strum. And so I'm going to teach you two different strumming patterns. So let's go ahead and get started on that. Go ahead and start off by putting your finger on the C chord. Go ahead and look at Donald group. You see where this prep board section is. You're going to be basically having your hand a lot closer to this and basically playing at the top of this area, not over the whole right here. That's something that you can be aware of sometimes I'll kind of rest my hand on this a top bottom section on this bottom curved area and just hold it there when I'm playing just with my thumb. So here is one way of strumming with your ukulele. I'm just going to use my thumb and I'm going to use the fleshy part of my thumb and go like this. That is how you strum with your ukulele. Now that you've done, that, you can basically start off by, I'm doing your first pattern, which is going to be all down strumming. So we're going to do it like this. 1234, down, down, down, down on the Downs is when you put your thumb across and you strum. So 1234, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down. Now I'm going to slow that down a little bit for you. That it's a little bit easier. So you're gonna, you're doing your C chord and then we're going to do basically all downstrokes, but we're trying to keep it in like almost like a metronome where they're on beat. I'm going to slow it down. Here we go. That is the very first strum that you needed to learn for your ukulele. Great job. You just did it. So now you know how to do the very first drum on the ukulele. The very next thing that I'm going to teach you is a little bit more difficult, but it is the second strong that you need to learn on the ukulele that you can play with almost any song. It's a very popular, strong and I feel like these are the two most common struggles that I'll use when I'm playing my ukuleles. So I'm going to teach you that now. This one is a little more difficult. So there's going to be six arrows instead of four arrows. And we're just going to start off by putting our finger on the C chord. And we're going to start off with down, down, down. That doesn't sound like anything yet, but here's what it's going to sound like when it's sped up a little bit, that way you can hear it and you're like, oh, I know this strong, it's very popular. Here we go. That is the very second strum that you're going to learn. I know that that sounds a little more complicated. It's definitely more complicated, but this is a very popular strum. Here it goes. You're going to start off with your finger on the C chord and we're going to break it down a little bit for you. So it's going to be down, down, up. Start with that. So you already know the downs. You it goes down, down, up, down, down, up, down, down, up. The thing that I haven't taught you that I just realized is important for this drum is I'm not using my thumb the same way that I did with the only down. I'm using my pointer finger. My pointer finger. I'm taking it and I'm going down with the nail bed in the middle, I'm using that. Then I'm using my fleshy part of my pointy finger to flick it up. Go ahead and start off by breaking that down and practicing those two. Just using your pointer finger for this. Just like that. Now that you've got the very first part of it, you're going to learn the second part. We're going to do the second part which is up, down, up, down, up, just like that. So go ahead and practice that as many times as you need to. Just like that. Now that you know the first part and the second part, Let's go ahead and put them together. So it goes like this. Down, down, up, up, down, up, down, down, up, down, down, up, up, down, up, down, down, up, down, up, down, down, up, up, down, up, down, down, up, up, down, up, down, down, up, up, down, up, down, down, up. Practice that as long as you need to seriously don't feel bad if this is not clicking right away. This is something that it takes like a level of just repetition. And also you're retraining your brain in your hand how to do this? And so go ahead and practice this. I'm going to break it down and go super slow to superfast here. We go down, down, up, up, down, up, down, down, up, up, down, down, up, up, down, up, down, down, up, up, down, up, down, down, up, up, down, up, down, down, down, down, up, down, up, down, down, up, up, down, up, down, down, up, up, down, up, down, down, up, down, down, up, up, down, up, down, down, up, up, down, up, down, down, up, up, down, up, down, down, down, up, up, down, up, down, down, up, up, down, up, down, down, up, down, up, down, down. That is the way that you play it. So go ahead and practice that. That is the very second strong that you needed to learn. I think you have got it. So the next thing that I would practice, practice the very first strong, which is just the down stroke. I want you to practice going in-between the C chord, a minor chord. Switch to C minor minor, a minor, a minor. You just learned your very first chord progression. Great job. Now you know two different drums. In this next section I'm going to teach you a bunch more chords, starting with the major chords for the ukulele. Let's go ahead and get started on that next. 4. Major Cords: Welcome back. In this lesson, I'm going to teach you all of the major chord. So let's go ahead and get started on that. The very first major chord that I'm gonna teach you, you already know, but let's go ahead and keep them altogether. So you're going to find the third fret 123. And it's going to be the very bottom string, which is string a. And now you're going to press that down and you're going to lay out each of the nodes. Here we go. Great job. So that was the C chord, the next chord that I'm gonna teach you. The next major chord that I'm going to teach you is the D chord. So go ahead and go to the second fret. This is one, this is two. We're going to zoom it in a little bit so that you can see it. And so now we're going to put our pointer finger on the very top string, which is the G string. We're going to put our second finger down right below that, and our third finger below that. So C string is our second middle finger and our E string is our bottom ring finger. So CGE, and now go ahead and press them down in a way. That is the D chord. Now you know, the C chord, the D chord and the a minor chord. Great job. So basically, just keep practicing that one. And it's pretty simple. It's definitely not as easy as the last one that I taught you, but you've got this. So go ahead and keep practicing that one. The next chord that I'm going to teach you after c and d is actually the E chord, which is one of the most dreaded chords that people play on the ukulele. I'm not even going to show you the way that you play the E chord. Traditionally, I don't play it. So this is basically a modified version that sounds just like it. And we can play that for this course because this is a beginner course and I want you to have all the tools. So go ahead and put your pointer finger on the second fret. Then the way that you are playing D chord, basically what you're gonna do is move your fingers up. So instead of playing it with your pointer finger, you're gonna put all the way up where you're gonna, basically, for the E chord, you're gonna, you're gonna do your, your middle finger on the top string, which is the G string. You're gonna put your ring finger right below that and your pointer finger right below that. And you're gonna take your pointer finger and put it on the second fret. Then try and get them all to ring out. So go ahead and set them up. This is what mine is looking like. Then go ahead and practice that. Great job. That is the E chord, that is one of the hardest chords that people play on the ukulele. And I think that you've got it Basically, you know where it is. Now. It's just training your muscle memory and you're gonna be great. Cool. Now the next chord that I'm gonna teach you is the F chord. So go ahead and go back up to the very first fret. You're gonna put your finger up all the way to the second string from the bottom, which is the E string. And then you're gonna put your middle finger on the second fret. And you're gonna put it on the a minor chord, which has also the G strings. So go ahead and press them down and wring it out. Great job. So that is the F chord. The next chord that I'm going to teach you is the G chord. Go ahead and find the second fret. You're going to put your pointer finger on the C string, and you're gonna put your middle finger on the a string. And then you're gonna find the third fret. You're gonna put your ring finger right in-between those two strings on the fret below. And you're going to be pressing down on the E string. So go ahead and put them altogether. That is the G chord. Great job. You just learned the G chord. This is a very popular chord that you're going to use a lot in a lot of different songs. So very good to get that one down. The next chord that I'm gonna teach you is the a chord. It's only two fingers that you're gonna be using. You're going to be putting your first pointer finger on the first spread. And you're going to be putting it on the C string. Then you're going to be putting your middle finger on the top G string of the second fret. Just like that. The last chord that you're gonna be learning is the B chord. This is the probably one of the hardest ones that you'll be playing. And the reason why is because there's a little bit of a bar in this chord. You're borrowing the first, second string from the bottom. On the second fret, go ahead and put your pointer finger on both the string a and E. And then you're going to go into the next fret. You're gonna go to Fred 3D, and you're gonna go up a string to string c. And then you're going to go to another, which is threat number four. And you're gonna put your ring finger on string letter G. That is the B chord. You just learned all of the major chords. And so in the next lesson, I'm going to teach you all of the minor chords. 5. Minor chords: Welcome back. In this lesson, I'm going to teach you about the minor chords. So let's go ahead and get started on that. The first minor chord that I'm going to teach you is the C minor. So go ahead and go to the 123 third fret. You see where this little dot is? You're going to basically be on that fret. So go ahead and put your pointer finger on the C string. You're gonna put your middle finger on the E string and your ring finger on the a string. All of these chords are going to sound a little bit more dark in gloomy, and that's just what minor chords are all about. So this is the C minor. Great job. I think you got it. The next chord that I'm going to teach you is D minor. So go ahead and go to the very first fret with your finger, your pointer finger on the string e. Then you're going to go with your middle finger on the second fret and you're going to go to string g. Then you're gonna go right below that with your ring finger. It's going to sound like this. Great job. That is the D minor chord. The next chord that I'm gonna teach you is the E minor chord. This chord, I haven't written out. Go ahead and put your pointer finger on the second fret. And you're gonna put it on the a string. So the bottom string, then you're gonna go up from there. So you're gonna go to the third fret, the second string up For a threat, the third string up, which is E and C. So C, thread 234. Go ahead and look at that, and that is the E minor chord. The way that I play this, I also play it with my finger, my first pointer finger on the second fret, and then I put my middle finger on the fourth fret on the C string. And this is another variation that's a little bit easier. The next chord that I'm gonna teach you is the F minor chord. So go ahead and put your pointer finger on the first fret. On the GPU. You're gonna put your middle finger to below that on the eat on the same fret. And then you're going to place your pinky finger a little bit farther down on the third fret, on the very bottom string, which is the a string. So go ahead and play that out, and that is the F minor chord. Great job. The next chord that I'm gonna teach you is the G minor chord. So the G minor chord is your pointer finger on the first fret. Second finger is gonna be on the second fret, which is your middle finger on the second fret, on the third string, up, which is the C string. And then your last finger, which is your ring finger, is going to be on the third fret, right below that, its strengths of the E string. So go ahead and play that out. That is the G minor chord. The next chord that I'm going to teach you, you already know it's the a minor chord indefinitely, the easiest minor chord that there is. So go ahead and go to the second fret with your pointer finger on the G string. That's it. Great job. And the very last minor chord that you're going to learn is the b minor chord. So this one's a little more difficult. It is actually something that I play is a bar chord as well. So you're gonna put your pointer finger on the second fret and you're gonna put your finger across the bar of the bottom three strings, which is CE and a. And then you're gonna put your pinky finger over across onto the fourth fret and you're gonna go onto the G string. And it's going to sound like that. Make sure they all ring. And so it's gonna look like that. This is something that you may need to practice and build up a little bit of strength for. But I know that if you can do it, I have pretty small hands and I'm able to do it. You just have to practice and build up your strength. Great job. You just learned all of the minor chords. So now you know all the major chords, the minor chords, how does thrum and how to tune your ukulele, how to hold it, how to play it. And so now you get to start putting songs together, which is really exciting. So go ahead and watch the next video to learn your first song. 6. Project Song- Best Part: Welcome back. In this video, I'm going to teach you how to play your very first song. The first song that I'm going to teach you is using four different chords, which playing them back to back is basically what you called a chord progression. And that's what makes up a song. So the very first song that we're going to play is called best part by Daniel Caesar. And we're going to go ahead and do the four down interim. So you already know how to play each of these chords. They're going to be on the easier side. And then you also know how to strum. So we're going to put it altogether to play your very first song. So let's go ahead and get started with that. This song. You basically play the same four chords throughout the whole song. And so I'm gonna start us off on the chorus because I think that it's very catchy and I feel like it's a good place to start. So it basically goes a little bit like this. You go, You're the best. Okay, so now you've probably have heard that song before. If not, you know it because I just played it for you. You can also listen to it a few more times. But the main thing that your learning for this is actually just the chord progression back-to-back. So the first chord that you're gonna be playing for this song is the a chord. So go ahead and go to the very first fret. You're gonna put your finger on the C string, and then you're going to put your middle finger on the second fret on the G string. So go ahead and play that out. Then the next chord that you're gonna play with it is going to be the E minor chord. Let's go ahead and make it the easier versions. Go ahead and put your pointer finger on the second fret on the a string. And then you're gonna put your middle finger on the fourth fret on the C string. So go ahead and play that out. Great job. So then you're going to play them together. So we're gonna start off with the a one switch, 1234 switch. But you don't know what the next one is. The next chord that you're gonna play is the D chord. That is the second fret. All three in a row just like this. Making sure that you can see it okay? Like that. We've already played all of these, so if you need to reference it, I'll put it up, but go ahead and play that. Then the next chord that you're gonna be playing is the F chord. First finger, your pointer finger on the first fret, middle finger on the top of the second fret. You've got this. Now you know all of those chords and now we just have to strum them back-to-back. So go ahead and start off with the a chord, which is close to the F chord. But we're gonna go straight through. We're gonna do a E minor D, F. And we're going to do for strong switch to the next, or strong switch to the next Ostrom's switch to the next. Let's do this. Here we go. That's it. Great job. Let's do it again. I'll do it a little slower this time. Let's go ahead and play a chord again. Switch E minor 234 switch, switch, switch. Switch, switch, or switch. That is the four chords that you need to play the song. Best part. You can go through from the very beginning. I'll go ahead and play that for you. You can even start it out even slower and then keep going, but I'll just play that really quickly. You don't know. When you called me. So the sweetest. And I had it my way. You would know that coffee that I lead in such a way that you give yourself. Just to see you. We already played that part, so you just learned your whole first song. Go ahead and play it through, practice it, get the hang of it. And great job on learning your very first song. If this song wasn't for you, it wasn't your favorite song, guess what? We're going to play you another one. That way you have two songs that you've learned. That way you are a multiple song musician. So go ahead and watch the next video to learn your second song on the ukulele. 7. Project Song - Im a Believer: Great job. You are now entering your second song that you're learning on the ukulele. And that's right, you guys, that you also get to do your second strong. So this second strong is down, down, up, up, down, up. This song is going to be, I am a believer by the monkeys. This song only has four different chords that are used in it. And they're not all in the exact same order, but it's pretty close. So I'm going to start playing that for you now. This is what this song sounds like in case you haven't heard it before or just want to remember. I thought it was only true for someone knows but not out to get me. That was the very first verse. And I'm pretty sure you've probably heard this song before. And so let's go ahead and break it down for you that way, you can start playing it with me. The very first that you're gonna do is the G chord. Remember we're gonna do our finger instead of our thumb. Mainly put your finger down, down, down, up, down, up, down. So the next chord is D. You're gonna do that full thing and then change it down, down, up, up, down, up. We're going to start off with a G. Down, down, up, Up, down, up, down, down, up, up, down, up. And then we're gonna go into d. Down, down, up, down, up, down, down, up, up, down, up. Then we're going to go back to G. Down, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up. The first two lines is G, G, G, G, G, G. So we're going to start off by practicing that and we're just going to be going back and forth with the G, D, G, D, G, then GC, GC, G, and then C, G, D. That's a lot to have all on the top of your brain, but looking at it as you go really helps you. So let's go ahead and start off with the first wine, which is G, D, G. That was g, d, g, d g. Now we're gonna do the second part which is C, G, C G, C, G, D. Let's go ahead and do that. So the first one is C. So basically, if you learn how to transition between G and D and C and G, then you basically figured it out. We're gonna play it through now. I sort of hummed it while I was playing it, but basically, that was all you needed for the very first verse. So you learned. Basically I thought love was only to him very, very shells all the way to disappointment haunted all my dreams. Then I saw her face. Now. Not a dad in mind. That is the chorus. Now that you know the chorus, you can know that the G chord was played, the C chord was played, and eventually the F chord was played, which means that you basically will have learned the entire song by the end of this course. So what I did for that is I did the, the only down and I did a different tempo, which I think that you're able to figure out. So let's go ahead and do that now. We're gonna break it down a little bit slower. So go ahead and do that with me. Now. It goes in then I saw her face. Now. That's it. And then it goes, no, I'm in love. That one changes the straw and you're just kind of playing it with the song. So then you can go back into the rhythm that we started out with. But basically, that is the entire song for the monkeys. I'm a believer. When it goes to love. Basically you're just holding, you're doing a pause to sort of capture that section. So instead of going Doo, Doo, Doo, Doo Doo, Doo, Doo, Doo Doo Doo, loved for that entire section, you're just putting in one downstream and then one downstream and then I'm a believer. Then the last line is I'm a believer. I couldn't leave her if I tried and they do the do-do, do-do, do-do, do-do. We're not gonna do that just because this is a very beginner basic video. And so basically that was it. You figured it out. In order to play that all the way through. Let's go ahead and play it all the way through the chorus. So then I saw her face. Now, believe not a good Italy. Yeah. So that was it. Now you know how to play. I'm a believer by the monkeys. You basically just figured it out by quickly putting together chords, one after the other, linking them together. And now you've played two different songs and you know how to play them. There are so many more songs that you can learn how to play. And I'm going to teach you where I find my songs in the next video. 8. Ultimate Tabs: So now I'm going to teach you where I get my music so that you can start playing songs and have a bunch of songs in a library. This is the app that I'm using. It's called the ultimate guitar, chords and tabs. So this app is awesome. I highly recommend it. I do believe it is a paid app, but I think that it's definitely worth it because you have access to, you know, all of the main songs that are on the radio. And you have a list of chords. They also have a version for people that just play the ukulele so you could make that your main instrument. And it'll show you the chords and how to play them at the top, which I think is a really awesome feature for people that are just beginning. And then you can also create your own playlist and have that written out. So if you have a song list that you want to play, you can organize it however you like. And I just think it's a really super smart app and it makes it so that you can just start learning and playing songs as you go. And so I highly recommend that. And now you basically have all of the basic beginner information for the ukulele. Great job. You just learned all the major chords, the minor chords, and you're also already playing songs, so just keep practicing. And now you have all the tools that you need in order to keep growing. So I hope that you enjoyed this course and I hope you have a wonderful day and I'll see you in another video. 9. Thank you: Thank you so much for taking this course. I hope that you enjoyed it. I hope that you learned a lot and I will see you in another lecture. Hopefully I have multiple courses on Skillshare and I have more coming, so definitely be sure to follow my account and I hope you have a wonderful day and keep it up, keep playing, keep creating. We were created to create. So proud of you. Excellent job. Kaye. Bye.