First thing is to Get A Yourself a Ukulele .
It is generally true that you get what you pay for when it comes to buying any musical instrument and a ukulele is no different. Get a few, they come in four sizes and all different shapes, wood, finishes, acoustic, electric, solid body, archtop. There is even a banjo and bass ukulele. Plus they are fun, any size.
For selecting a ukulele take a look at the over 100 'Ukulele Manufactures & Builders I've collected. And, a page of 'ukulele dealers to get you started.
The above image is a selection of the characters available in a FREE font from www.ffonts.net showing the wide variety of ukulele shapes — all of them real.
Second, You Might Ask: Now What Do I Do With It?
Musically, you can take your ukulele playing to ANY level. From a few simple basic chords to complicated Solo Ukulele Arrangements like available right here on LearningUkulele.com.
But — first is to learn to tune you new ukulele
- Start with this lesson: Getting Started with Ukulele - Introduction • first suggested lessons that ALL my private students and LearningUkulele.com site members get. This lessons is the introduction the the series of lessons laying the foundation and establishing a common musical terminology for communication and future lesson material.
Ukulele Study Plans
One of the hardest things about learning a musical instrument is the overwhelming amount of material available. And with the Internet and YouTube this is more more true than ever. Even an instrument deemed to be as simple to learn as the ukulele. However, with the right plan of attack and taking inventory of what you might already know – It can be done.
I've been asked many times to put together a plan of attack for getting started and getting beyond the basics. There is no better recipe for success that a proven plan and organization for development. These lesson pages are intended to provide material for developing your ukulele skills and expanding your music knowledge.
Music..., regardless of your instrument, involves parts or all of these elements: Melody, Harmony and Rhythm. Then putting it all together in Songs, Compositions, Arrangements, Orchestration, etc...
Visit the `Ukulele Study Plans section of the site
A Few Recommended Lessons
Here are a few ukulele lessons to get you stated. Lessons on the possible tunings of ukulele, the various sizes, basic chords, strums and more...
Or check out the Weekly Lesson Series of lessons for getting stated with ukulele
"TAB" or "Tablature", is an alternate form of musical notation, which tells players where to place their fingers on a particular instrument rather than which pitches to play. TAB is sort of a secret language between guitar players and ukulele players. Although a shortcut to getting started it actually serves to alienate one from the rest of the music world.
The art and science of chord fingering. Learning your basic open position chords in common keys. We have four fingers and there're all not equal. Some shorter then others and some stronger that others. Everybody's hand is a little different. This does play a role in fingering chords.
Most players struggle with learning the names of the notes of the ukulele fingerboard. There doesn't seem to a pattern and notes repeat. There is an easy way and "it's easier that you think." Most players know the names of the open strings for their favorite tuning.
The "Major Scale" or Ionian scale is a diatonic scale, made up of seven distinct notes, plus an eighth which duplicates the first one octave higher. In solfege these notes correspond to the syllables Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti/Si, (Do), the Do in the parenthesis at the end being the octave of the root.
TAB, short for tablature is a form of musical notation using numbers and letters on a staff that that corresponds to the number of strings of fretted string instrument. Theses number tell a player which fret to place their fingers on the fingerboard. TAB has a history with lute music from centuries ago and has found wide use in the music publishing industry catering to the guitarist who can?t or doesn't want to learn to read.
Now grab your uke and get cracking!