QuickStart Scale Fingerings for Ukulele, Volume I, C Tuning is a concise, well organized book ideal for any ukulele player beginning to explore improvisation. Scale Fingerings for Ukulele keeps a sharp focus on six critical scales, their fingerings and their related chords. All material is covered in every key.

Checkout out the NEW Expanded 2nd Edition of QuickStart Scale Fingerings for Ukulele, Volume I, C Tuning' .

Over the course of 2023 Curt will post RMA (Root Movement/Harmonic Analysis) worksheets of selected songs from the Daily Ukulele Book, the Yellow Book. With comments and suggested harmonic improvements as we correcting any mis-labeled chords.

Checkout Ain't Misbehavin' RMA for an example of what to expect.

Warm Up, Stretching, Limbering Up …

Whatever you call it — it's how do you, what do you do to get ready for a performance, practice session.

Just as a running would just jump right in a start a race, they always (or should) warm up a bit right before the race. Get the juices rolling and engine warmed up.

Learn about Full Diatonic, Dominant Function, and Secondary Dominant.

For LearningUkulele.com I took advantage of my jazz guitar skills, training, teaching and performance experience and started pursuing and exploring the potential of the ukulele. Researching the field I saw very little material organized at a level that actually works for intermediate to advanced players – most of the beginner stuff is suspect as well. I have developed an international reputation as a ukulele expert having written 50+ books for `Ukulele and Guitar. In my private teaching practice I typically have between 50 to 60 students a week of all levels.

This is great news at LearningUkulele.com and I (Curt) will be using it on on macOS and Linux. MuseScore has been used for ALL my scores for the last several years. Previously it was Sibelius for many years and a long, long time ago Finale.

More information on the MuseScore 4 visit the site. There is also more information on LearningUkulele.com MusceScore listing .

Get some insight and information of finding you way around LearningUkulele.com and navigating the site.

Festivals are listed by month , region USA , Canadian , Australian , European , and International . As we as all on one page .

A newsletter will go out once a week with all the news and updates for the site.

Musescore Courses: The Musician's Guide to Distribution & Digital Distribution • This series is pulled directly from the courses I've created for my university position in Music Business. All of these courses are designed for the everyday musician - amateur or professional - who has little or no knowledge on the topic, but wants to master it.

The Autumn Leaves Play-along Track is in the Key of G/Em and the Melody & Chord Ukulele Arrangement in B♭/Cm .

Download the leadsheets and there is a rehearsal Saturday October 17, 2022 at Funky Frets Music Store @ 1PM right before the Funky Frets Uke Jam.

There is an Easy open position chord version and a more sophisticated 4-part, a.k.a. Jazz chord version.

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13 September 2022: Added a leadsheet with the melody, lyrics, and sample bass line to the song pages in the Assets section. The Musescore file is also available that you can use to have the melody, chords and bass play for practicing.

The 7th Annual Funky Frets Uke Festival is this weekend, and we are working on making it a Roaring Good Time. The 2020's may not have start off that great in the world, but we are making up for it in 2022! Everyone loved the Philadelphia theme in 2019, so this year they are doing a Roaring 20's theme. New to the festival, instead of the ever popular Hawaiian Shirt contest, they will be having a 1920's style Hat Contest!

Natural Notes

These seven letters: A B C D E F G are called the Natural Notes. There are quite visible on a standard piano as the white keys.

Sharps, Flats, Double Sharps, Double Flats

At the basic level and common in the 15 Diatonic Scale/Major Keys. Any, yes, ANY of the seven letters can be sharped, raised one semi-tone or flattened one semi-tone.

• A♯ B♯ C♯ D♯ E♯ F♯ G♯
• A♭ B♭ C♭ D♭ E♭ F♭ G♭

So notes can have multiple names depending on their musical use and context.

So, YES there is an E#, E Sharp. As well as B#, Cb, and Fb.

• B♯ is a different notation than C. However, the same pitch/sound as C.
• E♯ is a different notation than F. However, the same pitch/sound as F.
• C♭ is a different notation than B. However, the same pitch/sound as B.
• F♭ is the same pitch/sound as E. However, the same pitch/sound as E.

NOTE: Using the 15 Full Diatonic Major Keys/Scales , the Natural Notes are principle notes are used more then Enharmonic Equivalents .

Why?

It comes down the Full Diatonic Major scales — they each use ALL seven letters (A B C D E F G), in-order, no skips, no repeats. So for E, E♯, E♭ — the E is the third and always needs to have E as its name.

Lessons Links

• Enharmonic Equivalents
• Understanding Intervals Lesson Series

Chime in and help grow the LearningUkulele.com community.

For alternate and a lot more information on the open position D chords checkout the Chord A Day Lesson: D

Here is on from the performances archives, original composition by Curt Sheller (me). Performed at the 2009 New York Uke Fest at The Gershwin Hotel .

Ok — you might need more information …

I mainly focus on new material that I’m adding to my repertoire. I also make sure I write out everything. Writing it out reveals new voicings or a different approach to the arrangement. Recording it’s not enough, with a recording only you’ll have to transcribe yourself. A recording and written documentation combined are a better solution.

If I have a performance coming up or a recording, I focus on that material only. I work on sections, even small phrases, over and over and over. Rarely playing through the whole piece until all sections are worked out and mastered. Then I perfect the overall performance of the arrangement or song. If it’s a section that I have a high level of confidence that I’ll never screw up in performance, I’ll never practice it. But, never say never!

I do advocate writing out all your arrangements using whatever method you can. Whether it’s standard music notation, chord grids, TAB, chicken scratch and any combination, just get it down somewhere. So even when it gets to the point that you think, you can’t really forget it. You have something to check with for reference. Some things might change from your original arrangement that you didn’t expect, but still sound good. I’ve even when back and incorporated mistakes that I like into the original arrangement.

I even write stuff out without the instrument at hand. Then you really know it. If you really know it intellectually, you own it, and then you can start playing around with it, adding variations, phrasing the melody different, trying different styles, etc.

After several downsizings, I went full-time to music, teaching, writing books, the websites and performing. My playing really went up a notch. My income went down several notches. So, theQuit your day job! if you can, gives you a lot of time to work on music and probably Less money to spend initially. I see the workers at the music store I teach at always fooling with various instruments that they are not familiar with. A few minutes here and there really pays off. Over several years, one or two have taught themselves piano.

I used to keep a guitar under my desk when I was a full-time computer programmer and pulling late hours. When the programs I were working on were compiling. I’d pull the guitar out and get five or so minutes in. Now, I always have a ukulele with me. You can get in a lot of little practices every day if you have an instrument with you.

When you only have a few minutes to “practice”, you sometimes actually practice. Before you pick up your instrument. Have a goal, a plan of what you want to work on. Short-term goals are better than one or two long-term goals. And, the short-term goals always add up eventually. Practicing and playing or performing are different. My Dad had to hear me play in public before he ever heard me finish a song. If you are an intermediate or advanced player. You're practicing, to someone listening, should never sound like a full song. If you're practicing sounds good, you are probably not practicing.

NOTE: What to practice is the part that a good teacher can help you with. I often believe my primary role as a private teacher is to help a student organize and discover what to — Practice.

Self Learning vs. a “Qualified” Teacher

First Self-Learning — Learning a musical instrument on you own is a trial and error process and takes a particular type of person to differentiate between their success and errors. As far as technique to all successes will be deemed efficient.

I believe and have seen that the area of "Technique" is really that one area that is hard to go it alone.

Qualified Teacher

The adjective qualified is the keyword here. And by qualified I mean experience and successful experience. They don’t even have to be a great player. How many successful major league baseball players attempt to be major league coaches and fail. It’s more like minor league coaches have more success that the pro, former player.

The actual hard part is finding a qualified teacher and you might have to go through a few. I would even suggest taking a few lessons with a variety of teachers and select the one that you think will give you the most success.

Find the local players that you really admire and find who they studied with, and who they studied with, and … you get the idea. Find the source.

A Few LearningUkulele.com Resources and More Information

• The Top 10 Fundamental Things for Learning Ukulele
• The Elements of a Successful Music Program
• The Study of Music Today

Examples from C Major: C Dm Em F G Am Bdim.

• Traditional: I, iim, iiim, IV, V, vim, vii°
• Contemporary: I II III IV V VI VII

NOTE: The Nashville Number System (NNS) doesn't use lowercase Arabic numbers. And, you are right - because there are no lowercase Arabic number as far as I know.

Also, save time as it is redundant, it is redundant.

And, that is why I don't use lowercase, traditional Roman numerals in my books and lessons.

Curt

If your fingers can already interpret and follow what your inner ear commands, you’ve obtained your goal and are playing by ear. However, the fact is that it's actually very uncommon for individuals to be able to "play by ear" with no apparent effort.

If you are like most people new or relatively new to learning to play an instrument, you need a plan to train your fingers to follow your ear melodically, harmonically, and rhythmically. This comes from an understanding of the music principles that drive music and lead the ear to direct the fingers so that then, and only then, can you start on the road to Playing by Ear.

Whether performing or practicing, music involves three elements: your mind, your hands, and your ear. When performing music, your ear directs your hands. And if all goes well, your mind is not involved and only gets involved when things don’t go as planned. Getting to this performance goal, whether it’s simply performing for your own enjoyment or on stage takes work and an organized approach to developing an "ear-hand-mind" connection so all will work together.

Common wisdom states that it takes 10,000 hours to master any skill. This is essentially true - it does take hours and hours of dedicated, quality practice and exploration. I've found this to be especially true when learning any musical instrument, even the ukulele, despite its reputation as an easy to learn instrument. Getting really good and getting comfortable in performance and learning to play by ear takes not mindless hours and hours, but an organized, dedicated, systematic approach with distant goals and building blocks to ensure that you reach that ultimate goal.

The Internet is full of debate and examples of people who seem to be able to cheat at this without putting in the time. I regret to inform you that there is NO shortcut, and simply putting in the time alone is also not always enough. A lot of people put in the time. So what makes someone more successful when learning a musical instrument than another? Or, more importantly, how can you set yourself up for success?

Tips for Success

Here you go - my tips for success:

Get a coach, advisor or teacher - and not just any coach. Whether you have a coach, advisor, teacher, guide, guru or whatever you call them, they must be successful with a proven track record of helping others obtain their goals - not simply good players. Finding the right coach can take work, trial, and error. Some look to performers of their chosen instrument to become their teachers. This can be good place to start, but not all performers make good teachers. However, they probably had a good teacher. It's sort of like getting past the Academy award-winning actor and finding their most significant teacher - the behind-the-scenes person who played an invaluable role in the actor's success. Early in my development, I found Chuck Anderson. So hopefully you're be as lucky as I was to find a great teacher, coach, or mentor early in your development.

Practice Deliberately - have distinct goals and a plan for each session. Monitor your success, practice specific skills and problem areas, and constantly strive for improvement. If your practice sounds good, you're probably not really practicing but may simply be repeating something you can already do. Work instead on what you really need to improve: work on what you can’t do, or want to do better.

Teach Others - we learn by doing, and learn more and learn better when we teach others what we know. There is nothing like presenting what you know to others to truly understand it yourself. In all my years of teaching, I've found this to be extremely beneficial in my own musical development.

The Mind, the Ear, and the Hand - each one of these needs training, with specific steps to obtain the playing by ear goal. The ear needs to recognize the intervals, chords and rhythm that make up the melody, harmony, and rhythm of a song. But for all of the training needed for the mind and ear, it's largely up to the hands when playing an instrument, that is, they need the most training to successfully execute what the ear wants. So, make a plan, set your goals, find a good teacher, and practice, practice practice!

Here is something that I do with all my students all the time to show them that they are better than I am. They ar better if I turn the ukulele around and try to play left-handed, upside down - It is hard.

Now I always respond to my student's "It's Hard." with "It's not hard, it's just new and unfamiliar". It is actually challenging and turning your instrument around to your other hand really showcases the struggles that new students and folks new to learning the ukulele are having. Now the problem that I'm starting to have is my fretting hand, my right hand is getting better but the strumming and fingerpicking hard is terrible. So, this demo might not work as well as it used to.

This does remind you as a teacher the struggle new students will have with the motor skills.

So if you are just starting out and have never played a stringed instrument and are left handed, just learn as a right handed player. You'll actually start with a bit of an advantage for a week or two as your fretting hand is your dominant left hand as a leftie. It's us righties that are playing is backwards.

Originally the right hand did the dominant work with guitar centuries ago and slowly over time the dominant hand switched to the left hand but the guitar was never turned about.

One of the first skills a ukulele player learns is the art and craft of strumming, playing rhythm. This refers to an accompaniment technique suitable for the singer, singer - songwriter or someone who plays a support role for another instrument. Strumming requires a specific set of skills. They are: 1) Memorization of chords 2) The ability to switch chords smoothly and 3) The ability to choose and execute a suitable rhythmic strum.

First and foremost, the subject of strumming is inseparably linked to rhythm. Though an ability to read rhythm is helpful, it’s not necessary to profit from learning strums.

Each strum is identified with a term that differentiates it from every other strum. This term is typically called a “feel”. Drummers learn these terms early in their studies so learning this language is not only helpful to learning the strums, it’s also helpful with communications among musicians in general and drummers in particular. Strumming can be executed with fingers or with a pick. Regardless of your own style of strumming, it ultimately involves combinations of down strokes and up strokes.

In the finger style, down strokes can played with the thumb or the nail side of your fingers. Up strokes can be played with the thumb or fingers. Any technique is usable as long as you can differentiate between down and up strokes.

A metronome is helpful to these studies but not mandatory. The purpose of a metronome is to help develop a steady sense of rhythm and to help increase your awareness of tempo in a beats per minute format. Terms like medium or fast tempo are approximate.

All strums can be executed at any tempo. One strum is different from another based on the stroke direction, the stroke density, the subdivision of the beat and the accent pattern.

Preliminary Exercise

As a way to get started, set the metronome speed on 60 or just tap your foot slowly and evenly. Strike any chord with a down stroke (i.e. towards the floor) corresponding to the click or tap. Though this could be considered a strum, for our purposes, it’s just a way to get familiar with the relationship between tempo (speed of the beat) and the down stroke.

Next, try to coordinate an up stroke (i.e. towards the ceiling) with the space between the clicks or taps. Don’t be surprised that the up stroke is more difficult than the down stroke, There are two reasons for this discrepancy. First, the up stroke is anti gravitational (pulls away from the ground). The second reason is that the space between taps or clicks is more abstract and difficult to locate than the down and is consequently, more prone to error.

Go back to your metronome set at 60 or your slow even foot tap. This time, strike the up beats (space between clicks or taps) with down strokes. It’s also valuable to up stroke the clicks or taps (down beats). Though not as natural, there will be important applications for this seemingly “backward” stroking.

For more information visit the A Guide to Ukulele Strums book page and the lessons series Ukulele Strums - Getting Started.

• A Guide to Ukulele Strums
• Ukulele Strums - Getting Started