Basic Lessons for Getting Started with Ukulele

For music and learning an instrument like the ukulele or guitar, it's all about the making the connection between the Mind, the Hands and the Ear. When listening to music, we enjoy it at the tempo the composer or artist intended, in real time. Only the ear is involved in listening. This is passive listening and you're simply enjoying the music. This is what we do everyday and it's what draws us to want to learn a musical instrument.

Just what is "Up, Down, Ascending, Descending, Higher, Lower, Top, Bottom" as related to music?

Just what are the fingers of the plucking and fretting hand called.

There can be a bit of confusion as to what the names and numbers of your fretting hand and the plucking or strumming hand are. Here are some of the common fingering notations I’ve encounter over the course of my studying ukulele and guitar.

There're a lot different ways to show chord shapes, diagrams and images on a fretted instrument. This is the basic chord diagram I use in all my lessons and book.

In this lesson the basic chord diagram as used for ukulele is explained.

Your first ukulele chord is typically an open position "C Major Chord." It's only one finger and ukulele players love to show new players this, the easiest, usable ukulele chord for new players. Especially someone coming from guitar where an open position C major is three fingers and not that easy as the first chord.

All possible one, two, three, and four string combinations on ukulele. Used for single note technique, fingerpicking, harmonic intervals, and chord string families.

The "Ukulele Scale Diagram" is an alternate notation and visual why of showing a scale using a grid pattern representing the strings and frets of the Ukulele Fingerboard.

"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.

Music notation or musical notation refers to various systems of writing music. Diverse systems of musical notation have developed in various cultures. In fact, many cultures simply do not notate their music in any form.

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.