The above thread (automatic thread linking is maybe my favorite Discourse feature) has me playing my ukulele for the first time in a long time, and remembering why I put it down. I’ve hit a plateau. I know my chords, a couple of solid strumming patterns, and can do very simple picking. “Be able to strum and sing” was my initial goal when I bought my starter uke years ago, so bravo me! But I’ve never moved past that point, and I need some focused practice rather than bumbling about on the internet and attempting whatever catches my eye.
Here are some of my questions for our stringed virtuosos.
What’s the best way for me to learn and internalize the notes on the fretboard? Just playing scales? When I think of a chord, I visualize piano keys. I know the (extremely) basic music theory behind how to play around a chord, but the fretboard is just a nonsensical jumble in my head. It feels like somebody took a piano and dumped all the notes out on a table. For me, every single ukulele chord is simply a distinct shape rather than a part of something larger.
What is the purpose of picking patterns? I understand that they’re kind of (completely?) about assigning certain fingers to certain strings, but some of the instruction I’ve seen has mentioned that they sound different from one another? Are the differences stylistic or is it just about developing a repertoire of standard techniques that can be applied to any song as appropriate?
Lastly, if anybody can recommend a good source/progression/book of exercises for developing dexterity and theory, I’d appreciate it.
And just for any future amateur enthusiasts who might open this thread, here are my two favorite sites for ukulele songs.
Doctor Uke: This is where I learned my chords and how to strum. Hundreds and hundreds of songs, clear notation, and almost every single one comes with an audio file so you can hear him playing and singing along.
Ukulele Hunt: This is where I learned to read tabs. Lots of songs, and most have a video of him playing so you can see how he’s approaching the fingering. The only criticism I have of this site is that sometimes the video doesn’t match up with the sheet music.
Heh, I know I’m not a virtuoso, but I know why I’m not the lead guitarist in my band, either.
As a person who started on stringed instruments, but only fiddled on the occasional keyboard until recently (and still generally sucks at it): I’d say starting with the scales and chords of a song you know well and figuring out why everything is structured that way on that instrument is probably going to be the best method of internalizing the new instrument. Don’t just do it by rote, try to interpret it or improvise over it. TBH, it’s hard to project the same mechanical movements between the two. The interfaces are very different. Heck, just stringed instruments in different tunings can throw you far out of whack.
I usually start with “Mary Had a Little Lamb”, work my way into some version of “Pipeline”, and try the first few parts of “Toccata y Fugue in D minor” when I’m fooling with a new instrument (I learned the bones of it on a bass, not a keyboard). You’d obviously want to substitute songs that you knew well and might want to reproduce on the instrument in question.
Hmm. I apologize, but it sounds like you might be conflating two different styles, or I might be reading too much into it. You can fingerpick in a dizzying array of different patterns if you’re skilled enough, and that will dictate how you move between chords. That’s a kind of deep subject, and I won’t go further at the moment other than to say if you’re good at it on guitar, you’ll make other guitarists ask who the second guitarist is on your solo recordings.
But if you’re meaning strumming patterns, that’s going to be a little different. Upstrokes and downstrokes sound different, and they certainly affect me differently psychologically. It is purely a stylistic choice, though. You have to make the song your own, whether you get there through a technique or just wrangling it into being your own.
