For New Ukulele Owners I - Holding and Strumming the Instrument

Since the blog began I have received many kind and complimentary messages (thankyouthankyouthankyou!), and at least as many questions, mainly from beginners who find the first obstacles in learning the ukulele difficult to overcome. With them in mind I made a two-part summary video that helps you get to know the instrument and take the first steps. It is aimed primarily at people whose previous musical training is roughly equivalent to that of a bald eagle - in other words, perhaps their only earlier musical experience was disliking school music lessons, but by now they have realized that learning to make music is actually worth it . More seriously: if you have only recently bought an instrument, or simply consider yourself a complete beginner, watch the video patiently. I hope you will find at least a few useful tips in it.

I have already written quite a lot in the posts Getting to Know the Ukulele I and II, but I hope the video contains a few new things as well. Do not be frightened by its length: the original version was more than forty minutes long . In reality the total length has not even decreased; I simply divided it into two parts. The first part, shown here, deals with holding and strumming the instrument. The second video, which will appear very soon in a new post, covers the first few steps in learning chords.

I move through the explanation of tuning rather quickly because I have already made a detailed video about it:

If anyone is still choosing an instrument, I recommend the post Buying a Ukulele .