Learn to play ukulele – ukulele blog – page 3

Learn to play ukulele 21 Jun 2019

Chords 06: D major

Tamás Gáll

We have completed the first four chords and hopefully can now strum C major, A minor, F major and G major with confidence. The series continues with D major, taking us into the category of slightly more difficult chords. The challenge with G major was forcing the fingers into a somewhat unusual hand…

Learn to play ukulele 24 Mar 2019

Chords 05: C major, A minor, F major and G major

Tamás Gáll

We have already learned four chords. I hope you have managed to memorise how to fretC major,A minor, F majorand G major . These are excellent basic chords with which to begin learning because they appear in songs constantly. There are very few songs in which at least one of the four does not occur.…

Learn to play ukulele 25 Feb 2019

Chords 04: G major

Tamás Gáll

The fourth basic chord is G major. Add it to the C major, F majorandA minorwe have already learned, and we will be able to play quite a large number of songs – at least accompany them with chords. Compared with the first three chords, G major initially seems the most complicated, because the first t…

Learn to play ukulele 09 Dec 2018

Why use a capo?

Tamás Gáll

The main purpose of a capo is to change the ukulele's effective tuning in a single movement. Clip it onto the neck and every string immediately sounds higher. This is useful because if we have learned a particular chord progression or song accompaniment – perhaps one involving complicated finger mov…

Learn to play ukulele 01 Dec 2018

Chords 03: F major

Tamás Gáll

In this part of our beginner series – followingC major and A minor – we learn F major. This is the first chord that requires more than one finger – two, to be exact. If C major and A minor already feel secure, it is time to put the middle and index fingers to work at the same time. It is not a diffi…

Learn to play ukulele 07 Sep 2018

Chords 02: A minor

Tamás Gáll

In this part of our series for beginners we learn A minor. LikeC major, A minor is not a difficult chord; it is easy both to play and to remember. Like every chord, A minor can be fingered in several different ways. We will learn the simplest version, written as 2 0 0 0. This means pressing the seco…

Learn to play ukulele 12 Jun 2018

Working out songs on your own

Tamás Gáll

After the instrument reviews, let us move on to an interesting and exciting blog post. I was certainly excited about making it, because I had only one chance to record the video with the particular song involved. From time to time I see questions on forums and Facebook – and I receive emails asking…

Learn to play ukulele 25 May 2018

Chords 01: C major

Tamás Gáll

We are starting a new series whose aim is to teach complete beginners as many chords as possible. In today's video we learn C major, the simplest chord and probably the one with which almost every beginner starts learning chords. Over the course of the series we will go through the basic chords, pro…

Learn to play ukulele 12 Sep 2017

Mastering chord changes!

Tamás Gáll

Over the past few years I have had the good fortune to teach ukulele, among other things, to a number of enthusiastic beginners. Unfortunately I have never had enough time to teach more people, but the experience has been extremely instructive for me as well. Different people find different parts of…

Learn to play ukulele 11 Aug 2016

Chord progressions

Tamás Gáll

Beginners and advanced players alike often ask the same question: what should I practise, and where do I go from here? More experienced players may find it easier to come up with ideas, but beginners who are still discovering the mysteries of chords can easily get stuck. I found a very useful little…

Learn to play ukulele 21 Jul 2015

The Metronome

Tamás Gáll

I know, the title is not exactly exciting — no “naked woman” or six-pack gentleman anywhere — but despite that we really do need to talk about the metronome because it is extremely important. I remember that during piano lessons as a child this square-based pyramid with a little metal rod would ofte…

Learn to play ukulele 13 Jul 2015

Transposing — for Beginners Too!

Tamás Gáll

With another music-theory post that is also highly practical, we would like to help you find your way around keys a little more confidently. You may already have heard the word “transposition” — perhaps in music class or elsewhere, maybe even as a swear word — and found it more frightening than usef…