Comments on: Ten Tips for Ukulele Beginners

By: Woodshed

Woodshed — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 09:56:43 +0000

Marco: I was smart enough to steal a good idea when I hear it. Jim Beloff said something very similar.

By: Marco

Marco — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 09:31:06 +0000

You were so smart when you saied:

“..calling the uke a toy is a huge compliment. Toys are fun to play with and so is the ukulele”

That’s so true!

By: Andy

Andy — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 20:35:09 +0000

i’m a guitarist who just got a ukulele for christmas and when playing guitar, I swear by d’addario strings, so it was a shock to hear them bad-mouthed here. maybe the uke is more different than expected…

By: Ian

Ian — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 19:56:48 +0000

Gah… so when I go to sleep I sleepwalk to Massachusetts and live another life as… another Ian? Creepy… =P

By: Woodshed

Woodshed — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 14:57:50 +0000

Art: I have to say, my timing is pretty poor. I have a real tendency to speed up. Quite a lot of my recordings are made to metronomes. Particularly the stuff for Uke Hunt and How to Play…

Ian: There’s only one Ian ;) I might have to do a post of the top ten other people’s tips.

By: Ian

Ian — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 04:04:25 +0000

Boy, was I confused for a sec, there… was wondering how I managed to post while my internet was down without knowing it. I take it there’s another Ian here…

And also, you might want to add showing off to your friends once you have a good number of songs down… at least where I live, people see a ukulele as somewhat of a novelty and are awed by someone who can play it. MY friend and I, both being ukulele addicts, have a lot of fun with it….

And as far as metronomes, I have been playing in orchestras for years, and have developed a rather good sense of rhythm, partially due to the constant ticking (and booming) of metronomes. They help a lot over time, and once you become good at holding a steady beat, they become unneccessary.

By: Art Crocker

Art Crocker — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 16:05:22 +0000

Al,
On metronomes, you are right, it is an important but frustrating tool. Just wondered how you developed your natural timing ability? Just come naturally, or was it worked on and learned? Meaning, after a while does one get much better at keeping a steady time? Also, do you work on giving most anything you play a notice-able Beat. Someone once told me, “if it doesn’t have a beat, it isen’t music”, think it was a banjo teacher.

By: Woodshed

Woodshed — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:32:03 +0000

pam: Other instruments? You’ve lost me.

Lonna: Thanks. Keep spreading those C chords.

Art and Maduke: My position on metronomes: you should use one, it’ll help your playing, I rarely use one.

zym: I know I should play with other people, but I’m completely anti-social. There seems to be an image that ukulele players are all happyily strumming along in big orchestras, but I don’t think that’s really the case. I seem to remember a pole on the Cosmos and most people described themselves as ‘lone wolf’ ukers.

Ian: OK, you’ve won me over. I’ve taken the D’Ads out.

By: Ian

Ian — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 02:04:27 +0000

Al,
It should be noted Jake does not use D’Addario ukulele strings, a subpar product. Or maybe he does since signing a contract with them. Prior to that he used D’addario guitar strings on his ukulele.

I cannot speak for the tenor strings that he now sponsors, but the soprano strings are really inferior.

Otherwise, awesome article!

By: zym

zym — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 19:22:28 +0000

Good article.

The only other things i can think of are;

* play with other people

* find your own music at places like chordie.com (where you can transpose songs into other keys to avoid that pesky ‘E’)