Advanced Ukulele Lessons

Once you’ve got to grips with the tabs in the intermediate section, it’s time to move up to playing some full tunes.

Step 1: New Tabs and Techniques

Strum blocking
Fingering and repeats
Advanced strums and rhythms
Hammer-ons and pull-offs
Slides
Advanced repeats, accents and trills
Vibrato, grace notes and bends
String bending tips

Extra Credit: Harmonics on a ukulele

Step 2: Full Tune Tabs

Theme tunes to films, games and TV shows provide a great test for your tab playing abilities and give your something instantly recognisable to play for friends and family.

Indiana Jones
Super Mario Theme
Godfather Theme
Good the Bad and the Ugly
The Office

Extra Credit: Get more tab arrangements for more popular instrumentals in the ebooks How to Play National Anthems and How to Play Ukuleles for Peace.

Step 3: Make your own arrangements

Once you’ve got the hang of other people’s arrangements of tunes, have a go at making your own.

– Here’s my tutorial for While My Guitar Gently Weeps in the hopes that you’ll work up your own rather than apeing Jake’s.
– Combining melody and chords.

Extra Credit: Learn how to read sheet music to expand your repetoire.

Step 4: Finger Twisters

Tricky tabs:

Sigur Ros – Hoppipolla
Sailors’ Hornpipe
In the Mood
Penguin Cafe Orchestra – Music for a Found Harmonium
James Bond Theme (difficult version)

More tricky ukulele tabs

Nightmare tabs:

Iron and Wine – Naked As We Came
Nick Drake – Cello Song
Radiohead – Street Spirit

More Nightmare tabs

Extra Credit: Check out John King’s Classical Ukulele, Mark Nelson’s Fingerstyle Solos for ‘Ukulele and my ebook http://howtoplayukulele.com/how-to-play-classical-ukulele/ for some fingerpicking challenges.