Vibrato Vibrato gives the note a shaky quality. This is used particularly when playing melodies as it emulates the way notes tend to be sung. As the ukulele is relatively quiet and notes die away quickly, this technique is not used very often. There are a couple of ways of producing vibrato. The classical technique […]
Archive for the ‘Ukulele 101’ Category
Advanced Repeats There are a vast array of Italian scribblings and scrawlings, and Heroes style symbols that can be used to indicate repeats. Here are the most common. Whereas the other form of repeats is fairly intuitive, this type is pretty indecipherable (unless you happen to be fluent in Italian). The first time round, you […]
Slides Slides are another method of moving between notes without re-picking the string. Slides are produced by picking one note then sliding along the string to the new note. Example 1 Slides are tabbed in a similar way to hammer-ons and pull-offs. They are shown with an arch between the two notes but they also […]
Hammer-Ons and Pull-Offs Hammer-Ons Hammer-ons are produced by plucking a note on the uke then ‘hammering on’ a finger at a higher fret – making the sound of the higher note without picking it. You can watch this being done here. Example 1 In tab, hammer-ons are shown by an arch between the two notes […]
I’ve just released a brand new ebook called, “Ukulele 101: 101 Things Every Ukulele Player Needs to Know.” When I’ve been looking through beginners ukulele books, I’ve always been a little frustrated about the things they leave out. They teach you to strum and play a few chords, maybe play a nursery rhyme or too, […]
Advanced Tab Advanced Strums Tremelo Strums Strumming the same chord over-and-over in a regular, quick tempo is known as a tremelo strum. These can be tabbed in a couple of different ways. They can be shown in the normal way (e.g. as a set of sixteenth notes) or as the total length of all the […]
Fingering Positions When the fingering of a certain passage is important, tab will give a guide as to which fingers should be used both for fretting and picking. Fretting Hand The fretting hand (the left hand for right-handed players) is indicated by numbers in circles underneath the tab. The index finger is 1, middle finger […]
Rhythm Tabs vary with how much information they give about rhythm. Some tab you’ll see won’t have any rhythm indicated at all and will expect you to get the rhythm by listening to a recording. Some will have a vague indication of rhythm given by the distance between notes. Some will have tab and standard […]
Happy 2008 everyone. I hope you enjoyed the holiday season and got plenty of ukulele practice in. Over the hols I’ve been busy writing a guide to reading ukulele tab. A few people have asked me about it and I’ve had to direct them elsewhere which isn’t ideal as I don’t think there’s a really […]
