Learn to Play the Ukulele, 2nd Ed: A Simple and Fun Guide for Beginners

INTRODUCTION

When we wrote the first edition of this book back in 2011, the ukulele revival had just begun and there were beginners galore. We always took a bag of loaner ukuleles along to our workshops and classes. Nowadays, all the participants turn up with their own ukuleles and a pretty good idea of how to play them. They want more from their music and are ready for the next step. If this is you, then you will love the additions to our book.

When you decide to learn how to play the ukulele, you begin your journey as a musician, soon grasping the nuances of the craft while discovering the joy of communicating with other people through song. We cannot describe the feeling music will bring to you, but we can help you reach it by showing you how to play the ukulele. Keep playing—you will find the joy for yourself.

We will show you how to play even if you have no musical experience whatsoever. And, if you can already play the ukulele, in this book you will find many tips to improve your technique and help you become a better musician—especially when it comes to joining other musicians in groups.

Always remember that you are here to learn, and that the learning experience should be stress-free. Relax. Aim to play music with your very first song. Not only will that set a pattern for your practice, it will allow you to enjoy watching your musical ability improve with each practice session. Don’t rush to master the book, but instead progress at your own pace and make beautiful music along the way. When you are relaxed and enjoying the music, your progress will be swift indeed.

Within these pages we present different playing techniques so that, with regular practice through this book, you can graduate from beginner to accomplished musician. To help you, we’ve included a CD with songs chosen for their range of styles, strumming patterns, playing techniques, and rhythms.

Illustration WHAT’S NEW IN THE 2ND EDITION

◾How to change strings

◾How to master strumming and fingerpicking

◾How to work percussion into your playing

◾How to develop your skill at playing by ear; how to play with others

◾Advice on how to become an intuitive, performance-friendly player

Progress is easy, and taking things at your own pace allows you to put your personal stamp on a song and develop your own unique musical style. You can adapt our advice to fit your own needs as you grow in skill as a musician. When you revisit a chapter, you will quickly see how far you have come in just a few practice sessions. Soon you will be ready to play with other musicians and can look forward to a lifetime of musical enjoyment. That’s when the fun really starts!

Our advice is to go slowly, listen to the music you make, and enjoy it from the start. Along the way you will face challenges, experience breakthroughs, occasionally become frustrated, and have moments of pure joy.

—Bill Plant and Trisha Scott

1

GETTING STARTED

GET TO KNOW THE JUMPING FLEA

1878

The first of thousands of Portuguese immigrants who would arrive over the next few decades. Most of them were from the Azores and the economically struggling island of Madeira, land in Hawaii, where they went to work on sugarcane plantations.

1879

Aboard the SS Ravenscrag are Madeiran woodworkers Manuel Nunes, Augusto Dias, and Jose do Espirito Santo as well as their musical instruments, including the small four-string guitar called the machête, or the braguinha. Upon the ship’s landing, passengers celebrate the end of the four-month voyage with music, dazzling the Hawaiians there to greet them.

1884

After fulfilling their contracts as workers, Nunes, Dias, and do Santo open their own woodworking shops, out of which they sell machête-type instruments made from Hawaiian koa wood.

1906

The name used to describe the instrument—‘ukulele, Jumping flea—is by now firmly established upon publication of the book, The Ukulele, a Hawaiian Guitar and How to Play It, by Hawaiian ukulele legend Ernest Kaai (1881–1962).

1891

Hawaii’s last king, King David Kalakaua (1836–1891), dies after decades of promoting Hawaiian cultural practices such as hula dancing, the luau, and the ukulele.

1915

A Hawaiian delegation plays the ukulele at the Panama Pacific International Exhibition in San Francisco, introducing the instrument to mainstream culture and the millions of people who have come from around the globe. (Pictured is the Palace of Fine Art, the only surviving structure from the exhibition.)

1926

In a short film titled His Pastimes that opens for Don Juan, the first feature film to have pre-recorded sound, ukulele virtuoso and vaudeville performer Roy Smeck plays the ukulele on screen, lifting the instrument’s popularity to new heights and triggering a buying craze; guitar manufacturer C. F. Martin & Co. makes more than 14,000 ukuleles to meet demand.

1949

Guitar maker and plastics manufacturer Mario Maccaferri (1900–1993) begins mass-producing his Islander line of ukuleles, which are made not from wood but from Dow’s Styron-brand plastic, selling them for $5.95; TV celebrity and on-air uke strummer Arthur Godfrey (1903–1983) promotes the Islander on his shows, and millions are sold.

1968

In his first-ever TV appearance, on Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In, Tiny