Browsing category: PRO TIP

  • December 13, 2022

    Pro Tip: Perfect Practice by Daniel Ho

    WHETHER you’re strumming along to your favourite ABBA songs at the weekly kanikapila (jam session) or sitting at home working out a Bach Invention, good ukulele technique will increase your enjoyment, minimise frustration and prevent repetitive stress injuries. There is no right or wrong when it comes to technique. Hands and ukes come in different sizes and shapes, so the best gauge is if it feels comfortable to you. Here are a few suggestions to consider:

    Holding the ukulele

    Try to hold the ukulele in such a way that your hands are completely free to play the instrument. 

    The classical playing position supports the ukulele best when sitting. The ukulele is placed between the legs with the waist of the instrument resting on the left leg. Four points of contact – the right leg, left leg, chest and right forearm. Keep the instrument stable and allow the left hand to move freely around the neck.

    When standing, I always use a strap. This relieves your hands of the responsibility to hold up the instrument. Bach Inventions are even harder to play when you’re squeezing the body of the ukulele between your right forearm and chest and cradling the neck in your left hand!

    Left-hand Technique

    Use the tips of your fingers to depress the strings. The fingernails on your left hand should be as short as possible, preferably no longer than your fingertips.

    Unless you are barring a chord, make sure your fingers are always curved. They have more strength and leverage this way.

    Keep your fingers as close to the fretboard as possible. Pay careful attention to your pinky, as it is difficult to control.

    To minimise excessive wrist movement, keep your fingers generally parallel to the frets. An exception to this rule would be a G7 chord, which is more comfortable to play by slightly angling your fingers.

    Your thumb should press against the back of the neck, not to the side or over the top. It should function as a counter-pressure to your fingers playing the strings.

    The neck should not be sitting in your left hand between your thumb and index fingers. This limits your fingers’ access to the fretboard, particularly the first string (‘A’ string). 

    Right-hand Technique

    Fingerstyle

    Classical-guitar technique is ideal for the ukulele because it uses the thumb, index, middle, and ring fingers to pluck the strings – four fingers for four strings – perfect!

    The left sides of the fingernails should glance the strings at a slight diagonal – the index, middle, and ring fingers pluck up towards the right forearm, and the thumb plucks down towards the right. Picking this way generates a smooth, full attack and a warm tone.

    To produce a clear and balanced tone, pluck the strings over or around the sound hole. 

    Strumming

    There is no specific way to strum. Use whichever fingers feel natural to you and remember to keep your right hand relaxed. Most of the movement should be in your wrist and fingers, not your forearm. 

    Similar to fingerstyle playing, the strings are strummed over or near the sound hole. Down strokes sound heavier and are often played on the downbeats. Up strokes are lighter and used to accent syncopations and upbeats.

    I hope these suggestions help you to enjoy the ukulele even more and allow you access to a broader repertoire of music. If you start to feel pain while playing, try to identify the cause and modify your technique accordingly. If it continues, you may be playing too much and should probably rest your hands. Too much of a good thing is wonderful…but it can hurt.

    Daniel’s instructional books are available at danielho.com

  • June 14, 2021

    10 Tips to Help You Choose a Ukulele – by Ralph Shaw

    Photo by Chris Devlin

    Welcome!

    If you are a fairly novice player and don’t know about stringed instruments, it’s nice to have an experienced player with you to help you choose your instrument. But that may not be possible and, ultimately, it is you who will live with the choice. So if you can do the choosing yourself, it promises to be a satisfying and memorable experience. 

    Here are 10 basic things to help you be more confident with your choice.

    1. Price

    Remember you will be spending more time with this object than possibly anything else you own outside of your furniture. So don’t be cheap.

    A great-sounding instrument can uplift you, make you want to play more and will make you sound good from the first strum.

    How much are you willing to spend? Or, what is the most you can afford to part with? Think about how much you spend in other areas of your life (like your car or clothes) and figure out what an appropriate amount should be for you.

    2. Size

    There are 3 main sizes of uke:

    Small = Soprano (or the slightly larger but less available Concert)

    Medium = Tenor

    Large = Baritone

    Try all three and decide which suits you best. This could be for physical reasons (large or small hands) or it might be the sound you prefer. Soprano and Tenor have the bouncy ukulele sound whereas the Baritone uke tends to be closer to a guitar – if that’s what you want.

    3. Build

    Look closely at all the points where the various parts of the instrument have been joined. Check out the frets. Are they straight and cleanly inserted into the fingerboard or raggedy looking? If all the wooden joins are smooth and pleasing to look at, it’s a visual sign that the maker has taken care.

    4. Looks

    Does it look good on you? It’s unfortunate but true that modern audiences listen as much with their eyes as with their ears. How your instrument looks will send a message to your audience about you and the music you’re about to play. A beautifully inlaid uke will say one thing and a bright pink uke will say another. It’s not really a huge deal though and, if you play well, people will eventually listen no matter what. Generally, I would say don’t choose your instrument according to the colour, that is unless it also fulfils the other qualities you’re looking for. 

    5. Sound

    With the uke facing you on the wall or on a stand, strum across the open strings. What does the sound make you think or feel? If you like the basic tone, that is a good starting point. Once you’re holding it and pressing the wood with the sound-hole pointed away, it will sound different again. However, some instruments lose their tone when you play them. Find out if the uke holds the tone all the way up the neck by pressing a finger across all four strings at some of the higher frets. Does the tone still sound full and ringing or has it become dull?  

    6. Balance

    Does it feel good to hold while resting easily in your arms? If the neck and headstock are too heavy for the body, the instrument will be constantly tipping to one side. It’s not necessarily a deal breaker, because you can use a strap to hold the uke in place, but is that what you want?

    7. Weight

    A beautiful-sounding ukulele has great resonance. It sounds loud and full and the sound carries on without disappearing right away. This happens because a good uke is made from thin wood that is free to vibrate thanks to well-placed bracing (thin pieces of internal supporting wood). The physical light weight of your instrument is a clue that it is well-made and potentially great sounding.  

    8. Tuners

    Check that the instrument holds its tuning. The tuning pegs need to be sturdy and tight while also being easy to adjust. Planetary tuners with their hidden gearing (1:4) make tuning quick and precise while still looking like friction pegs. There is nothing wrong with good friction pegs either, so long as they stay in place and don’t slip during the middle of a song or when you accidentally brush them with your finger. Guitar-style geared pegs (they may come out sideways from the headstock) work well too if good quality.

    9. Intonation

    There are several ways to check intonation and I offer this one as a way of doing a quick and easy test:

    Tune the strings. Then play a chord like say G7, or E minor, and notice if the string that is not being pressed sounds in tune with the 3 strings that are being played as part of the chord. Does it still sound sweet?

    Next move the chord up one fret with the fourth string still open. How does that sound? Move the chord all the way up the neck one fret at a time, strumming as you go. Even the discords along the way will sound sweet if the intonation is good. If it gets nasty and jarring, it means that the build of the uke is poor and the intonation is off. You will never sound good with this instrument no matter how how much you practice.

    But keep checking the open tuning of the strings. New strings have a tendency to stretch and need to be regularly retuned for the first few days. If the strings keep going out of tune, this will confuse the above intonation technique.

    (It’s worth noting that banjo ukuleles have a moveable bridge which can be adjusted to get good intonation. That is if all the frets have been well placed to begin with.)

    10. Research

    Find out what is available in your music shop within your price range and read reviews about the instruments you’ll be handling. You might discover a fine instrument that is also a reasonable price. But try several if you can. Some companies can be inconsistent in their quality and two identical-looking ukuleles may sound and feel quite different. 

    If you really want to get into research, then the variety of tone-woods, strings and building styles will provide you with a world of interest but essentially if you are happy with the sound, the look and the feel of your new ukulele, then you’ve made a good choice.

    Ralph

    This article first appeared in Ralph Shaw’s excellent Ukulele Entertainer eNewsletter. Sign up for it here: https://ralphshaw.ca/newsletter/

  • September 6, 2020

    Pro Tip: Thumbing It, By Jason Arimoto

    Growing up in Hawaii, my ukulele journey began in the fourth grade where we first learnt our basic chords – C, F, and G7. My passion for the instrument developed a few years later during a resurgence of ukulele playing in Hawaii. Israel Kamakawiwo‘ole had just released his Facing Future album, Ka’au Crater Boys came out with Valley Style and Pure Heart featuring Jake Shimabukuro and solo ukulele albums by Daniel Ho were looming on the horizon. The mid-’90s brought ukulele back to the forefront of the local airwaves in a stripped-down acoustic format where you could hear each artist hitting the strings and even breathing in the studio microphones in quieter sections. I would listen to these albums on repeat, inspired by their playing techniques, which I still use in my performances today. 

    In middle school, I was thrust into a new world on the opposite side of campus, where the cool kids were ukulele players and they were playing all the songs I loved listening to on the radio. Not only were they having fun jamming, but people were listening – more importantly, girls were listening and singing along. Now my calling was clear: I would be a ukulele player. 

    My ukulele at home was a Martin soprano passed down from my great-uncle, who had worn a thumb groove into the back of the neck in first position and had worn the frets nearly flat from playing. I set out on the daunting task of teaching myself to play, pre-internet. My cousin’s friend, who happened to be a guitar player, helped tighten up the tuning pegs so they would hold their tune. My dad showed me how to tune the instrument using the piano and taught me the Hawaiian Vamp – D7, G7, C. My family helped me set up my first ukulele, but no-one thought anything of my new-found musical interest as I’d failed miserably on other instruments from a lack of motivation and practice. 

    I would have to learn a few basics on my own before I would dare take my ukulele to school. This presented a few challenges: one, I didn’t have a chord book, and two, I was supposed to be doing my schoolwork. I quickly discovered the best way to play in secret was to use my thumb. Using the side of my thumb as opposed to the nail made for a nice fleshy surface with a rich, mellow tone that was pleasant, subtle and quiet. It was perfect for late-night practicing propped up in bed when I was supposed to be asleep or studying. 

    While practicing in secret, I surprised my parents a few months later by playing IZ’s version of Somewhere Over The Rainbow/What A Wonderful World off a photocopied chart from the Roy Sakuma school that I got for trading some choice baseball cards. Soon I was asked to play the song at every family party, wedding and funeral. The core of the IZ strum to me is the use of the thumb as a different tone in the strum. 

    Many flashy techniques use the index finger as the main strumming finger – the nail on the down-strum produces a brighter, harder sound that sonically cuts through. The techniques I enjoy playing the most use both thumb and finger in the strum. The juxtaposition of tones helps to create a more sophisticated sonic landscape and in many ways is easier to keep in time. 

    As an example, strum swung eighth notes using your index finger with down-strums falling on downbeats and up-strums on upbeats. Now accent the backbeat (beats two and four). You’ll notice you have to strum harder in order to accent. This change in velocity of your strum creates an accent, but also adds another variable to fall out of time. Now add a downbeat/down-strum with your thumb on beats one and three while keeping the finger down-strum on beats two and four. The trick is to use the same motion for both the thumb-strum and the finger-strum and let the different ‘picks’ create the accent. 

    The brighter nail sound of the finger on a down-strum will give you a natural accent without having to use as much effort. This translates to a more laidback-sounding strum and lets you play with more dynamic range because the thumb-strum can be made very quiet due to the fleshy nature of the thumb, while the nail of the index finger adds a loud and bright strum. Changes in volume and tone create a more textured sound, producing a more nuanced strum. This type of flow in a strum is one of the most magical sounds in ukulele playing. 

    For people new to using the thumb-strum, I usually recommend two practice approaches for incorporating the thumb-strum into your repertoire. First, use your thumb on downbeats only. Start with the thumb on quarter-note down-strums, then incorporate up-strums with your finger. Next, practice alternating thumb and finger on quarter-note down-strums, then incorporate up-strums with the finger. 

    The second approach is to use your thumb to play any of your go-to strum patterns. You’ll be using the side of your thumb on both the down and up-strums for a softer tone on both strums. Keep your thumb parallel to the strings and avoid using the nail on the up-strum – think of the feeling of swiping a touchscreen with your thumb. This will also ensure your wrist is relatively straight on the strum, which will help to minimise tension and strain and give you an even, mellow tone. Using your thumb on both the down and up-strums provides a tactile movement that will help you keep time by allowing you to physically feel the off-beats when incorporating both finger and thumb-strums. 

    I always use the example of listening to two very popular songs: IZ’s Somewhere Over The Rainbow/What A Wonderful World and Hey, Soul Sister by Train. One strum is nuanced with an interplay of all parts of the strumming hand, while the other has a more static feel. Both fit perfectly in their respective songs – the nuances of an IZ-style strum would be buried in a larger arrangement of a pop song like Hey, Soul Sister, but there is something beautiful and meditative about playing quietly and subtly late at night while propped up in bed using your thumb-strum on your ukulele. 

    This article first appeared in Issue 11 of KAMUKE, which is available in the Store

  • June 30, 2019

    Pro Tip: Triple Trouble

    By Cameron Murray

    The strumming technique I’m most often asked about is the triplet. I use it a lot in my own playing and it’s always well received. While it looks – and sounds – rather fancy, the mechanics are actually quite simple.

    As I tell my students, I can only explain the way I do it. Other players and teachers may have different ideas, which is fine – there’s usually more than one way to achieve the desired result.

    Unsurprisingly, the triplet is composed of three parts. It begins with a down stroke with the nail of the forefinger. Next, the pad (or fleshy part) of the thumb follows – also a down stroke. Finally, the nail of the thumb comes up. So, at its heart, it’s D-D-U. But there’s more to it than that. How you go about the movements is crucial to getting the sound you’re after.

    Let’s break it down even further. On the first down stroke, make sure you’re striking all four strings. Now, where is your thumb? If it’s hovering over the fretboard or, worse, below it, you’re going to have to move your entire hand back up for the second (thumb) down stroke. This will interrupt the flow of the strum and it just won’t feel right. So, how do you fix it? Simple. Just keep your thumb up and out of the way during the first down stroke. Maintain approximately a 7-10cm (3-4 inch) gap between your thumb and forefinger. Once your forefinger has completed the first stroke, your thumb should be ready to start the second.

    Onto the all-important up stroke. Many people advocate coming up with the forefinger, but I like to use the thumb. Reason being that the thumb is in the ideal position at the completion of the second down stoke to shoot back up the strings. This increases the speed and fluidity of the technique as a whole. If you go fast enough, the triplet becomes the ‘roll stroke’ with no beginning or end – a continuous motion that can add flavour to any chord progression.

    So there you have it, the triplet. No trouble at all!

    This article originally appeared in Issue 12 of KAMUKE, which is available in the Store

  • December 9, 2018

    PRO TIP: BEAT BASICS

    By Dan “Cool Hand Uke” Scanlan

    Among other things, the ukulele is a strum drum. A single tone — say one produced by clicking two rocks together — when played over and over in a rhythmic pattern is music. Perhaps the most rudimentary music.

    It behooves the ukulele player to visit this basic truth from time to time. Although there are many, many rhythms and time chunks, in this article I will stick with plain old 4/4. But the concepts we will look at can be applied to any time signature. Have a tuned ukulele in your hand and play along.

    Play the one-finger C chord (ring finger on the third fret of the A string). Strum down with your index finger and count out loud: 1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4…  Play this as evenly as you can for as long as you feel like it. This may seem like a silly step, but it’s actually very important. Play it long enough to feel you are laying down a nice, smooth, unruffled carpet of sound.

    Now we’re going to mess with it.

    Each time you play the 1 beat (the first beat of every measure), whip your finger energetically so the 1 beat stands out from the others: 1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4… Play this one-chord riff until you feel the drive of the syncopation. Might even help to shrug a shoulder or stomp a foot on the first beat. Do it until you own it.

    Cool. Now do the same thing with the second beat: 1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4… When you own that one, move on to the third beat, then the fourth.

    You’re not done with this part yet. Put the same energy — accent — onto beats one and three: 1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4… Remember to count out loud. Continue playing it until you feel it in your heart and soul.

    Finally, do the same exercise but accent beats two and four — Hey! Hey! Rock and Roll!

    What we have just done is demonstrate to ourselves that we have control over the accents in our playing. We get to determine the personality of our strum.

    But there’s much more we can do.

    In our meanderings above, we accented certain beats by simply strumming harder and louder. But check this out — instead of striking the accented beat with an energetic index finger, try accenting it with a gentle sweep of your thumb. To really get a sense of this dynamic, start simply with an unaccented 1-2-3-4; after you’ve got it rolling, accent the first beat with a gentle thumb stroke. Though the accent is on the same beat(s) as before with the energetic index finger, the music now has an entirely different feeling or attitude. Even though it’s not brash like before, it is still an accent, a syncopation. The fat, fleshy thumb spreads out the notes, whereas the index finger sounds the strings almost in unison. It’s like the difference between a wall and a picket fence — there’s air.

    Now here’s the thing, the basic truth about ukulele rhythm — it’s up to the player to decide what beats to accent when, and what to use to do it. In this lesson, we only looked at two accent strokes — the strong index finger and the thumb. There are numerous strokes a player can use to get the feeling he or she wants, but the job is always the same: to express one’s unique self and feelings by accenting pulses on the beat.

    This article first appeared in Issue 5 of KAMUKE, which is available here: Store

    Dan recently wrote a great how-to book, which you can read about here: Review

  • June 30, 2017

    KEEPING THE GROOVE

    By Victoria Vox

    AS I mindfully listen to other ukulele players, I’m often drawn to the groove. At this year’s Vancouver Ukulele Festival, Daphne Roubini (of Ruby’s Ukes) performed a song she wrote and explained it was to teach beginner players those first few chords. She established a rhythm, never rushing, and held her basic strumming in the pocket. It was absolutely beautiful and I forgot she was playing a straight up C chord most of the time.

    The truth is, what she did was quite difficult. Since I began teaching ukulele workshops in 2008, I’ve noticed how much people rush, vary the tempo, skip a beat or add a few when trying to accomplish some fancy fingering or rhythm.

    I’d like to compare playing a song to riding a bike. I’ve done a fair bit of cycling in the past few years and have learnt so much about efficiency, stamina and rhythm. This boils down to what cyclists call a cadence. (Musically, a cadence is defined as the movement of melody or chords that create a sense of resolution.) I learnt, in finding my cadence, to never stop pedalling and that I need to change gears, especially on hilly landscapes, to keep the same pedalling speed. The point is to maintain a groove. Once one stops the circular pedalling motion, it’s that much harder to get back into it.

    Playing ukulele is similar. When we’re learning something new, we naturally slow down at the challenging parts. However, practicing this way can affect the future performance of the song. Try practicing with a metronome at a tempo you can easily play the difficult chords or strum, even if the easier sections seem painfully slow. It’ll sound much better than slowing down for the hard parts and speeding up during the familiar areas.

    Keeping the groove at a slower tempo helps me understand the beats I am playing. I like to subdivide the beats mentally (into sixteenth notes) so every beat is accounted for equally. Also, it might help to imagine the drums and bass.

    The bottom line is, play whatever you’re going to play in time, be it super simple or fretted fancifully. Take your time. Give it feeling. They’ll all be screaming, “Groovy, baby!”

    Grab a copy of Victoria’s groovy new album When The Night Unravels at victoriavox.com

    Photo by Philip Edward Laubner

    This article first appeared in Issue 9 of KAMUKE, which is available in the Store