Last summer I decided to learn to play the ukulele. It’s small, and I’m small, so we seemed like a good pairing. Since I have no formal musical training (unless you count some tin whistle in primary school, and a few weeks of singing lessons, which I don’t), this was a little bit of a journey into the unknown for me.

Buying A Ukulele

The first step in learning to play the ukulele is, of course, acquiring one. I bought a Laka VUS50 soprano uke with built-in tuner. Though this wasn’t by any means the cheapest ukulele available, it didn’t break the bank either (I spent around 80 euro). As for the sound quality and feel of my beloved ukulele, I couldn’t be happier — it’s a brilliant uke for its price… and as a beginner, the built-in tuner has proved incredibly handy.

Beginning To Play

My main memory of my first attempts at learning the ukulele was a constant feeling of my fingers getting into knots with each other. When I could strum, I couldn’t make chord changes; when I could make chord changes, I certainly couldn’t strum — and the idea of strumming, changing chords and singing at the same time seemed like an impossibility…

Thanks Hyperbole and Half

After floundering for a while, I decided to set my goal on mastering a single strumming pattern. The strumming pattern I chose was a versatile 8 beat pattern, one that I knew I could use to play a wide variety of songs: D-DU -UDU (D = a downstroke, U= an upstroke). I practiced this incessantly until I could play it quickly (or slowly) and without hesitation (my neighbours must have despised me).

Here’s a video for learning that simple strum:

As my strumming became more comfortable, I started to practice basic chord transitions, mostly a lot of easy commonly used chords — Ams, Cs, Fs and Gs, with a few Cmaj7s, Ds and Ems thrown in for good measure. Ukuguides has a nice little guide to some basic chords… or here’s a more extensive chord chart.

I thought I was doing pretty well at this stage, and so it became time to tackle some songs…

Songs

Over the course of my intermittent year of learning, I’ve attempted many songs. At first, I struggled to play anything — finding the act of strumming and singing at the same time almost impossible. Today, most songs are still beyond my skill level, but there are a few that I like to think that I’ve become relatively competent at… My performance of these songs still leaves plenty of room for improvement — and hardly lives up to the originals — but I’m willing to play these for company, and I feel like that’s decent progress. Have a listen!

Anyone Else But You by the Mouldy Peaches

Links: Original on Spotify, Original on Youtube

My Strumming Pattern: D-DU -UDU

Chords: Chords on Ukutabs

This is the first song that I learned… and I struggled for weeks to play it competently, despite its incredible simplicity. This is the perfect song for absolute novices: you’ve only got to master 2 simple chords, G and Cmaj7. It’s ridiculously easy to transition between these two chords on ukulele (no finger gymnastics here)… this means you can practice strumming and singing (at the same time!) without having to stress over chord changes.

On The Radio by Regina Spektor

Links: Original on Spotify, Original on Youtube

My Strumming Pattern: D-DU -UDU

Chords: Chords on Ukutabs

This is another great song for beginners to learn! It gave me a helpful confidence boost in my earliest days of learning ukulele. The chords are almost ridiculously simple. Each verse consists of a CGAF progression, with chord changes occurring neatly at the beginning of each line of the 4 line verses. I found chord changes mid-line to be impossibly difficult in my early days (I still find them challenging at times). As you can see, I currently play the entire song with the basic D-DU-UDU strumming pattern (which I’ve come to rely on rather (too) heavily).

Do You Love An Apple? (Irish Traditional)

Links: Bothy Band version on Spotify, Bothy Band version on Youtube

Strumming Pattern: D-DU -UDU

Chords: Chords on TraditionalMusic.co.uk

If you are looking for simple songs, Irish traditional music has a lot to offer. Do You Love An Apple? is a song that I have strong memories of from my childhood — a love song of sorts, but with an underlayer of sadness, lost potential, that has always struck a chord with me. I was glad to find it was so easy to play.

I tend to play this song with an Ams in place of the Am7s, not for any particular reason — perhaps it’s a habit I should break. Oh yeah, and there’s that strumming pattern again!

Ring Of Fire by June Carter and Merle Kilgore

Links: Johnny Cash on Spotify, Johnny Cash on Youtube

Strumming Pattern: D-DU -UDU

Chords: Chords on Ukutabs

This is best known as performed by Johnny Cash of course. Simple chords make this a great song for beginners… and it’s another song that works well my favourite 8 beat strum.

Holland 1945 by Neutral Milk Hotel

Links: Original on Spotify, Original on Youtube

Strumming Pattern: D-DU -UDU

Chords: Chords on Ukutabs

Get lost in an intoxicating land of comet riders and fiery pianos! This song may be a little bit more challenging for absolute beginners. Though it uses just 3 simple chords, its fast pace makes it harder to master. I wouldn’t recommend attempting this songs until you are truly comfortable strumming away with abandon — but if you’ve perfected the D-DU -UDU strum that I keep talking about, this song should be a breeze for you to pick up.

All The World Is Green by Tom Waits

Links: Original on Spotify, Original on Youtube

Strumming Pattern: D-D- D-D-

Chords: Chords on Ultimate Guitar

I’ve loved Tom Waits for years, but find that many of his songs are too challenging for me to play. This one I can just about manage, and it just so happens to be a favourite of mine.

In order to play this song at my current skill level, I’ve simplified the two most tricksy chords:

for the F7s, I play Fs

for the E7s, I omit 1 finger placement of the 3 required for this chord. I do not bother to place a finger on the bottom (A) string.

While these changes might remove a little of the song’s ‘edge’, I don’t find it really suffers too greatly. I do aim to switch back to the correct chords as my playing improves. Currently, even with these simplifications, I stumble over chord changes. And for once, I’ve tried a different strumming pattern! Huzzah!

An Original

I composed a song!

I Have Sailed On The Riverbed (Original)

Strumming Pattern: D-DU -UDU

Chords: ‘Show more’ on description on Soundcloud to see chords

I wrote the words and invented the melody for this song many years ago. Learning the ukulele seemed like a great opportunity to add some simple instrumentation to my composition. It’s a simple song, but I’m proud to have created a little ukulele piece of my own.

A Jam Session

I love jamming away on my ukulele, and inventing (very silly) spontaneous songs. Regrettably, most are lost to the depths of time, but here’s one that got recorded. Enjoy this strange (potentially embarrassing) view into my private ukulele life.

Artisanal Ginger Ale

It was a summer’s evening — I was drinking ostensibly fancy ginger ale. This song is an ode to all the hipsters out there, and to that ginger ale. Incidentally, don’t buy artisanal ginger ale (especially for artisanal prices)— it is very disappointing. Maybe I’ll turn this into a ‘proper’ song one day — I might even add a verse or two to go with the chorus…

Looking Back On A Year Of Ukulele

To an extent, I’ve coasted through the year on basic skills that I picked up in the initial burst of effort that I put into learning the ukulele. Since I spent most of the last year working like a devil in my day job, my ukulele practice was intermittent at best… at times I went for a month or more without ever picking up my uke.

My slow progress over the last year has left with many aspirations for my ukulele playing… learning more strumming patterns, exploring fingerpicking, getting formal ukulele and singing lessons, learning some musical theory and (probably too) much more. I’m doing my best to pace myself — sometimes thinking over long lists of goals can make my head spin a little.

Though on some level I regret that I didn’t manage to make more progress in the last year, I like to see things in a positive light… For the amount of practice I did manage (not very much), I think my progress has been respectable. My skill are good enough that it feels realistic to learn and master new material. I learned enough to make playing the ukulele something fun, rather than frustrating or stressful. Most important of all, I’ve enjoyed myself all along the way.

Thanks for reading about my year of ukulele! Stay tuned for my next report on my ukulele adventures… (If you’d like to keep track of progress in the mean time, consider following my Soundcloud account.)