Music · Ukulele

Ukulele

Four strings, a few easy chords, and you’re playing. Short chapters with diagrams to press and hear, strums that play, and Hawaiian songs along the way.

The course has two parts. Chapters 1 to 14 are for beginners: the parts of the ukulele and its story, holding and tuning it, chord charts and tab, your first chords and strums, picking tunes, 3/4 time and the Hawaiian vamp. Chapters 15 to 24 are intermediate: the fretboard and scales, minor keys, barre chords, low-G tuning, more strums, fingerpicking, chord melody, ragtime-era style and the great Hawaiian songs.

Each chapter takes about ten minutes. Read a little, then try it: on your own ukulele, or on the diagrams and fretboards here, which play when you press them. Tune up first with the tuner, and look up any chord in the chord finder.

Your progress stays in this browser, and a check mark shows each chapter you’ve finished.

The chapters

  1. Chapter 1: Meet the UkuleleThe parts of a ukulele, the four sizes, and the four strings, G, C, E and A, with the high G that gives the ukulele its sound.
  2. Chapter 2: Where the Ukulele Comes FromHow a small Portuguese instrument, the machete, arrived in Hawaiʻi in 1879 and became the ʻukulele, with the help of three Madeiran craftsmen and King Kalākaua.
  3. Chapter 3: Holding the UkuleleHow to sit or stand with a ukulele, where each hand goes, how to press a string cleanly, and how to look after your hands while you learn.
  4. Chapter 4: Tuning G C E ATune your ukulele with the tuner, by ear from reference notes, or string to string with the 5th, 4th and 7th frets.
  5. Chapter 5: Reading Chord ChartsHow to read a ukulele chord diagram: the strings, the frets, the dots and finger numbers, open strings, and what the left-handed view changes.
  6. Chapter 6: Reading TabUkulele tablature: four lines for four strings, numbers for frets, and the rhythm written under the tab. With notation above it, so you can learn both.
  7. Chapter 7: First Chords: C and AmYour first two chords, C and A minor, each with one finger, and your first song-length practice: four down strums per chord.
  8. Chapter 8: F and G7: Three Chords, Many SongsAdd F and G7 to C, the three chords of the key of C, and practice changing between them in time.
  9. Chapter 9: Strumming Down and UpEighth-note strumming: down on the beat, up on the “and,” with a hand that never stops moving. Plus misses, the key to every strum pattern.
  10. Chapter 10: The Island StrumThe ukulele’s best-loved strum: down, down-up, (miss), up-down-up. Learn it in pieces, then play it with C, Am, F and G7.
  11. Chapter 11: Picking a TunePlay single notes: the notes of the first three frets, picking with the thumb or index finger, and your first tunes from tab.
  12. Chapter 12: G, D7 and Em: the Key of GThe G chord, D7 and E minor: the main chords of the key of G, with tips for the trickier shapes and a song in G.
  13. Chapter 13: Waltz Time: Three Beats to a BarSongs in 3/4 time and how to strum them: the waltz pattern with a thumb note on beat 1, a busier version with up strums, and a pickup note.
  14. Chapter 14: The Hawaiian VampThe little chord turn that starts, ends and links so many Hawaiian songs: D7–G7–C in C, A7–D7–G in G. Learn it, hear why it works, and play a tune that ends with it.
  15. Chapter 15: Finding Notes on the FretboardHalf steps and whole steps on one string, sharps and flats, the 12th fret octave, and a way to find any note on the ukulele’s neck.
  16. Chapter 16: The Major ScaleThe major scale’s pattern of whole and half steps, the C and G major scales on the ukulele, and how scales connect to the chords you know.
  17. Chapter 17: Minor Keys and Minor ChordsMinor chords and the minor keys: Am, Dm and E7 in A minor; Em, Am and B7 in E minor; and how a major chord becomes minor.
  18. Chapter 18: Barre Chords and Movable ShapesLay one finger across several strings: B♭, Bm and B7, and how one shape slid up the neck gives you a whole family of chords.
  19. Chapter 19: Low-G TuningSwap the high G string for a low one: what changes, what stays the same, and the extra notes it gives you for tunes.
  20. Chapter 20: The Chunk and More StrumsThe chunk (a muted, percussive strum), accents, the 6/8 lilt and a swung shuffle: four ways to give your strumming more rhythm and color.
  21. Chapter 21: FingerpickingPick the strings one at a time with thumb and fingers: one finger per string, three picking patterns, and a fingerpicked waltz.
  22. Chapter 22: Tune and Chord TogetherChord melody: play the tune as the top note of each chord, so one ukulele carries both. The first phrase of Amazing Grace, worked out step by step.
  23. Chapter 23: Ragtime-Era UkuleleThe ukulele craze of the 1910s and 1920s: swung strums, the ragtime chord chain E7–A7–D7–G7–C, and Scott Joplin’s The Entertainer on four strings.
  24. Chapter 24: Hawaiian SongsThe songs of Queen Liliʻuokalani and King Kalākaua, Hawaiʻi Ponoʻī and Hawaiʻi Aloha, the old D tuning, and how to play Hawaiian music with respect. With the chords of Aloha ʻOe to strum.

Keep going with the ukulele songs, from beginner to intermediate. Ukulele songs →

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