Solo crash course

Hint: This little crash course is not intended to replace a teacher. It is targeted at the autodidactic, dedicted beginner who has a certain degree of self-initiative and the will to learn autonomously. Even an autodidact does well to look for real-world contact to other players and teachers!

You want to learn playing the ukulele — but you wnt more than just strumming some chords? Here’s my little crash course for solo ukulele! A complete beginner may find this approach a bit more difficult than pure chord accompaniment — but not impossible. Many methods for Guitar begin with melody playing as well, after all.

This crash course is part of my beginner’s guide (which is pretty substantial already IMHO).

Preparation

For this crash course you need a decent ukulele with good setup. It should be tuned in re-entrant GCEA tuning (that is: GCEA tuning with high G string).

Download the free e-book Erste Übungsstücke für Solo Ukulele. It contains the music used in the lessons of this crash course. I’ll also refer to my introduction to tablature and notation in the lessons of this course.

Just before you start with the lessons, you should consider tuning your ukulele once more.

Please also heed my advice regarding posture, right hand technique and how to practice.

Crash course video

For the really hurried: In this video tutorial for the christmas carol “Silent Night” I’m explaining the most essential elements of my playing technique: (be sure to activate the English subtitles!)

However, if you really want to learn this in-depth, you should work through the following lessons. It’s not necessary to watch the video in this case.

Chapters

Chapter 1: Arpeggiated chord solos

Chapter 2: Campanella playing

Chapter 3: Open chord inversions

Chapter 4: Playing in two voices

Chapter 5: Breaking barriers