How to Choose The Best Ukulele For You

The first step you need to take in order to play an instrument is to own one!
You can buy it in your local music store, borrow or buy used one from a friend or order it online. Don’t worry ukulele won’t cost much it is one of the cheaper smallest string based instrument you can buy, keep on reading and I will help you find the best ukulele for you.

The reason I fell in love with ukulele is because I could take it anywhere I wanted. Vacations, trips, to a friends hangaround and more. Next thing is that the ukulele sound, no matter how I felt, always cheered me up it has a positive optimist vibe to it just try for your self. Last thing, I fairly think that ukulele is the easiest string instrument to play, if you take a classic Spanish guitar as an example you have more strings to use which are harder to push and more complex patterns to play and remember. If you tried guitar and failed you can start again with ukulele and than come back to guitar if you still wants to.

Ukulele reviews

I would like to help you choose the best ukulele for you, after a long time playing the ukulele I can definitely filter up those that are cheaper and not recommended to waste your time with and those that are too expensive and not worth it.

Best Cheap Ukulele – Diamond Head DU-150 Ukulele, Natural

In a price like this you can’t expect to get the best sound or a really great quality wooden body but this one will do it for starters and for those who are looking for ukulele to take to the beach and keep the expensive one at home.

Pros:
-You can play this ukulele as a starter learn some songs play with your friends and decide later if it’s the right instrument for you or if you would like to upgrade it to a better ukulele.
-You can take it to the beach and don’t care so much who plays it and if it got some sand inside of it.

Cons:
-Its gets out of tune quickly
-The C string sound a bit cheap.

Score: 7.5/10
Price: $27.90 in amazon ($39.90 street price)

Best Ukulele For Mid Level Player – Kala KA-15S Mahogany Soprano Ukulele

This Ukulele is one of my favorites, its has a great sound for the price, the body of the ukulele is 100% mahogany and it feels really great in your hands when you play it. I wouldn’t recommend it only for beginners but also for anyone who wants to upgrade to a really nice quality ukulele that isn’t cost too much.

Pros:
-Great sustaining sound
-Doesn’t gets out of tune a lot
-Great value for your money
-Nice grip and feeling in 100% mahogany wood

Cons:
-Not good enough if you are planning on recording
-Little heavy, some people don’t like that

Score: 9/10
Price: $52.00 on amazon ($79.90 street price)

My Favorite And Current Ukulele – Oscar Schmidt OU5 Concert Ukulele

This last ukulele I choose to show you is what I am playing on right now and over 5 years. I have two of them one for trips and one for home.
I have to tell you that I fell in love with their sound and felling and I don’t think I will ever change them into something else.

Pros:
-Great deep crispy sound
-Fine grip, doesn’t fall or slide
-You can do recording with this one
-Came with a nice set up and you can play it right from the box.

Cons:
-Expensive

Score: 9.5

Price: $136.90 on amazon ($199.90 street price)

 

So those are the best ukulele I got to try, I hoped it helped you with to choose your instrument and you will have a great time playing and learning. Welcome to the world of the Ukulele!

Easy Ukulele Chords

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When a beginner starts playing a ukulele, he/she faces some difficulties to use the appropriate chords to play the ukulele.  But for a beginner there are a number of easy ukulele chords. Because it’s not possible for a beginner to use the more complex chords at the very beginning of his/her learning. If a beginner learns the ways to use easy ukulele chords, he/she can use the more complex chords afterwards. Therefore the first thing needed for a beginner is to play ‘jazzy’ chords more. When a beginner learns the ways to tackle those easy ukulele chords, it becomes easier for the beginner to play the standard chords. In this article a number of easy ukulele chords will be shown that needs just only one finger to play them. And one amazing fact is that there are two very easy ukulele chords that need no fingers at all.

At first a beginner needs to learn the ways to play is the C chord. To play This C chord a beginner needs to put his/her ring finger on the string a is the nearest one at the third fret. The person has to put his/her finger on the string which is between the second and third fret bar from the neck end of the ukulele. Except this strings all the other strings are all played in the open position. According to ukulele terms, this chord is written as 0003.

The next chord to learn for a beginner is the Am chord. In short this chord is known A minor. This Am chord is played by using the middle finger on the second fret of the string G which is the one nearest the person’s head. Besides this string all the other strings are played in the open position. This chord is written as 2000.

The open string chords are another easy ukulele chords. If the person is feeling particularly lazy, he can strum all the strings of ukulele open. This will give the person a chord which he can see in two ways. Either it may be a C6 chord or it may be an Am7 chord. The chord can make a wonderful substitute for the C chord when the chord is a C6 and for Am when the chord is an Am7. Therefore if a beginner sees either a C chord or an Am chord listed in a chord chart, he/she can play all the strings open and that will create more jazzy tunes. It will also give rest to the fingers of the person.

The A7 chord can be played using just one finger which is another standard ukulele chord which is easy to play. The person needs to place his/her index finger or the pointer if he/she prefers on the first fret of the string C which is the second string down. This A7 chord can make an excellent substitute for the chord A in the songs which are in the key of D.

The Fsus2 chord is a very jazzy sounding chord, so the person has to be a little bit careful while he uses it. This Fsus2 chord is played by putting the index finger or the pointer on the first fret of the string E. To use this chord nicely the appropriate way is to switch between Fsus2 and F while playing the ukulele. Zack Condon of Beirut often uses this as a trick.

So some of the easy ukulele chords are shown in this article. If a person is willing to use these chords to play a ukulele then there’s simply nothing that can stop him/her physically playing them. Therefore a beginner needs to focus on the chords carefully and try to follow the ways of using the chords.

 

Easy Songs to play on Ukulele

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The ukulele is one of the simplest musical instruments . It is quite easier to pick up and play than most of the instruments. But that doesn’t always mean a person is going to make great tunes the first time he/she picks up and plays songs on a ukulele. The way to play songs on a ukulele is faster to learn than most of the  musical instruments. If a person has the desire to learn the ways to play songs on a ukulele and practice accordingly then he/she can easily learn the ways to play songs on a ukulele.  The common thing that each and everyone wants to do as soon as possible is to play their first songs by playing his/her ukulele.  In this article a list of  easy ukulele songs for beginners will be shown with the ways to play songs on a ukulele.

The most important thing is to choose the song according to the chords he/she has learn.And choosing the appropriate song is not an easy task. So what a person needs to do is to select a song ,collect the necessary information about the chords and then practice more and more. Before that it is very much necessary for the person is learn about the basic chords. Because without having the basic knowledge the person simply doesn’t understand the chords for the song he chose.The three ukulele songs for beginners which are considered to be pretty easy to play are taken from the famous Disney movie “Jungle Book”. The title of those songs are -Somewhere over the rainbow, Happy Birthday and I want to Be Like You.

According to Most of the people the above three songs are considered as backdated songs to play. The people always want to play songs on a ukulele which are new and very much popular. Once a person  learns to use some of the chords like C, F, and G he can go ahead to play a huge number of songs. Nowadays most of the people considered the song by Noah and the Whale titled as “Five years time”, “This Too Shall Pass” by OK Go etc. as the most popular songs to play with a ukulele. . Recently these two songs are very popular and are more likely to impress the people when a man play those. Because most of the people do not expect these songs to play from a beginner ukulele player. Though these songs are quite easy to play.

Actually the main factor is that the more chord a person adds to his knowledge database, the more songs he/she will be able to play with his/her ukulele. Learning a few more chords a person will be able to play a more number of songs more than the songs listed above. The man will be able to try more harder songs . The song by Addams titled as “Family Theme” is a very popular song. Besides there are more songs by Vampire Weekend titled as “Oxford Comma”, by Kate Nash titled as “Foundations” and a lot more songs to play with a ukulele. Another great song to play with a ukulele is “Creep” by Radiohead  which this song was covered on the ukulele.

Once a person starts learning some more chords, he/she will definitely be able to play songs on a ukulele which are a bit difficult.  The best way to add more chord to one’s memory is to collect the chords of that song from various tutorials and practice them more and more The tutorials of the most of the songs are available on the internet. So it is not a difficult task to collect the necessary chords from the tutorials. Finally it is said that some people are found who have a tough time with a song but that was marked as “easy” on the top the tutorials. The person should not get panic with that. Because that simply means that the person needs to give some more time time to learn the chords of that song.

 

Learning to Play a Ukulele

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Now a day’s Ukulele becomes one of the popular instruments to play. If someone is having a ukulele or he is interested in buying one then first what he needs to know is to play a ukulele. Because most of the men do not have the knowledge how to begin or even where to begin. So proper guidance and training make it easier to know how to play a ukulele. And for this purpose it is not necessary to spend a huge amount of money rather by spending a small amount of money and time a man can easily be learning to play a ukulele.

Actually a ukulele is a guitar which is very small in size. There is an island in Portugal called Madeira where the ukulele was originated. In Portuguese language this instrument is known as “braguinha”. Hundred years back some travelers of the island of Madeira visited in Hawaii. At that time some of the craftsmen saw this instrument being played by the Portuguese. They were fascinated and started to produce ukulele for the Hawaiians. The actual meaning of the instrument “ukulele,” is “jumping flea.” The instrument ukulele is also called “uke” in short form. A ukulele is not like a guitar. Because they are different from guitars in many ways. A ukulele is usually very light in weight and therefore they can be carried quite easily. As a ukulele has fewer strings, it is simply an easy task to learn the ways to play a ukulele. The strings are easier on the fingers. As there are a few strings so a limited number of notes can be played by a ukulele. This ukulele is simply great for the musicians who just want simplicity in their music. This ukulele is still a very popular instrument in Hawaii and is being exported to various countries of the world. Because this instrument catches the attention of the large number of musicians .Because the tones made by a ukulele in unique.

Before going to the learning techniques to play a ukulele a person needs to have the knowledge on the types of ukulele. There are four Types of ukuleles which are available in the market. They are known as tenor, concert, baritone, and soprano. The soprano ukulele is the most commonly used type’s ukulele. Except the baritone, the rest three types of ukuleles are tuned by using the familiar tune “my dog has fleas!” This tune is created by hitting the keys G, C, E in a sequence and then by hitting the key A. The tenor type is a bit different from the soprano. It is just one octave down from the soprano. The baritone type of ukulele is tuned by hitting the keys in the order -E, B, G, and D. Now a day’s some hybrid ukulele is also being produced, for example the ukelin, taropatch (an eight-stringed instrument) and the banjulele (banjo body). These high quality ukuleles are usually produced by the musical instrument companies. Therefore the prices for these ukuleles are affordable. The size of the hybrid ukuleles is also very small. The soprano ukuleles are the smallest which is about 21 inches long. Followed by the baritone ukulele is 30 inches long, the concert ukulele is about 23 inches long and finally the tenor ukulele is 26 inches long. The two hybrid ukulele baritone and tenor are more similar to normal-sized guitars. The only difference is that they have just four strings.

After having the knowledge on the types of ukulele it’s time for a person to learn the exclusive ways to play a ukulele. With a brand new ukulele a number of instruction papers are given to the buyer. So a person gets a huge amount of theoretical instructions, music sheets, chord sheets and some of the video disks for learning the ways to play a ukulele. But the true fact is that those instructions or the video provided by the ukulele producers are not enough to learn the ways play a ukulele. A person needs to watch more videos which are available Ukulele YouTube videos. But sometimes the YouTube videos are not still enough to learn to play a ukulele perfectly. At that time a proper and perfect guideline was necessary to learn the ways to play a ukulele.

Therefore a person might step in Nick Night and his Online Music Interactive course. In that course software is designed to help beginner but this software is also helpful for the experienced players because they can improve their ability to play a ukulele. Nick is a very talented ukulele Hedonist, a celebrity performer and an excellent animator and finally the creator of a number of games. Nick has created one of the quickest growing and most popular music software courses which are available on the internet.

If anyone follows these ways then that person can learn the ways to play a ukulele nicely and effectively.