I am often asked by new players what books / videos / courses I would recommend.
I thought it might be helpful to summarise what I have replied with - so I can point people to this blog post in future! To be honest… I really should have done this before, as I’ve typed a version of this out in countless emails before now!
It’s great of course if you can get face to face teaching, but that’s often not possible, the cost might be prohibitive and these days, plenty of people want to learn by themselves too. Luckily there are vast resources to draw from online. That’s the good news. The bad news is there’s plenty of poor stuff out there too! I taught myself to play and I did lots of things wrong… so if I was to do a course teaching ukulele, I’d be passing on my bad habits. So I don’t. But plenty of people do. And there’s a phenomenon of ‘I can play three chords, so I’m going to teach!’ out there too.
If you’re looking for a introductory YouTube course, I’d start with Phil Doleman’s Complete Beginners Ukulele.
You can see a playlist of these videos here.
Phil is Mr Ukulele in the UK… he’s been playing for many years, well before the latest wave of ukulele popularity, and is a talented musician using the uke and other instruments as well. He understands theory and is a really clear teacher. That last part is crucial - he can explain things clearly and at a sensible pace.
So many times I, a player since 2010, have watched a video and had to pause and rewind a video when someone says rapidly something that sounds like, ‘OK and now we just add the augmented diminished 5th’, and quickly contorts their fingers into an odd shape that leaves me baffled. As a beginner that’s much worse, of course! Phil takes things slowly and points out critical things, things that seem obvious once you know how (how to hold, where to strum etc.), but if you’re totally new? Well, you need to know these things.
Another thing that I’d recommend is Jim’s Ukulele Songbook. This is a free download, a massive collection of songs that have been worked out for the ukulele and shared. You can download that here.
The contents pages at the start is many, many pages long for a start - with an alphabetised list of artists, of all types, and usually multiple songs for each. Each page has chord diagrams on it, small grids with dots on to show you where to put your fingers. I think it is a good way to start playing, if you’re on your own, and make some music. Pick your favourite artist, look up a song you know when, and dive straight in. Even if you can only manage it slowly, or part of a song only, it’s really rewarding to hear what you play sound like a song you recognise. It’s great learning what to do - but it’s encouraging to actually make some music!
The benefit of knowing the song is you have an idea of what it should sound like. So if you put your fingers where the diagram says, it’ll sound familiar. And if you get a chord shape wrong, it’ll sound wrong - and you’ll know you have to correct something.
I would do this myself, right at the start, and quickly discover some songs had too many chords, chords I found too hard, or a combination of both (often with the dreaded E chord in, which is a bit tricky!). I’d give them a go, try and get them right, and then before I got bored or frustrated, move on to something else. Something easier perhaps. There are so many songs you can’t fail to find a selection that you can enjoy and get to the end of, before long. But I’d go back to those hard songs each time, and try those difficult parts again, but never for so long I wanted to give up entirely!
With these resources, I’m using links to external sites that I don’t control the contents of - so if Phil or Jim moves things about, and I don’t know… then the links might not work. So, if you read this and find the links don’t work anymore, let me know and I’ll find them and refresh them.
There are of course, many other excellent resources out there. If you have enjoyed one - leave a comment below with what has helped you.
Thank you,
Matt