Brett McQueen is a musician, songwriter and the founder of [...], one of the most popular ukulele sites in the world, where he provides audio, video, and written instructional material (along with personalised feedback) to freshly minted ukulele fans everywhere. Alistair Wood is the man (the myth and the legend) behind [...] and the author of Ukulele For Dummies.

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Conventions Used in This Book 2

What You're Not to Read 2

Foolish Assumptions 3

How This Book Is Organised 3

Part I: Getting Started with Ukulele Exercises 3

Part II: Becoming a Better Strummer 3

Part III: Becoming a Better Fingerpicker 4

Part IV: Mastering the Ukulele Fretboard 4

Part V: The Part of Tens 4

Accessing the Audio Tracks 4

Icons Used in This Book 5

Where to Go from Here 5

Part I: Getting Started with Ukulele Exercises 7

Chapter 1: Preparing to Practise 9

Equipping Yourself with the Right Practice Tools 9

Tuning up with a chromatic tuner 9

Keeping time with a metronome 10

Tracking your progress with a practice journal 10

Reviewing Ukulele Notation 11

Deciphering tablature 11

Understanding chord diagrams 12

Comprehending neck diagrams 13

Reading rhythm charts 13

Chapter 2: Warming Up for Practice 15

Limbering Up Your Body to Play Ukulele 15

Loosening up with stretches 15

Relaxing with breathing exercises 16

Strengthening your hands with exercises 16

Brushing Up on Perfect Playing Posture 17

Looking at Some Warm-Up Exercises on the Ukulele 17

Practising single-note exercises 17

Practising chord exercises 19

Part II: Becoming a Better Strummer 23

Chapter 3: Foundations For Strumming 25

Working Out Your Strumming Technique 25

Choosing the right strumming technique 26

Strumming with your index finger 26

Strumming with your thumb 27

Strumming with four fingers 27

Getting Acquainted With the Golden Rules of Strumming 28

Rule #1: Strumming is consistent 28

Rule #2: Strumming is relaxed 29

Rule #3: Strumming is intentional 30

Finding the Right Strumming Pattern for Any Song 30

Building a strumming repertoire 30

Listening to the song 31

Counting the song 31

Starting with down strums 31

Knowing when to change chords 32

Singing and Strumming at the Same Time 32

Playing the song through without singing 32

Humming first, singing later 32

Simplifying isn't a bad thing 32

Chapter 4: Building a Repertoire of Strumming Patterns 33

Discovering How to Use These Exercises to Become a Better Strummer 33

Mastering the Universal Strumming Pattern 34

Counting along with down strums 34

Keeping the beat with up strums 35

Combining down and up strums 35

Application song: 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' 36

Tackling Common Time Strumming Patterns 37

Developing eighth note strums 37

Building a multi-purpose strumming pattern 38

Practising chord changes on different beats 39

Application song: 'Jingle Bells' 40

Making Common Time Strumming Patterns More Interesting 41

Accenting the beat 42

Using syncopation in three different ways 43

Rearranging up strums to create different feels 45

Application song: 'I've Been Working On the Railroad' 47

Waltzing Along With 3/4 Time Signature Strumming Patterns 48

Practising versatile 3/4 strumming patterns 48

Application song: 'Oh My Darling, Clementine' 49

Getting More Advanced With 6/8 Time Signature Strumming Patterns 50

Developing delightful 6/8 strumming patterns 51

Application song: 'O Holy Night' 52

Chapter 5: Taking Strumming Patterns to a Higher Level 55

Getting Groovy With Shuffle Rhythms 55

Finding the pocket with shuffle rhythm exercises 56

'Swing Low, Sweet Chariot' 57

Strumming Faster Without Getting Sloppier 58

Working on relaxing strumming movements 58

Minimizing wasted strumming motion 59

Drawing up a plan to improve strumming speed 59

'Hello! Ma Baby' 60

Showing Off Subdivided Strumming Patterns 61

Souping up your strumming with sixteenth notes 62

Trying out triplet strums 63

Putting the pedal down with speed rhythm exercises 64

Making Your Strumming Dynamic 66

Playing loudly and softly 66

Varying rhythmic complexity 67

'Oh! Susanna' 67

Recognising Offbeat Chord Changes 68

Switching to chords on offbeats 69

Variation on the 12 bar blues 69

Switching Chords Without Interrupting Your Strumming 70

Setting up a chord change 70

'O Little Town of Bethlehem' 71

Chapter 6: Refining Advanced Strumming Techniques 73

Playing Percussively With Two Muting Techniques 73

Developing your 'chnking' technique 74

Figuring out fret hand muting 75

' Michael, Row the Boat Ashore' 77

Perfecting Alternative Strumming Techniques 77

Taking on the touch strum 77

'Billy Boy' 79

Improving the thumb 'n strum 80

Application song: 'Rock a Bye Baby' 82

Wrapping Your Mind Around Rolling Finger Strums 83

Four finger roll 84

Five finger roll 84

Eight Finger Roll 84

Ten Finger Roll 85

Practising finger roll strumming pattern exercises 85

Application song: 'Sweet Lei Lehua' 86

Part III: Becoming a Better Fingerpicker 89

Chapter 7: Examining Fingerpicking Technique 91

Practising Two Different Fingerpicking Techniques 91

Polishing the four-finger technique 92

Perfecting the alternating thumb technique 93

Looking at the Golden Rules of Fingerpicking 94

Rule #1: Stay loose 94

Rule #2: Slow and steady wins the race 95

Rule #3: Repeat, repeat, repeat 95

Chapter 8: Developing Rhythmic Fingerpicking Patterns 97

Practising the Four-Finger Picking Technique 97

'Inside-out' pattern 98

'Outside-in' pattern 99

Simultaneous pinched patterns 101

Patterns in varied rhythms 104

'The Water Is Wide' 107

Practising the Alternating Picking Technique 109

'Inside-out' pattern 109

'Outside-in' pattern 110

Simultaneous pinched patterns 110

Patterns in varied rhythms 112

Application song: 'I Am a Poor Wayfaring Stranger' 114

Chapter 9: Improving Your Solo Fingerpicking Skills 117

Tackling Solo Fingerstyle Pieces 117

Learning two pieces of music 118

Playing Carcassi's 'Andantino' 119

Strengthening Your Fingerpicking with Arpeggio Exercises 120

Trying your hand at 'p i m' arpeggios 121

Playing Tárrega's 'Étude in E minor' 125

Working through more advanced arpeggios 127

Playing Aguado's '25 Piéces Pour Guitare, no 17' 130

Developing Lightning-Fast Tremolo Technique 132

Tackling three-finger tremolo 132

Playing 'Étude in C major' 133

Figuring out four-finger tremolo 133

Chapter 10: Taking a Deeper Look at Single-Note Fingerpicking Techniques 135

Speeding up Single-Note Passages 135

Practising four alternation techniques 136

Applying alternation techniques to pieces of music 137

Articulating Single-Note Passages 140

Hammer-on exercises 141

Pull-off exercises 142

Slide exercises 143

Bend exercises 144

Strumming and Fingerpicking for Melody 145

Playing 'Silent Night' 146

Playing 'Danny Boy (Londonderry Air)' 147

Part IV: Mastering the Ukulele Fretboard 151

Chapter 11: Learning the Fretboard with Major Scales 153

Taking a Quick Look at the Chromatic Scale 154

Building a Major Scale 155

Learning the major scale interval pattern 155

Creating a major scale in any key 156

Practising Major Scale Patterns in Three Different Keys 158

Learning natural notes with C major 158

Seeing how sharps work with G major 161

Figuring out flats with F major 164

Getting Your Fingers Moving with Major Scale Sequences 167

Faking Fretboard Knowledge 170

Recognising fretboard landmarks 170

Locating the same note on different strings 171

Finding octave notes 172

Using Major Scales to Play Actual Songs 173

Playing 'Angels We Have Heard On High' 173

Playing 'When the Saints Go Marching In' 174

Chapter 12: Taking On Three Minor Scales 177

Building a Natural Minor Scale 177

Discovering the natural minor scale interval pattern 178

Relating natural minor to major 179

Playing the Natural Minor scale 180

Homing In On Harmonic Minor 184

Mixing It Up With Melodic Minor 187

Practising Five Different Minor Scale Sequences 190

Playing Songs Using All Three Minor Scales 193

Playing 'O Come, O Come Emmanuel' 193

Playing 'Coventry Carol' 194

Playing 'Greensleeves' 195

Chapter 13: Commanding the Fretboard with Chords 197

Building Major and Minor Triads 197

Constructing major triads 198

Putting together minor triads 199

Practising Triads Up and Down the Fretboard 200

Major triad exercises 201

Minor triad exercises 202

Combined triad exercises 203

Taking Triads and Playing Actual Songs 204

Playing 'Red River Valley' 205

Playing 'Joy to the World' 206

Turning Triads Into Moveable Chord Positions 207

Making moveable major chords 207

Assembling moveable minor chords 208

Practising moveable chord progressions 208

Getting Jazzy with Moveable Seventh Chords 209

Figuring out dominant seventh chords 209

Mastering major seventh chords 210

Tackling minor seventh chords 211

Practising jazz chord progressions 211

Chapter 14: Using Scales to Solo and Improvise...