Teaching ukulele has been really great so far! I really enjoy teaching!
And I was really touched when I received presents from students, saying that they have enjoyed the lessons and thank you for teaching them.
The first gift was actually a Mooncake (in conjunction with Mooncake Festival), followed by a tube of chocolate, and a mini box of homemade “Zhu Zai” biscuits, in cute bear shapes.
This post is to all my students.
Keep strumming!
And thank you very much!
Hope to see you all again soon!
We should play ukulele together next time we meet!
When I first learn how to play the ukulele, I came across this thought of whether or not to leave fingernails on my right (strumming and hand plucking) hand. Maybe I’ll share my thoughts with you all now.
Initially I kept a certain nail length, about 2mm.. And I found that my playing was kinda ‘picky’ sounding. As the nails were hard and they created a more ‘picked’ sound. My nail length was about the same as the picture below:
And my playing sounded like this:
So I switched and cut my fingernails, to minimize the chances of any part of my nails from touching the strings. After that, my playing sound changed, and sounded like this..
Basically, playing without fingernails gives a softer sound, which is more suitable for slow and soft sounding songs. So depending on what kind of music / song you’re playing, you should experiment around with having longer or shorter nails, and eventually develop into your own style….
Well, there are a lot of other factors which needs to considered. For example, if you are a female, as females tend to leave longer nails, due to fashion or beauty reasons, you might be reluctant to cut your nails. Also, if you play more strumming of chords, rather than finger picking, nails would help you sound louder.
If you have any questions, pop me a comment, and I’ll try my best to answer your question.
I’d like to wish everybody a very Happy New Year for 2009~!
May everyone stay happy, healthy and improve on the ukulele~ Do make ‘improve on the ukulele’ as one of your new year’s resolutions, if there’s still space to squeeze into the list!
Just for your info, I’m still in Singapore, all the way until the Chinese New year. So we should be able to meet up for the third jamming session!
Meanwhile, I’ll leave you all with a nice video lesson by Aldrine Guerrero. It’s Alicia Key’s – Ain’t Got You. Very nice song. Hope you guys enjoy learning it, as much as I did. You can also visit his ukulele website at www.ukuleleunderground.com. Have fun~
I’ve been getting some small responses from various sources (emails, friends, comments on the site..) about beginner ukulele, how to get started, where to get lessons etc….
There’s only so much that I can help out with ‘where to get lessons’, as I have limited contacts for ukulele lessons in Singapore. So I’ve decided to post some content with relation to ‘Ukulele for Beginners’. This way, beginners can learn the basics from this site, before venturing off further.
So lets start off with tuning the ukulele.
Musical Notes:
Standard ukulele tuning is tuned to a High G Tuning. This means that the notes from the 4th string till the first string, is G C E A respectively, with the G note being a higher note than the rest (Thanks Richard, for pointing that out) with the A note being the highest note. There are basically 2 ways to tune your ukulele. One is by ear (with reference notes of course) and the other is by using a tuner. You may tune your ukulele by ear by referencing notes from this website. They have a good ukulele tuner online. For a physical tuner, you may purchase one from your nearby musical instruments shop.
Just for your reference, this is the one I personally use. You only need to clip it onto your ukulele headstock, and pluck the strings while tuning accordingly.
Once you have your ukulele in tune, you are ready for some ukulele playing~!
If any of you want to ask any questions / request for beginner lessons etc etc, just feel free to drop a comment in this post. I am thinking of adding a ‘Uke Lessons’ page in this site, to teach beginners, as well as cater to questions related to playing. I can record some videos and post it on YouTube, and showcase in here.
Of course, you can also ask about any other questions, like ‘what strings to use/recommend’ etc etc etc….
