Ukulele Research Paper

Words: 800
Pages: 4

The ukulele is a popular starter instrument as its four strings allow for easier formation of chords than the six strings of a guitar or the eight strings of a mandolin. Let’s say you have decided to join the many aspiring musicians taking up the ukulele, how many hours of practice should you be prepared to commit to? Becoming a master of the ukulele requires just as much time and determination as achieving expert status as a guitarist, so if your aim is to earn a living with your music, you should be prepared to dedicate the bulk of your free time to your uke. The good news, however, is that a basic understanding of the ukulele can be developed over a couple of weeks and generally doesn’t even require face-to-face lessons with a teacher. In fact, many ukulele players report having learned the instrument solely from books and not even availing of the countless how-to videos published on YouTube and other video sharing sites. …show more content…
This technique, which relies heavily on your thumb and forefinger, is relatively straightforward, but will still require some practice to get right, so you’ll want to set aside a couple of hours over the course of a couple of days. Once you can strum up and down without prolonged breaks between strokes, your next concern should be tackling major and minor chords. This isn’t actually all that challenging as certain ukulele chords require only a finger or two to be placed on the fretboard at a time. A C chord, for example, is played by simply placing your ring finger on the third fret of the bottom string. It’s one of the easiest ukulele chords to form yet features in hundreds of popular songs (thousands if you understand transposition). The beauty of the C chord on the ukulele is that its positioning is very similar to that of several other chords, including C major 7 and C7, so by learning it you grow your chord catalogue