Today, I'll be teaching you how to strum a ukulele, so that you can play first song! This is a beginner tutorial, and covers: how to tune your ukulele, down strum, up strum, and the Hawaiian Strum Pattern.

How To Strum The Ukulele - Beginner Tutorial

I play basic chords( C, Am, F, G) throughout the majority of this video, with the exception of one moment where I play Em to complete the first verse of Over The Rainbow, which uses chords: C, Em, F, Am and G. Today's lesson is just focusing in on the very basics, so we'll leave chords like Em for another day.

If you're new to Ukulele or perhaps you're just looking for new ways to strum, watch this video and play along with me. See what works best for you from the strum techniques that I've presented and try to build upon YOUR technique.

Down Up Strum

In the tutorial, you'll notice that I like to use my thumb and pink to play when I strum Down(D) and Up(U). This is because, for me, both of this finger have enough control that I can easily glide them across all strings. It may be different for you, so don't be afraid to be unique and try out different fingers. I believe that it's important to learn the basics before necessarily just adding your own twist to things, but when all else fails, get creative. That said, learning to strum won't necessarily be an easy task for everyone. It could take a few minutes, days, or weeks. It's all about your dexterity, but each minute that you put in to practice, no matter how slow you're going, it counts.

Hawaiian Strum Pattern

The pattern used in today's video is the Traditional Hawaiian Strum Pattern. There are many different strum patterns that you can play and a variety of different "Hawaiian" strum patterns, however, learning this pattern will basically unlock pandora's box for you, as far as strum patterns go. To do any other pattern, all you need to do is either omit an Up strum or a Down strum somewhere in the pattern, and you're golden.

The Pattern:

Down Down-Up Up-Down-Up

Note:I've used hyphens to attach strums that should be played in the same beat.

This pattern and other patterns are often written as simply letters U and D, with or without hyphens.

Here is an example of the exact same pattern written with just U and D. This version can also be found in the video.

D DU UDU
D D-U U-D-U

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Strumming Practice

Practice strumming any one of these basics chords to get the hang of how to strum. Once you're able to strum on one chord, try switching between chords. It can be tricky getting your fingers to switch from chord to chord, so take your time. :)

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Reflection

What did you think about today's How To Strum Tutorial? How long have you been playing? Are you new to the ukulele or considering buying one?

This is my 11th month with the Uke! Woo! Time goes by fast.

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Thanks for tuning in.

My video is at DLive