Ukulele Lessons

Welcome to your ukulele adventure! In this first lesson, you'll get to know your instrument, set your goals, and get ready for a fun-filled musical journey.

A comfortable playing position and an in-tune instrument are the bedrock of your musical journey. In this lesson, you'll master both.

Get your ukulele tuned, check string health, and set a reliable pre-practice routine.

Build relaxed fretting and strumming hand positions to avoid tension.

Learn to play individual notes on the open strings and understand how the ukulele strings are named and pitched.

This is the moment! In this lesson, you'll learn to play C major and A minor, two cornerstone chords that will allow you to play thousands of songs.

Learn how to read a ukulele chord diagram and basic tab notation so you can look up any chord or riff independently.

Congratulations, you're ready to play your first song! In this lesson, you'll combine the C and Am chords with a simple rhythm to create a complete piece of music.

Learn the fundamental concepts behind the music you are already playing: note names, rhythm values, and time signatures explained through practical ukulele examples.

Clean notes, minimal pressure, and efficient finger placement.

Train wrist-led strumming mechanics to build speed, balance, and dynamic control.

Learn a steady fingerpicking pattern and tone control.

Learn three essential fingerpicking patterns and how to shift between them cleanly.

Add expressive articulation to simple melodic lines.

Build speed safely using focused, repeatable drills.

Content placeholder

Content placeholder

Down-strums are only half the story! In this lesson, you'll master the 'up-strum' technique and learn the essential rhythm patterns that will make your songs sound full and professional.

Let's level up your rhythm! In this lesson, you'll learn how to create a 'groove' by skipping strums while keeping your hand moving, and master the most famous ukulele rhythm of all: the Island Strum.

The island strum (D-DU-UDU) is the rhythm that defines the ukulele sound. Learn the ghost strum technique and build the pattern step by step.

Control silence and accents to tighten your groove.

Develop off-beat feel and internal timing.

Solid time feel separates players who sound good from players who sound great. Build your internal clock with metronome practice, subdivision drills, and listening exercises.

Knowing chords is one thing, but playing them smoothly in a song is another. In this lesson, we'll do exercises to give your fingers speed and precision, and add the F chord to your vocabulary.

Learn the Em and G ukulele shapes and practice a smooth one-finger switch between them.

Practice the D and C ukulele shapes and learn to move between a three-finger and a one-finger chord.

Learn a close-position ukulele chord family and practice smooth transitions between Am, F, and Dm.

Use the A chord as a base shape and add one finger to reach F# minor on ukulele.

Keep two fingers fixed and slide one finger to move between Gm and Eb on ukulele.

Practice a more challenging ukulele change by moving from E to G# minor with clean finger placement.

Learn your first barre shapes and hand setup.

Expand your chord palette with 7ths and suspended shapes.

Identify the most common progressions and play them confidently.

In this lesson, you'll add the powerful G major chord to your collection. With C, G, Am, and F, you'll hold the keys to a massive portion of popular music!

Move a chord shape up and down the neck to play it in any key without memorizing new fingerings.

Suspended and add9 chords create harmonic color without introducing new scale degrees. Use them to add texture to standard progressions.

Diminished and augmented chords create tension that resolves naturally. Learn where they appear and how to use them.

Dominant 7th chords are the engine of harmonic motion. This lesson shows where they come from and how to use them musically.

The 12-bar blues is the most important progression in popular music. Every chord in it is a dominant 7th.

The ii-V-I is jazz's fundamental building block. Understanding it unlocks hundreds of jazz standards.

Use intervals to navigate the fretboard with confidence.

Understand key centers and how to transpose progressions.

Learn how triads and seventh chords are built from intervals.

Understand chord inversions, how they differ from root position, and how to use them for smoother voice leading.

Train your ear to recognize chord movement and interval quality.

Learn the major and pentatonic scales as tools for melody and improvisation.

Understand modes as rotations of the major scale and recognize their characteristic sounds.

It's time to put it all together! In this lesson, you will learn to play 'The Journey,' your first complete song, using the C-G-Am-F progression and the Island Strum.

You're a musician now, and it's time to expand your repertoire! In this final lesson, you'll learn a new, emotional chord progression (Am-G-C-F) and master the song 'An Old Friend' to cap off your training.

Combine new chords and rhythm into a full song.

Tackle a slightly harder song with dynamics and phrasing.

Learn to strip a song down to its essentials and rebuild it as a self-contained solo ukulele arrangement.

Explore folk and acoustic playing style: alternating bass fingerpicking and open-string voicings.

Build a sustainable practice plan with measurable goals.

Use simple recordings to spot weaknesses and improve.

Learn the basics of ensemble playing and musical communication.

A practical method for learning songs by ear: finding the key, trying common chords, and confirming by playing along.

Write a short original song using chords and a melody you already know.

Use the pentatonic scale to improvise melodies over a chord progression.