Here’s a lesson on some of the little idiosyncrasies that can make your playing sound a little more polished. Bends and slides can help you to “emote” a bit easier.

Here’s one for the new player. Cool sounds on the Ukulele are everywhere, but the Hammer on/Pull off is essential for the creative process! Hope this one helps you with learning to play with “feel”.

Here’s one for learning the mindset behind rhythm playing. I believe that when we learn to understand the concept of rhythm, we focus less on “pattern” and more on “groove” or “feel”. As usual, I won't say that it’s the correct way, but this is how I look at it. Hope this one is helpful!

Here’s a lesson on the notorious Bum-Ditty rhythm. It takes practice to get this technique down, but its well worth it when it comes together. Hope you like it!

Here we have a guided practice for the C major Scale using a Low G. Having the lower string increases the instruments range and can throw people off that aren’t used to that sound. I’ve decided to do this in separate videos for Low and High G to avoid that confusion. Hope this helps!

This week's guided practice takes us through a segmented version of exercise 1. Like that one, we go through all the shapes, but this time moving 4 notes at a time. Hope this helps with your dexterity!

Here’s a guided practice that walks us through the C major scale pictures. Getting this one under your fingers opens the door to muscle memory for future scale use and manipulation.

Here’s the second exercise as a guided practice that walks us through the C major scale pictures. Getting this one under your fingers opens the door to muscle memory for future scale use and manipulation.

Here’s one that I’m calling Fretboard Logic. No, not the book, but the approach of viewing/visualizing the fretboard. Just an alternative way to look at holding your chord shapes, if you will. It also personalizes the way you feel about your playing, without having to “re-invent the wheel”.

Here’s an easy lesson to help you speed up your chord changes. I’ve often found that many people that think they don’t have rhythm are simply not changing their chord shapes in time. Here are some tips that might help with that!

Here’s one of those humdingers of finger exercises! This one will help with your finger dexterity. Hope you enjoy this challenge!

Here’s a lesson to help build your strumming hand technique. I believe that the fretting and strumming hand need to function in almost a symbiotic way. They need each other. Many people tend to focus on the fretting hand, and neglect the importance of the strumming hand. This one is so that you g...

Here’s a lesson that I wish someone would have showed me when I started. Technique is an important part of playing an instrument. With a stringed instrument this is especially true. Here’s a lesson on fretting hand technique sure to help you improve your feel with the Ukulele.

Because I started playing guitar, and my first “style” was Ki-hoalu, my ukulele playing style developed as a “Finger picker”. I never thought of it that way, nor did I analyze what/how I was doing it. As a teacher though, I had to look at fingerpicking from a different perspective. Here are some ...

I am quite often quoted for saying that ”repetition is the mother of skill." In today’s lesson we explore that concept to try to sync up the skill levels between our right and left hands. This is more than just a few exercises to practice, but rather, a new way to approach the “role” of each hand...

I get asked the question all the time, “how do I get better at changing chords quickly?” My reply is usually that repetition is the mother of skill. Over the past few years of teaching ukulele to elementary school students, I’ve come up with a few exercises that help to develop this skill. Here i...

When looking at the "physical" aspect of playing ukulele, proficiency can be broken down to two things... Left Hand control and Right Hand control. The Left Hand controls the pressing down of the strings in the correct positions, while the Right Hand controls Melody, Harmony, Rhythm, Tempo, and D...

There’s no shortcut around this one! These finger exercises for your left (fretting) hand, although frustrating at first, will help you build up the dexterity needed to play any chord or funky shape on that ukulele fretboard.

Here's a quick video on reading and writing tablature for the ukulele. I believe that the best usage of tab is to take notes. There are plenty of places online where you can purchase tabs of your favorite songs, but IMHO it takes longer to memorize and execute to proficiency that way than to take...

After learning the way the chords connect across the fretboard, we can often get stuck wondering about the application. If we want the sound to be harmonious, we need to find a way to organize it. We call this playing in key. Here's a video on just that!

Continuing the "Chord Connections" series, we take a look at positioning from a single note perspective. Commonly referred to as arpeggios, the "broken-up" chords connect through our Cops Always Get Free Doughnuts sequence. Once you are able to see the connection, you won't get lost on the fretbo...

Ka'aahi Kahului is a song about the first train in Hawaii. It speaks of King David Kalakaua signing his name to the act that allowed the railroad to be constructed. Penned by the legendary Palani Vaughan, this song has a special significance to me personally, as this was one of the first songs ta...

Here's a fun song to play at the beginner level that will make you sound a little more advanced. Ka Uluwehi O Ke Kai is a very popular song here in Hawaii. It is also a favorite for ukulele clubs world wide. It is heavily laden with Hawaiian Kaona though, and the hidden meaning is probably not so...

A Hawaiian Classic, Hilo E is the perfect first Hawaiian song for the beginning ukulele player. Written by Aunty Mary Heanu, Hilo E speaks of the beauty of Hilo, as well as gives an invitation for malihini (visitors). The song only has 2 chords and the words are easy to pronounce, so you should h...