New Class for Beginner Ukulele Players

Always wanted to learn to play 'ukulele but didn't know how to start? Frustrated with confusing books and instructional methods? Want to learn how to figure out songs and strums by ear in seconds, hours/days/years? Then this class is for YOU!

This is a new 8-week course being offered at the El Camino College Community Education series in Torrance, CA starting June 16th through August 4th. Class size is limited so please register here to reserve your space.

Check out some of my ukulele tutorial videos to get an idea of what we'll be covering. The ukulele is a fun instrument, totally portable and very underrated in its versatility!

See you there!

Ukulele Virtuoso Abe Lagrimas

I just got back home from watching a(n) ukulele performance by Abe Lagrimas in the Island Bazaar shop in Huntington Beach. This guy is amazing for not even being a full-on dedicated ukulele player. Abe's main instrument is the drums and vibes and he is a graduate of the Berklee School of Music if that tells you anything about his musical abilities. Interesting thing about him is that he actually prefers the high G string on the uke as opposed to a G tuned lower like most people who solo like to use. He actually incorporates that high G into his runs which is way more thinking than I want to do!

I first met him back in 2006 when I decided to get back into organizing concerts. This one featured Jeff Peterson, Dana Hanchard who is an incredible singer, Abe on drums (and some ukulele) and Ernie Provencher on bass. Abe has since moved to Los Angeles and is making the rounds on the jazz scene here. I was able to recruit him to play a little in my 1st Southern California Slack Key Festival and also my first Aloha Falsetto Festival, both in Redondo Beach. In the slack key show, he played with Jeff Peterson on guitar and Kristin Korb on upright bass, as part of a backup band behind Owana Salazar. And in the falsetto show, he played with Jeff Peterson again and Taumata Grey on bass as the "House Band" that backed up Steven Espaniola, Gary Haleamau and Raiatea Helm.

You must check out his CD - way more sophisticated than any other ukulele CD out there, TRUST ME. Plus he is the one, of course, playing the percussion on there. He's only like, 26 but you will be very impressed!

Top/Bottom, Up/Down?

Before I explain more about the Dominant 7th and other important chords, it's important for everyone to be on the same page and to use the same terminology, especially for those who like to read online without a personal teacher. And even then, some teachers don't know how to explain things well in the first place, they're just "Do what I do" and can't go beyond that.

What follows assumes that you are a right-handed individual.

Look at the ukulele face on, vertically, like in the image above. The notes of the open strings, from left to right, is G, C, E, A. What that means is when you pluck the string all the way on the right, without pressing anything down, the note you hear (when the ukulele is properly tuned) is A. The A string is also known as the "TOP" string and also the "FIRST" string. This messes up a lot of people. The E string is the 2nd string, the C string is the third and the G string (regardless if you have a low or high G string) is the fourth, or BOTTOM string.

Put your left index finger (this is your FIRST finger) on the 1st fret of the first string. Recognize that chord? If you strum all the strings while holding that down it is a C7 chord. Now, move UP 2 frets. Your first finger should now be in the THIRD fret of the same string and you should recognize that as the C major chord when you strum all the strings together.

Notice that the SOUND of the note you played at the third fret is HIGHER than the sound of the note you played at the first fret. That's how you remember that you went UP and not DOWN.

Play a Bb chord. Your first finger is holding down the 1st and 2nd strings, right? Now move UP 2 frets so that the same finger is holding down the same strings but at the third fret. You are now playing a C major chord. You can play this interchangeably with the one-finger version but the main difference is that now you can move this chord shape around to get other chords, more on this later.

Up/down/top/bottom may seem knit-picky but these are VERY important things to know that will help communicating with and learning from others. See my videos for other mini-lessons and let me know what you think or if you have any questions.