The Ukulele Academy: Absolute Beginner to Real Musician!

Explore the ukulele's anatomy, from head, neck, and body to tuning pegs, nut, frets, fretboard, sound hole, and bridge, and learn where to place your hand for playing.

Discover how ukulele beginners connect with music that is heard and played, not seen on a page, and how written notation represents sound.

Explore how a staff and notes indicate pitch, with higher and lower notes, and how lines and spaces spell c d e f g a b c across octaves.

Practice numbering the left-hand fingers, using the thumb as finger one, then two, three, and four for ukulele; learn this simple system to build quick familiarity.

Learn how to number frets on the ukulele fretboard, using open strings (0) to fret 5, and locate positions by string and fret numbers.

Explore the difference between a note and a chord on the ukulele, and learn how a chord uses root, third, and fifth to form sounds like a C chord.

Learn how the beat provides a constant pulse and shapes music, exploring 3/4 and 4/4 time signatures, bar lines, and measures as conductors guide rhythm.

Learn to play ukulele upstream off-beat strums between beats, using thumb, index finger, or a pick, while counting 1 2 3 and building a steady strumming progression.

Master shadow strums, keeping your hand moving up and down over the strings even when not touching them. Access a free strum library to practice down and shadow strums.

Learn to accent your playing by emphasizing different beats in 3/4 and 4/4 time with down strums or finger picking, using accent marks to shape mood and flavor.

Learn how a ukulele produces pitch by understanding string material, thickness, tension, and length. See how fretting shortens the string to raise pitch and why strings differ across instruments.

Master the three p's of left-hand fingering: placement, position, and pressure, to spot problems quickly and accelerate learning of chords on the ukulele.

Explore how the F and G chords open up new song possibilities by moving the root across the scale, building three-chord progressions, and developing solid ukulele strumming patterns.

Learn to play amazing grace on ukulele using C, F, and G chords, reading chords above lyrics, and practicing strums at 50 bpm in 3/4 time.

Apply a three-chord ukulele progression to Amazing Grace using a strum pattern in 3/4 time, paced by a metronome at 50 bpm.

Experience amazing grace through the lyrics, from saved to found and blind to see, and feel the sweet sound amplified by the ukulele.

Explore the vi (six) chord, A minor, and its emotional impact by comparing it to major chords, and learn the ukulele fingering and movement between F major and A minor.

Learn how raising the third turns an A minor chord into an A major chord; on ukulele, raise the C string’s third by one fret.

Substitute the one chord with a six chord on the ukulele to change the song’s flavor. See Amazing Grace as an example with a strum pattern and follow-along performance videos.

Learn how ukulele chords move with the scale, how changing keys shifts the one chord and chord roots, and how accidentals and key signatures enable transposing any song.

Perform Amazing grace with a key change in the performance video, presenting the lyric lines about being lost, found, and seen.