Author: Julian Cockshott

Teaching Book 1

The Road to the 12 Bar Blues!

Ukulele Facts!
Ukulele (pronounced ‘You-ker-lay-lee’ in the UK) means ‘Jumping Flea!’
The instrument started out life called the ‘Machete de Braga.’ Sailors from Portugal took this instrument across to an island called Hawaii around 125 years ago. It was on the island that the machete de braga developed in to the Ukulele that we know today.
King David of Hawaii played the early ukulele which helped make it so popular and associated with the Island.

The Island of Hawaii on a map

Machete de Braga

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Parts of a Ukulele...

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‘Playing Position’ sitting down...
Remember - there are three steps to getting a GREAT playing position...
'Back on your Belly!' - Get the back of the ukulele flat against your stomach...
'On your pocket!' - The ukulele should sit on your right trouser pocket area, not in your lap...
'Diagonal!' - Make sure the end of the ukulele, where the tuners are, is held at a diagonal angle - nice and tall...it may look like a tiny guitar—but don’t hold it like one!

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How to play your ukulele…
At first we are going to use two techniques to play the ukulele—A ‘Flying Thumb’ and a ‘Held Thumb.’
The ‘Flying Thumb’
The Flying thumb is used for strumming all four strings of your ukulele.
It is a free-flowing, unattached downwards movement
You should try and strum downwards near the end of the fingerboard, at the top of the sound hole.
Clamp the ukulele on to your belly with your forearm and strum away!
The ‘Held Thumb’
The ‘Held Thumb’ is used for playing tunes on a single string.
It’s a more accurate way of hitting an individual string
Use your fingers to hold the ukulele underneath and your thumb to pick the string needed.

Flying Thumb...

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The ‘Beginner’ pieces…1
‘123Shush!’
Play the open strings downwards, with a flying thumb, 3 times and then bring your first finger on your strumming hand to your lips to make a ‘shush’ sound.
Do this 4 times
Next, instead of a ‘shush’ sound use your strumming hand to click, or flick, your fingers.
So - 4 ‘Shushes’ then 4 clicks or flicks.
See if you can count them carefully and keep your clicking/ flicking hand in the air on the last one!?

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The ‘Beginner’ pieces…2
‘All Elephants’
This piece helps us to learn the name of the strings.
The strings on a ukulele are named from the bottom rising up - A, E, C and G
We can remember them with this phrase -
“All Elephants Can Grumble”
We can turn this into a simple piece.
Use a ‘Held’ thumb to play each string four times through.
Play all the strings (A, E, C, G) twice through
The first time you play it say the words to go with the first pick of the string;
“All Elephants Can Grumble!”
A A A A E E E E C C C C G G G G
The second time through say the string name instead of
the rhyme word.

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The ‘Beginner’ pieces…3
‘The Chill Out Walk’
This piece has a lovely gentle and relaxed feel about it. Use a Flying Thumb for best effect.
The 'Chill Out Walk' takes your fingers for a walk up the A String of your ukulele.
Remember to put one finger in one space (fret) of the ukulele and push down hard on the string with the pad of your finger.
Open Strings 1st finger 2nd finger 3rd finger
(No fingers) in the first in the second in the third
space/fret space/fret space/fret
1 2 3 4
7 6 5
We will strum all the strings in each 'shape' 4 times. When we get to the last 'shape' then we'll work our way backwards and then stop at the 'Open' shape.

WELL DONE! YOU’VE COMPLETED THE BEGINNER PIECES!!

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The Chords…
Chord of ‘C’
In the ‘Chill Out Walk’ we walked our fingers up the A string to make a tune. If we keep all three fingers down on top of the A string - and strum all 4 strings at once - we get our first chord called ‘C!’
We can write it down using a chord diagram;
If we strum this chord over and over we can play a simple song called ‘Row, Row, Row your boat’
Take a look on the next page to learn the words and sing along as you strum!

G

C

E

A

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The Chords…
‘Row, Row, Row your Boat’
You will need a chord of ‘C’ to sing and play this song;
Use your ‘Flying Thumb’ to strum downwards with your fingers firmly pushing the string down.
Row, row, row your boat Gently down the stream Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily Life is but a dream
Row, row, row your boat
Gently down the stream
If you see a crocodile
Don’t forget to scream!
Row, row, row your boat
Gently down the river
If you see a polar bear
Don’t forget to shiver!
Row, row, row your boat
Gently down the shore
If you see a lion there
Don’t forget to roar!

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The Chords…
‘Frere Jacques’
For this well known French song we need to learn a new chord of ‘F’
Put your first finger on the E string and your second finger on the G string. Make sure they stand up nice and tall and round - don’t let them be ‘squashed slugs,’ flat across the strings!
Strum the chord of F while you sing the words;
Frère Jacques, Frère Jacques, Dormez vous? Dormez vous? Sonnez les matines, Sonnez les matines Di, din, don! Di, din, don!
If you would like to sing some ‘alternative’ words to the same tune there are over 60 variations online!

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Changing Chords…
Not many songs and pieces in the world have just one chord. So we need to be able to move from one chord to another and this is where it gets tricky!
In the next song we will need both of our newly learned chords!
‘Cockles and Mussels’
Start by just playing the chords where the red letters are, once. As you get more confident try strumming them many times inbetween.

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