#Ten thumbs ukulele 8 bar blues how to#

But – because it misses the third down strum – it has a slightly syncopated feel to it which makes it more interesting. This one crops up in so many ukulele songs. If you can count along to a song, “one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four,” and it fits, try out these strumming patterns. Try them out and see if they fit the song.ġ3 of the most common strumming patterns are listed below, but of course there are a lot more – and you can create unique ones of your own! 4/4 Strumming patternsīy far the most common time signature around is 4/4 (“four four”). Below you can find some of the most common strumming patterns around. It’s an important skill to be able to pick your own strumming patterns. You can use different strumming patterns and it will still work. It’s not like a chord progression where there’s a right chord and a wrong chord. What’s the strumming pattern for this?” Unfortunately, there’s no real answer. I’ve had this question quite a lot as well. Al also mentioned that the question below is a common question and I have to concur. A big thank you to him for allowing me to use them. This video by Musical Mama shows how it sounds.Īl Woodshed from UkuleleHunt has worked out some of the most common strumming patterns and recorded them. symbols we learned earlier in this guide): d – d u – u d u. This is popular and versatile ukulele strum, but it can be a bit of a challenge for beginners. D or U: capitalised letters mean the strum is emphasized (i.e.It sounds like a chnk but you can do it with strums in either direction. You strum as normal but with your fretting fingers resting on the strings to stop them reverberating. You strum down and follow through so the underside of your hand lands on the strings, creating a ‘chnk’ sound. This are most useful to give you an indication of the timing of the strums. moving your hand either up or down but not hitting the strings.

#Ten thumbs ukulele 8 bar blues how to#

The law doesn’t allow us to explain how to play a specific song here, but you can find the notation for strumming below (from Al). You won’t find any strumming patterns here at UkuTabs because they are not allowed under copyright law. Sometimes you’ll see strumming patterns noted as text. While doing the constant up, down motion, miss the strings on the up strum, strum down and up, miss the down strum, strum up and down, miss the up strum.” Strumming Notation “As an example, you could do: down, up, up, down. You can create different strumming patterns by keeping the same up and down motion but not hitting the strings on certain strums. A fundamental aspect of every song is its unique strumming pattern and rhythm, used to create a different sound every time. Welcome to the advanced section! So you’ve mastered the basic up and down strumming. Once you have mastered this, go on to the advanced section! Advanced

Practice strumming either way by simply going up and down. I’ve found that the best place to strum the ukulele is different on every instrument, but it is around the area where the neck meets the body (see red zone in the image below). Strumming too close to the bridge or too high on the neck will make a dim sound. You also want to make sure that you strum on the correct spot. Maybe this is because I had a guitar background, but I found this an easier way to strum in the beginning. I strummed down with the nail of the index finger and strummed up with the tip of thumb. I put the tip of my thumb and index finger together as if I were holding a plectrum.

When I started playing the ukulele I did it in a different way. Using you whole hand gets tiring very quickly. It is important to use your wrist rather than your whole hand. When you’re strumming up, with the fleshy tip of your finger. When you strum down, you should be hitting the strings with your nail. Strum with the index finger of your right hand, fingernail side down. Start out with the basic hand position, which is a loose fist. There are several ways to start to learn strumming.