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Learning Ukulele Strums - A Recipe for Success
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Learning to Strum, A Recipe for Success
After you can successfully switch between chords. The next step is to learn a few strums.
The beat is what we typically respond to in music. We tap our foot or clap our hands to the beat while listening to music. If you have ever danced, you are responding to the beat and the harmonic rhythm of the song.
Level I - Basic “Four” Strum
Chords and music are organized into bars or measures. For the Basic “Four” Beat Strum, the number of beats per bar or measure is four. This is the most common number of beats per bar used in songs.
Counting evenly, count the down beats using 1 2 3 4.
All strums in Level I are played using ALL down strokes (▼).
Level II - Four Famous 8th Note Strum Styles
For level II eight notes strums every beat has two parts, a down part and an up part. If you are tapping our foot evenly, you hear the down part of the beat when your foot strikes the floor, the up part of the beat is when you’re resetting our foot for the next down beat.
Counting evenly, count the down beats using 1 2 3 4 and the up beats with “and”, Indicated with a plus sign below.
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
You can strum down on the down beat (▼), the numbers and down or up on the up beat (▲), the “and” (+). For a lighter should strum up on the “and”. For a heavier sound strum down on the up. BUT – Always down on the down beat.
Remember to count evenly. This ensures you’ll be playing in tempo. It’s critical to be always be playing in time, at any tempo.
View or download the PDF file for the complete lesson.
Learning Ukulele Strums - A Recipe for Success
Printable Lesson PDF: FREE
Quarter Note Strum
Famous Eight Notes Strums
All Down Strokes
Alternating Down, Up Strokes
Related Lessons for: Strums
Here a few lesson suggestions that might be of interest to the topics and principles covered in this lesson.
4 Lesson(s)
Lesson content icons: | |||
  | Learning Ukulele Strums - A Recipe for SuccessA strum is the execution of a rhythmic pattern - in a specific style at tempo. Learning Strums, A Receipe for Success covers how to go about learning the various rhythmic patterns that are ..... UL11: Published: November 4, 2011, 11:30 pm | Updated: March 12, 2012, 8:13 pm | Author: Curt Sheller | ||
| Modular Phonetic Rhythm, Level I Pairs WorksheetLevel I rhythmic syllable pairs for developing your ukulele strums vocabulary. MPR21: Published: May 12, 2012, 9:46 pm | Updated: May 12, 2012, 7:48 pm | Author: Curt Sheller | ||
| Modular Phonetic Rhythm, Level I Pairs WorksheetLevel II rhythmic syllable pairs for developing your ukulele strums vocabulary. MPR22: Published: May 12, 2012, 9:46 pm | Updated: May 12, 2012, 7:48 pm | Author: Curt Sheller | ||
 | Ukulele Strums - Getting StartedA Strum is the execution of a specific rhythmic pattern, at tempo in a particular style. Strumming requires a specific set of skills. They are: 1) Memorization of chords 2) The ability to switch ..... UL126: Published: January 6, 2011, 11:00 am | Updated: March 12, 2012, 8:31 pm | Author: Curt Sheller | ||
Lesson Info
I constantly read online and hear. "Is, where, what site, what software is there for this or that chord or all the chord voicings." Well camper! It's not here. Chord dictionaries, software, web sites are not the answer. Even chord theory does not offer any insight into unraveling the complexity of chord voicings.
Learning basic open position chords and the basic movable form chords presented in the Chord of the Week Lessons I presented in 2007 will set you up for the more advanced chords, typically called “jazz” chords.
These Movable Form Chords lessons have been updated, enhanced and now reside in the Members Subscription area for all basic and Members.
Related Books
All book sizes are 8.5" x 11" unless noted and music stand friendly, "lay flat" coil binding.
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A Guide to Ukulele Chords, 2nd Edition
A Guide to Ukulele Chords, Second Edition is designed as a guide to ukulele chords. Covering the basic ukulele chords that ALL ukulele players SHOULD know. A Guide to Ukulele Chords covers movable chord forms, rock chords, how to transpose chords, learning the ukulele fingerboard and includes an introduction to 4-part, a.k.a jazz chords and more...
From a few core, basic chord shapes and a understanding of how chords are constructed. Your chord vocabulary can be dramatically increased without memorizing countless chord shapes. There are too many chord shapes to memorize.
This book will take the mystery out playing and understanding chords on the ukulele, whether it is a standard, concert, tenor or baritone ukulele in C tuning, low or high string four.
Tunings: C Tunings. Low or high string four variations.
Lefties of the world! Don't feel left out. There is a version for you: A Guide to Ukulele Chords for Lefties
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ISBN-13: 978-1-60321-047-8 Published: November 2011 Pages 50
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Ukulele Chords
This mini (1/2 size) chord books are the perfect size for every ukulele gig bag or case and a great addition to you music book library.
SPECIAL: $4.97 for Hard Copy This is the same price as the PDF download.
Ukulele Chords covers basic open position and basic movable form chords. From these two chord categories a variety of songs and styles can be played.
Seventh chords, Major Sevenths, Minor Sevenths, Diminished, Augmented chords sus and add chords.
Tunings: C with low or high G - (GCEA or gCEA).
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ISBN-13: 978-1-60321-000-3 Published: March 2007 Pages 44
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A Guide to Blues Chord Progressions for Ukulele A to Z
The Blues are at the heart of all American music. It has influenced Country, Rock, Folk, Jazz, Bluegrass and just about every form of American music we listen to today.
Studying the blues chord progressions presented in this book will open a wealth of creative possibilities for exploring chord progressions in all styles of music, not just blues.
This volume covers the key of C major and C minor. Each example includes detailed accompanying text explaining the principles behind each progression and its chord substitutions.
A Guide to Blues Chord Progressions for Ukulele A to Z starts with a basic three chord, 12 bar blues and progresses up to a sophisticated jazz blues with multiple chord substitutions.
All examples are shown in C and G tuning. Suitable for Soprano, concert, tenor and baritone ukuleles. Get through this book and you'll have a solid jazz chord foundation to build on.
Tunings: C and G. Low or high string four variations.
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A Guide to Advanced Ukulele Chords - Volume I
Beyond learning basic Ukulele chords most players struggle with advanced chords. Commonly called “jazz” chords, these more sophisticated voicings find a wide use in all forms of music.
A Guide to Advanced Chords for Ukulele presents a highly organized and efficient approach to the mysterious subject of advanced chords. Chord dictionaries are not the answer. Even chord theory does not offer any insight into unraveling the complexity of Ukulele chord voicings.
If your goal is to expand your chord vocabulary, A Guide to Advanced Chords for Ukulele is your answer.
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Exploring Jazz Chords on Ukulele
Exploring Jazz Chords takes the core chords from A Guide to Advanced Chords for Ukulele and shows their use over a variety of common chord progressions based on songs from the standard jazz repertoire.
Building a Solid Jazz Chord Foundation using Seventh, Major Seventh, Major 6, Minor Seventh, Minor Sixth, Diminished Seventh, Minor Seventh Flat Five and Augmented Seventh chords.
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The Advanced Guide to Chord Progressions for Ukulele - Volume I
Volume I features the principles of voice leading applied to chord progressions. These principles are explained using chords from volume I of The Advanced Guide to Ukulele Chords. Chapters with common major and minor full diatonic, partial diatonic and chromatic chord progressions are also included to further explore voice leading principles presented in the book.
Tunings: C Tuning with a low or high G - (GCEA or gCEA).
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Ukulele- Reading Music Series - Primer
Learn to read single note melodies in the first/open position. It is a lot easier than you might think with this step-by-step easy to use approach.
Tunings: C with low or high G - (GCEA or gCEA).
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UL11_LEARNING_STRUMS.PHP | Updated: Friday, 30th March, 2012 @ 04:35pm