How to play ukulele: A beginner's guide

Let's discuss the holding position. The instrument should be held close to your body.

When sitting, you can let the body of the ukulele rest on one of your legs and rest your strumming arm on top of the ukulele.

When you are standing, you can hold it against your chest and keep it there with your strumming arm.

There are four strings on a ukulele.

The string at the top, closest to your face, will sound as a G. Moving down, the next string is C, followed by E and A.

To tune the strings, you can use a tuning app or attach an electric tuner to the ukulele.

Turn the tuning pegs at the headstock to match the sound.

To play some basic chords, position your fingers like the following:

For C Major, one finger should be at third fret of A string.

For A Minor, place it on second fret, G string.

For F Major, hold A minor and first fret of E string.

G Major requires pushing second fret of C and A string, and third fret of E string.

After learning the basics, you can go to Ukutabs for learning more chords.

As your left hand forms chords, use your right hand for strumming.

Strum downward one time on a chord, count to 4, then move to another chord for 4 counts.

While you are counting, plan which fingers are going to move and see if you can make the switch gracefully.

Once you feel comfortable with strumming, start with slow and simple songs that have easy chords and don't require those many chord changes.

Remember that the most important thing is to be accurate instead of being quick. So practice and start slowly.

Make sure to get a clean sound with no buzzing and muting. You can gradually speed up and try more difficult songs.