Ukulele Method Book 1

Written by
Aaron Jorgensen

Exercises and Photos by

Aaron Jorgensen

Thanks to:
My beautiful wife Camille, every song I play is dedicated to you.
Pennie Guinn for helping me see the error of my ways.
 Ukulele Method Book 1
By Aaron Jorgensen

This Method
This method book is meant to be used as a complement to private lessons, but
can offer a great number of insights into the ukulele for anyone looking to learn by
themselves. This method won’t promise unrealistic results in an astoundingly small span
of time, or offer an in depth analysis of music theory, and how it pertains to the ukulele
fretboard.
This book is meant to provide everyday people with the chords, notes, strumming
patterns, essential techniques, and a working knowledge of basic music theory that will
allow them to strum through songs, play at family parties, bring their ukulele with them
wherever they go, and maybe even accompany them at a gig.

Chapter 1 - Getting Started

Practice
As I said before, this is not the method for someone looking for the quick fix with
minimal practice. Music is an art form that requires patience and regular practice.
As you make your way through this ukulele method I suggest devoting ​10-15 minutes
every day​ ​to practicing the ukulele, and dedicating a full week to each Chapter or
section. Every one of my students at some point or another has heard, or will hear me
say, “That was 95% Perfect, let’s go for 100% this time.” Take the entire week (or more
if needed) to get each lesson up to “100%.” You only live once, why not do everything
100%?

Self-Assessment
Along with developing the discipline to adhere to a regular practice schedule,
you’ll want to regularly police yourself as your own greatest source for constructive
criticism. As you move through this method regularly ask yourself questions like, “did
that sound right?” Am I playing that the way it should sound?” and most importantly,
“Was that ​my 100%​?”
 Parts of the Ukulele
Body- ​the large, often hollow
part of the ukulele where the
bridge attaches.

Bridge- ​the wood part that

holds the strings in place, and
attaches to the body.

Saddle- ​the often white part

that is inlayed into the bridge,
where most of the tension
from the strings is stored.
Often made from bone,
plastic, or synthetic bone.

Top- ​the part of the body

where the bridge attaches
usually with the sound hole
cut in it.
Sound Hole- ​this is where the vibrating air inside the ukulele is able to escape, and
where the sound resonates from.
Heel- ​where the neck connects to the body on the backside of the instrument.
Rosette- ​circular decoration around the sound hole.
Binding- ​a decorative border on the edges of an instrument.
Headstock- ​the area opposite the body at the end of the neck where the tuners are.
Headcap- ​Front of the headstock often featuring a decorative laminate.
Tuners/Tuning Machines- ​machines that attach the strings to the headstock and
control the tension and pitch.
Tuning Button- ​The button at the end of the tuning machine that allows you to turn the
gears.
Nut- ​piece of bone, synthetic bone, or plastic, slotted to allow the strings to pass
through. Point that holds the string tension on the neck.
Neck- ​the rounded wood piece that connects the body and the headstock.
Fingerboard/ Fretboard- ​the playing surface on the front of the neck, the fret wires are
the wires inlayed into the wood, the frets are the spaces between the wires.
Tools
There are a few tools that should be used as a compliment to this book. A few
are recommended, but some are essential to helping you develop into a solid ukulele
player, and musician.

❏ Metronome
❏ Metronomes come in many shapes and sizes from the older trapezoid
shaped units with the swinging pendulum to the newer electronic
metronomes, to the even more recent innovation of smartphone apps. I
personally prefer the smartphone apps, but try a few apps and see what
you like. If you prefer to have a separate “tool” that lives in your ukulele
case, that’s great as long as you use it!
❏ Tuner
❏ Recordings of the tuning notes for a ukulele can be found online, It’s great
to dedicate the time to learn to tune by ear, but with the technological
advances available today, it’s not always necessary to go through the
frustration of trying to tune by ear as a beginner. Go to your local music
store and ask for a “clip-on tuner,” (I prefer the clip on style) or search your
smartphone’s app store for a free ukulele tuning app. By the time you read
this, this section may be out of date, tuners change all the time. Just visit
your local music store to see what’s new.
❏ Practice Sheet (see Appendix A)
❏ Your practice sheet allows you to track your daily practice, lay out your
lesson plan & goals and set out a clear path as you make your way
through this book. On this sheet you can track the days you practiced and
how long you practiced for, as well as which exercises you’re going to
work on. You can record the song you’re working on, there’s even room
for an instructor to assign listening examples. ​Use the practice sheet, it
will help!
❏ 3 Ring Binder (optional)
❏ I highly recommend getting a 3 ring binder. Nothing fancy, just that
standard kind with the plastic outside just as long as it has a pocket on the
front and back cover, and has the standard 3 rings on the inside. I always
keep my current practice sheet in the front pocket. Additional resources,
and old practice sheets in the back cover pocket and all of the songs I’ve
learned over the years on the 3 rings (in alphabetical order). This way you
can go back and review songs easily and you don’t have to rely entirely on
memory.
Ramping
One thing that sets my method apart from many others is my use of gradually
increasing the speed of an exercise in a process I call “ramping.” Below most exercises
in this book you’ll find a series of numbered boxes.

As you go through each exercise you’ll gradually increase your ​metronome ​to
match the number in the box or ​beats per minute (BPM) a ​ nd cross off the number in the
box as you complete the exercise at that speed. When you reach the ​Goal Speed
which in this case would be 100bpm you’ve completed the exercise!

Choosing Your Gear

A lot of method books will dedicate an entire page to choosing your ukulele. Just know
that there are 4 basic sizes of ukulele,
-Soprano (smallest & most common),
-Concert ( a little bit larger)
-Tenor, (larger still)
-and Baritone (largest of these 4 sizes)
This book will focus on the Soprano, Concert, and Tenor ukuleles, as these are the
most common, and all 3 are tuned the same (G,C,E,A). The baritone ukulele is tuned to
D,G,B,E, so exercises in this book will not apply to a baritone ukulele.
I can sit here and spill all of my knowledge of ukuleles into these pages, or you
could exhaust yourself with extensive internet searches on the subject. My
recommendation on the subject, however, is go to your local shop, and find the ukulele
that speaks to you. It’s not necessary to buy the top of the line uke right off the bat. As a
matter of fact, when I’m learning something new I like to reward myself with something
nice upon the completion of a personal goal (i.e. completion of this book). You also
don’t want to buy something cheap that will hinder your ability to play.

**Find something that is ​good enough quality to assist your learning process,​ and
not hinder it, but ​save the high end model as a reward for reaching your goals​**
Tuning the Uke

Before we get to tuning let’s “name” the strings

Take a look at the strings, the one furthest away from you (closest to the ground when
holding the ukulele in playing position) will be #1, the next one up is #2, then #3, and the
one that’s closest to you, or farthest away from the ground will be #4.

Your tuning notes are:

#4 - ​G #3 - ​C #2 - ​E #1 - ​A

Use your tuner to get each string tuned up or down until you find the correct pitch. If you
have any trouble tuning your ukulele ask your teacher, or an employee at your local
music store for help.

Tips for Tuning

❏ As you get close to the correct pitch make sure you make very small
turns. Most students try to tune right up to pitch as quickly as possible
and end up over and undershooting it. Just be patient and you’ll get
there faster.
❏ Always tune ​up to​ the correct pitch. Tune a bit flat, and then go up to
your desired pitch, they equalize tension better that way.
❏ Ukuleles fall out of tune all the time! It’s one thing you’ll have to
accept as a ukulele player. Be sure to practice tuning often, and get
in the habit of tuning every time you pick up your uke.
❏ Come up with a phrase to help you remember your tuning notes. My
personal favorites are ​G​ood ​C​ows ​E​at ​A​nts, or ​G​orillas ​Ca
​ n ​E​at
A​nything
Reading Chord Diagrams

Strings
The ​vertical lines r​ epresent
the strings of your ukulele.
The line that is farthest right
represents the 1st string (A),
and it moves left to the
farthest left line representing
your 4th string (G)

Frets
Frets​ are the spaces in
between the ​Fret wires o​ n
your ukulele. This diagram
represents frets 1-4 with ​the space between each line being a fret​.

Fingers
Just like the strings and frets ​each finger is represented by a number​.
❏ The ​index finger​ is your ​1st
❏ The ​middle finger​ is your ​2nd
❏ The ​ring finger​ is your ​3rd
❏ The ​pinkie finger​ is your ​4th

Putting it all together

As you slowly learn to read a chord diagram, don’t try to jump into it head first. Take
each new chord 1 finger at a time until you feel comfortable enough with reading them.
In the diagram above, start with the 1st finger and work your way to the third.
1. 1st finger, 3rd string, 2nd fret
2. 2nd finger, 1st string, 2nd fret
3. 3rd finger, 2nd string, 3rd fret
4. Strum the chord and make sure it sounds good!
Troubleshooting chords
Now is a great time to go over some finer points of making chords. Here are a few
“rules” to adhere to when putting together your new chords.
Rule #1- Close, But Not Touching
Your finger should be just behind the forward fret wire of the fret you’re holding (forward
fret meaning the fret wire that is closest to the body of the ukulele). The trick is to make
sure you are not on top of the fret wire itself, or you’ll get a soft buzzing sound, or the
wrong note all together.
Correct Incorrect Incorrect

Rule #2- Tip Of Your Fingers

When you hold a chord down you should be contacting the string with the very tip of
your finger (not the area opposite the fingernail, but the very “peak” of the finger).
If you’re up on the tip of your fingers ,your fingers won’t accidentally touch strings
they’re not supposed to.
Correct Incorrect

Rule#3- Thumb on back of neck

The thumb should be firmly placed on the back of the neck behind the center of the
chord. If the chord isn’t working, try something different with your thumb.
Correct Incorrect Incorrect
Rhythm
One of the major parts of playing music is time. Pieces of music are divided into bite
sized portions called “measures” or “bars.” You can assign a number of “counts” to a
measure depending on the song or exercise.
For right now we’ll look at measures consisting of 4 counts or 4/4 time.

There are different types of notes that sustain for different durations of time. The 3 that
we’ll look at in this exercise are ​whole notes, half notes, and quarter notes.

Whole notes- ​A whole note will sustain for 4 counts, or the ​whole measure. ​When
strumming or playing a whole note, play the note on the 1 and leave it ringing for counts
2, 3, and 4.

Half notes- ​a half note sustains for 2 counts or ​half the measure. W ​ hen strumming or
playing a half note, play the note and let it ring for one additional count (i.e. strum on 1
let it ring through the two, strum 3 let it ring through the 4).

Quarter notes- ​a quarter note gets 1 count, so you’re able to fit 4 quarter notes into a
measure in 4/4 time. If there are 4 quarter notes in a measure you’ll strum or pluck a
note on each count. 1, 2, 3, 4.

Strumming rhythms
Strumming rhythms work very much the same way, but the notes look like “blockier”
versions of their usual selves. When you see one of these you’ll strum all 4 strings.
Chapter 2 - Strumming Basic Chords

Let’s start with 3 basic chords and strum a few measures of music.

Below we have the chords C, Am (A minor), and F

Start by making and strumming each chord to be sure everything sounds okay.​
When you’ve got each chord figured out, let’s put them into a few exercises.

Tips:
-The symbol at the end of each exercise (two lines with the 2nd one bolded)
signals the end of the song or exercise. That’s how you know when to end
an exercise, or end a song.

-Remember that the blockier looking notes we looked at in the last section
mean that you ​strum ​the chords rather than just plucking a single string​. ​In the
exercises below ​strum​ ​downward with your thumb ​for each note​. ​We’ll switch up our
strumming a little in some later exercises.

-Remember to ramp up the tempo as you go. In this exercise you’ll start with your
metronome set to 60bpm. When you complete the exercise at 60bpm without any
mistakes, cross off the box that says 60 and move your metronome up to 70. Repeat
until you complete the exercise at 80 bpm.
#1 Goal- 80bpm

#2 Goal- 80bpm

​#3 Goal-80bpm