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Articles & Books From Alistair Wood
Video / Updated 09-18-2023
Restringing your ukulele can seem like one of those jobs to put off as long as possible, like homework, exercising, or visiting the dentist. But changing the strings isn’t as bad a job as it seems, and you’ll feel better afterwards (and unlike those other jobs, it adds to, rather than takes away from, valuable ukuleling time).
Step by Step / Updated 03-11-2021
The more songs you play on the ukulele, the more the common chord progressions start to feel, like old shoes you can slip into easily. But as comfortable as they are, sometimes the occasion calls for something fancier and dazzling. That’s when you’ll want to pull out one of the great-sounding chords in this article.
Article / Updated 03-10-2021
The holiday season can be the a fun but slightly daunting time to be a ukulele player (uker). It’s the time of year you’re most likely to be called on by your family and friends to provide the entertainment and to lead the singing. So, this article has some tunes to get you through Christmas and New Year.Christmas songs are also great for practicing new techniques.
Article / Updated 03-11-2021
One of the best things about playing the ukulele is the community associated with it. Perhaps because the ukulele has been so disparaged in the past, all players are very supportive of each other. A friendly culture surrounds the ukulele that you don’t get with many other instruments.If you ever need a question answered, some inspiration, or just an encouraging comment, you can find it in the ukulele community.
Article / Updated 03-10-2021
Classical music is one of the last things people expect to hear coming out of a ukulele, which is what makes classical music so much fun to play on the uke. Perform a classical piece and people think, “I didn’t know you could do that on a ukulele!” This article shows you how to go about creating this surprised response in listeners.
Strum a tune on your ukulele—no Hawaiian shirt required! Picture it now: the sun sets over the shimmering sea, and, as the beach bar falls quiet, you begin strumming Queen Liliuokalani's "Aloha 'Oe" to a mesmerized crowd. ... Okay, while this doesn't happen every day for ukulele-players, you'll still have a lot of fun learning your favorite tunes on your ukulele.
Cheat Sheet / Updated 03-27-2016
Practising with ukulele exercises helps you take your ukulele playing to the next level. Wherever you are in your ukulele playing career, the information in this Cheat Sheet helps you develop your chord playing still further.Mastering the Most Common Ukulele ChordsTo make the most of your ukulele exercises, you need to learn how to play the most common chords on the ukulele fretboard.
Cheat Sheet / Updated 03-12-2021
To enable you to translate music on the page into music that you play on your ukulele, chord diagrams and tablature – or ‘tab’ – help to make life easier. This Cheat Sheet explains these handy helpers and serves up a selection of the chords you’re most likely to use when playing your uke.Relating Chord Diagrams and Tab to the UkuleleYou don’t need to be able to read music in order to play the ukulele.
Video / Updated 09-18-2023
The way you hold a ukulele is a vitally important part of making it sound good. The uke is such a small instrument that choking all the sound out of it is all too easy. A general guideline for holding your ukulele is to try to touch it as little as possible. You want to make as little contact as you can manage without sending your ukulele crashing to the ground.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
All of the scale diagrams which follow show moveable chord positions. They’re called this because they can be moved up and down the fretboard to create different kinds of scales in different kinds of keys. The black dots indicate where the root notes of the scale are located in the pattern. All of the scale diagrams are in root position; this means that the first and the last note of the pattern is the root note of the scale.