Ukulele Exercises For Dummies, Enhanced Edition E-Book

Brett McQueen

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Seitenzahl: 338

Beschreibung

Take your ukulele playing to the next level - fast! - with hundreds of fun exercises, drills and practice tunes You have a ukulele, you know just enough to be dangerous, and now you're ready to do something with it. You're in luck: Ukulele Exercises For Dummies helps you become a better player. This practice-based book focuses on the skills that entry-level players often find challenging and provides tips, tricks and plenty of cool exercises that will have you creating music in no time that include: * Creating rock-steady strumming patterns and rhythms * Becoming a better fingerpicker with patterns, arpeggio exercises, and solo fingerpicking pieces * Expanding your fretboard knowledge and crafting your own rock, blues and jazz riffs and solos * Playing actual songs on the ukulele - everything from the classic ukulele tunes to the 12 bar blues! * Downloadable audio files of the exercises found in the book, providing you with a self-contained practice package No matter if you're a beginning ukulele player or you're wanting to stretch and improve your chops, Ukulele Exercises For Dummies puts you on your way to becoming a ukulele extraordinaire!

Leseprobe

Ukulele Exercises For Dummies®

Published by:John Wiley & Sons,Ltd The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussexwww.wiley.com

This edition first published 2013

© 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, West Sussex.

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ISBN 978-1-118-50685-1 (paperback) ISBN 978-1-118-50693-6 (ebk)

ISBN 978-1-118-50691-2 (ebk) ISBN 978-1-118-50694-3 (ebk)

ISBN 978-1-118-75639-3 (e-ebk) ISBN 978-1-118-75640-9 (e-ebk)

Printed in Great Britain by CPI Clowes Ltd, Beccles

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Ukulele Exercises For Dummies®, Enhanced Edition

Visit www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/ukuleleexercisesuk to view this book's cheat sheet.

Table of Contents

Media at a Glance

Introduction

About This Book

Conventions Used in This Book

What You’re Not to Read

Foolish Assumptions

How This Book Is Organised

Part I: Getting Started with Ukulele Exercises

Part II: Becoming a Better Strummer

Part III: Becoming a Better Fingerpicker

Part IV: Mastering the Ukulele Fretboard

Part V: The Part of Tens

Accessing the Audio Tracks

Icons Used in This Book

Where to Go from Here

Part I: Getting Started with Ukulele Exercises

Chapter 1: Preparing to Practise

Equipping Yourself with the Right Practice Tools

Tuning up with a chromatic tuner

Keeping time with a metronome

Tracking your progress with a practice journal

Reviewing Ukulele Notation

Deciphering tablature

Understanding chord diagrams

Comprehending neck diagrams

Reading rhythm charts

Chapter 2: Warming Up for Practice

Limbering Up Your Body to Play Ukulele

Loosening up with stretches

Relaxing with breathing exercises

Strengthening your hands with exercises

Brushing Up on Perfect Playing Posture

Looking at Some Warm-Up Exercises on the Ukulele

Practising single-note exercises

Practising chord exercises

Part II: Becoming a Better Strummer

Chapter 3: Foundations for Strumming

Working Out Your Strumming Technique

Choosing the right strumming technique

Strumming with your index finger

Strumming with your thumb

Strumming with four fingers

Getting Acquainted With the Golden Rules of Strumming

Rule #1: Strumming is consistent

Rule #2: Strumming is relaxed

Rule #3: Strumming is intentional

Finding the Right Strumming Pattern for Any Song

Building a strumming repertoire

Listening to the song

Counting the song

Starting with down strums

Knowing when to change chords

Singing and Strumming at the Same Time

Playing the song through without singing

Humming first, singing later

Simplifying isn’t a bad thing

Chapter 4: Building a Repertoire of Strumming Patterns

Discovering How to Use These Exercises to Become a Better Strummer

Mastering the Universal Strumming Pattern

Counting along with down strums

Keeping the beat with up strums

Combining down and up strums

Playing ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’

Tackling Common Time Strumming Patterns

Developing eighth note strums

Building a multi-purpose strumming pattern

Practising chord changes on different beats

Playing ‘Jingle Bells’

Making Common Time Strumming Patterns More Interesting

Accenting the beat

Using syncopation in three different ways

Rearranging up strums to create different feels

Playing ‘I’ve Been Working On the Railroad’

Waltzing Along with 3/4 Time Signature Strumming Patterns

Practising versatile 3/4 strumming patterns

Playing ‘Oh My Darling, Clementine’

Getting More Advanced with 6/8 Time Signature Strumming Patterns

Developing delightful 6/8 strumming patterns

Playing ‘O Holy Night’

Chapter 5: Taking Strumming Patterns to a Higher Level

Getting Groovy with Shuffle Rhythms

Finding the pocket with shuffle rhythm exercises

Playing ‘Swing Low, Sweet Chariot’

Strumming Faster without Getting Sloppier

Working on relaxing strumming movements

Minimizing wasted strumming motion

Drawing up a plan to improve strumming speed

Playing ‘Hello! Ma Baby’

Showing Off Subdivided Strumming Patterns

Souping up your strumming with sixteenth notes

Trying out triplet strums

Putting the pedal down with speed rhythm exercises

Making Your Strumming Dynamic

Playing loudly and softly

Varying rhythmic complexity

‘Oh! Susanna’

Recognising Offbeat Chord Changes

Switching to chords on offbeats

Variation on the 12-bar blues

Switching Chords without Interrupting Your Strumming

Setting up a chord change

‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’

Chapter 6: Refining Advanced Strumming Techniques

Playing Percussively with Two Muting Techniques

Developing your ‘chnking’ technique

Figuring out fret hand muting

‘Michael, Row the Boat Ashore’

Perfecting Alternative Strumming Techniques

Taking on the touch strum

‘Billy Boy’

Improving the thumb ’n strum

Playing ‘Rock a Bye Baby’

Wrapping Your Mind Around Rolling Finger Strums

Four finger roll

Five finger roll

Eight Finger Roll

Ten Finger Roll

Practising finger roll strumming pattern exercises

Playing ‘Sweet Lei Lehua’

Part III: Becoming a Better Fingerpicker

Chapter 7: Examining Fingerpicking Technique

Practising Two Different Fingerpicking Techniques

Polishing the four-finger technique

Perfecting the alternating thumb technique

Looking at the Golden Rules of Fingerpicking

Rule #1: Stay loose

Rule #2: Slow and steady wins the race

Rule #3: Repeat, repeat, repeat

Chapter 8: Developing Rhythmic Fingerpicking Patterns

Practising the Four-Finger Picking Technique

‘Inside-out’ pattern

‘Outside-in’ pattern

Simultaneous pinched patterns

Patterns in varied rhythms

Playing ‘The Water Is Wide’

Practising the Alternating Picking Technique

‘Inside-out’ pattern

‘Outside-in’ pattern

Simultaneous pinched patterns

Patterns in varied rhythms

Playing ‘I Am a Poor Wayfaring Stranger’

Chapter 9: Improving Your Solo Fingerpicking Skills

Tackling Solo Fingerstyle Pieces

Learning two pieces of music

Playing Carcassi’s ‘Andantino’

Strengthening Your Fingerpicking with Arpeggio Exercises

Trying your hand at ‘p i m’ arpeggios

Playing Tárrega’s ‘Étude in E minor’

Working through more advanced arpeggios

Playing Aguado’s ‘25 Piéces Pour Guitare, no. 17’

Developing Lightning-Fast Tremolo Technique

Tackling three-finger tremolo

Playing ‘Étude in C major’

Figuring out four-finger tremolo

Chapter 10: Taking a Deeper Look at Single-Note Fingerpicking Techniques

Speeding up Single-Note Passages

Practising four alternation techniques

Applying alternation techniques to pieces of music

Articulating Single-Note Passages

Hammer-on exercises

Pull-off exercises

Slide exercises

Bend exercises

Strumming and Fingerpicking for Melody

Playing ‘Silent Night’

Playing ‘Danny Boy (Londonderry Air)’

Part IV: Mastering the Ukulele Fretboard

Chapter 11: Learning the Fretboard with Major Scales

Taking a Quick Look at the Chromatic Scale

Building a Major Scale

Learning the major scale interval pattern

Creating a major scale in any key

Practising Major Scale Patterns in Three Different Keys

Learning natural notes with C major

Seeing how sharps work with G major

Figuring out flats with F major

Getting Your Fingers Moving with Major Scale Sequences

Faking Fretboard Knowledge

Recognising fretboard landmarks

Locating the same note on different strings

Finding octave notes

Using Major Scales to Play Actual Songs

Playing ‘Angels We Have Heard On High’

Playing ‘When the Saints Go Marching In’

Chapter 12: Taking On Three Minor Scales

Building a Natural Minor Scale

Discovering the natural minor scale interval pattern

Relating natural minor to major

Playing the Natural Minor scale

Homing In On Harmonic Minor

Mixing It Up With Melodic Minor

Practising Five Different Minor Scale Sequences

Playing Songs Using All Three Minor Scales

Playing ‘O Come, O Come Emmanuel’

Playing ‘Coventry Carol’

Playing ‘Greensleeves’

Chapter 13: Commanding the Fretboard with Chords

Building Major and Minor Triads

Constructing major triads

Putting together minor triads

Practising Triads Up and Down the Fretboard

Major triad exercises

Minor triad exercises

Combined triad exercises

Taking Triads and Playing Actual Songs

Playing ‘Red River Valley’

Playing ‘Joy to the World’

Turning Triads Into Moveable Chord Positions

Making moveable major chords

Assembling moveable minor chords

Practising moveable chord progressions

Getting Jazzy with Moveable Seventh Chords

Figuring out dominant seventh chords

Mastering major seventh chords

Tackling minor seventh chords

Practising jazz chord progressions

Chapter 14: Using Scales to Solo and Improvise

Rocking Out with Pentatonic Scales

Learning the minor pentatonic scale

Constructing the major pentatonic scale

Practising pentatonic scale licks and exercises

Playing a rock solo

Expressing Soul with the Blues Scale

Building the blues scale

Practising blues scale licks and exercises

Playing a blues solo

Sounding Jazzy with the Bebop Scale

Discovering the dominant bebop scale

Mastering the major bebop scale

Practising bebop scale licks and exercises

Playing a jazz solo

Part V: The Part of Tens

Chapter 15: Ten Ways to Improve Your Practice Times

Setting a Location

Scheduling a Time

Creating Time Limits

Keeping a Practice Journal

Trying Out Different Musical Styles

Practising with Other People

Writing a Song

Working on Active Listening

Leaving Your Ukulele Out On a Stand

Taking a Break

Chapter 16: Ten Tips for Every Performing Ukulele Player

Becoming a Better Performer

Getting Involved in the Local Music Scene

Finding a Place to Perform

Building a Set List of Songs

Preparing to Play Before an Audience

Handling Nerves Right Before the Show

Mastering the Art of Focus

Remembering to Breathe

Engaging With Your Audience

Being Confident in Yourself

Cheat Sheet

Media at a Glance

Audio

Chapter 2

Single-note exercise #1 (0:25)

Single-note exercise #2 (0:21)

Single-note exercise #3 (0:29)

Single-note exercise #4 (0:16)

Single-note exercise #5 (0:17)

Chord exercise #1 (0:21)

Chord exercise #2 (0:21)

Chord exercise #3 (0:22)

Chord exercise #4 (0:21)

Chord exercise #5 (0:20)

Chapter 4

Down strum exercise (0:10)

Up strum exercise (0:10)

Down and up strum exercise (0:27)

'Mary Had a Little Lamb' (0:25)

Eighth note down and up strum exercise (0:11)

Eighth note down strum exercise (0:11)

Eighth note up strum exercise (0:11)

Combining quarter notes and eighth notes (0:10)

Creating your own strumming pattern (0:10)

Multi-purpose strumming pattern (0:17)

Changing chords on the third beat (0:17)

Changing chords on other beats (0:17)

'Jingle Bells' (0:38)

Accenting beats 1 and 3 (0:09)

Accenting beats 1 and 3 in a strumming pattern (0:10)

Accenting beats 2 and 4 (0:10)

Accenting beats 2 and 4 in a strumming pattern (0:10)