The ukulele is a Hawaiian folk instrument. How to play the ukulele What is a ukulele

I recently came across a small and very unique store. There, besides vinyl records, harmonicas and a bunch of other things that I don’t understand at all, they sell UKULELE. This place is called Ukuleleshnaya. A ukulele is a small four-string guitar. There are 5 types of these guitars, the sizes of which range from 53 to 76 centimeters in length (that’s what Wikipedia tells me). A poor guitar, in short. In general, this is a very funny thing, especially in the hands of some pot-bellied fellow. Funny, awkward, but very popular.

Here, for example, are familiar faces (and at the end, the famous Hawaiian musician Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, as reinforcement of the above =))

But considering that my few attempts to play the guitar or piano were more like the spasms of a feeble-minded person [ah, dear “Dog Waltz”...], we will not be talking about music.
Since these guitars are inexpensive and especially simple, they don’t do anything with the ukulele. Moreover, they are completely different forms. Classic theme, of course, traditionally vacation-island-Hawaii.

The Ukuleleshnaya decided that a brush would be a little easier for me to handle than strings, and they offered to paint this little thing. They just didn’t know that I hadn’t held a brush in my hands for 5 years, and even then, 5 years ago I only used them for clumsy cleaning at the institute... well, let’s not talk about sad things. But suddenly my hand, hardened with a pencil and liners, took hold of the brush confidently [well, almost].

I immediately decided to follow the outline of the ukulele with a drawing. No flights of fancy, dry, down-to-earth logic, so to speak. From here, they appeared in my head Balloons, tree crowns and corsets. With the corset, the result was a wonderful, albeit, again, banal allegory: guitar = female body. Logic rejoiced, the inner artist seemed to have taken to drinking. This is how 3 guitars were born.

The female guitar was especially pleasing, so I decided to continue the theme (well thanks a lot to customers: no restrictions for the artist, competent people =)).

This time the smallest ukulele fell into my hands, the one 53 cm.

First, we take a photo and remove the strings.
--- On the previous ones, they removed everything: the strings, the nut, and the pegs, but in the end they realized that this was not at all necessary. The pegs need to be removed only if you plan to cover the background on the headstock. The absence of a threshold is generally a hindrance: when it is clear where the picture is interrupted, it is easier to lay out the drawing (in addition, only a master can remove the threshold, and this costs money).

Then I draw directly on the guitar with a simple pencil sketch.
--- In fact, first you only need the outer borders of the picture: everything inside will be covered by the background. I also draw the internal content, because this is my first sketch. The fact is that to me [a weak-willed artist] the object itself dictates the picture, the guitar itself tells me what should be depicted on it. [I understand how it sounds, I understand...]

Next comes the long and tedious process of painting over the main tone.
---Choose color, good paint(it won’t go bad, it’s checked) and let’s go layer by layer... I paint with acrylic. Since I had never worked with it before, I had to choose the price-quality ratio at random. I can say for sure that Gamma cannot be used at all, and Ladoga only in very small quantities.

Only after that I draw a real sketch, having seen enough inspiring and instructive pictures.
---First on paper. Then I transfer it onto the guitar with a simple pencil, which can be easily erased with an eraser. Even in this case, the guitar dictates its own and I am again far from a paper sketch. But the desired mood remains.

Now we draw the main elements (for me - the bones of the corset), and add volume using tone.
---My base colors are Studio Acrylics and Polycolor. But everything else is Ladoga, which I actively dilute with basic ones.

Now the best part - the details.
---I draw the stitching, buttons, lace, and saturate the shadows. The main thing here is not to overdo it =) And don’t forget to add a logo. I draw two at once: my JMOT and a small 1 gram weight - this is the Ukuleleshnaya logo.

To cover it with varnish, I cover with tape everything that has not yet been covered.
---By the way, I sealed the nut and the lower part of the neck immediately before starting all the work, so as not to get it dirty with paint.

Now just coat it with varnish.
---I use terrible stinking crap - Borma Wachs halo-free spray varnish. This is for restoration work on wood. It sprays well, does not react to temperature changes and can be matte or glossy. The glossy one covers the same as on the previous ukulele number 3. And the matte one gives a slight gloss (this can be seen in the photo of the side of the guitar: a thin light stripe at the top is varnish) and it does not glare in the light. [I like matte much more, it’s clear that it’s painted at least.] Let everything dry overnight/day, or better yet, 24 hours.

Remove the tape and tighten the strings. Voila =)

Many people associate hiking with songs with a guitar around a night fire. Music creates an atmosphere of comfort and romance, filling the evening with special magic. And singing in chorus with a guitar somehow even brings us closer together. It is not for nothing that this wonderful instrument is especially popular among tourists. But it’s too bulky, which creates great difficulties on long hikes. The main principle of lightening a backpack is not to take unnecessary things with you. Because of this, I completely threw the guitar into the far corner for more than 5 years, playing only occasionally at drinking parties. But recently I started thinking about a small camping guitar. At first I looked towards shortened, children's models, which are not very common in stores, and their range is not so wide. But somehow I passed by music store, and my gaze fell on a miniature ukulele. Well, why not try, I thought then.

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That’s what I did - I bought an inexpensive Chinese model for relatively little money. I specifically chose the option with a smaller soundboard, clearly realizing that this would clearly not have a positive effect on the sound of the instrument, and it would play quieter than its counterparts, but the desire to minimize the dimensions prevailed. I tried it and liked it. A curious instrument that I had never encountered before in any form. The ukulele has its own specific signature sound due to the radical differences in dimensions with the guitar and the thin fourth string.

Compared to a classical guitar, the ukulele looks like a toy. Small versions of the instrument weigh about 350-500 g, versus 1.5 kg of the weight of a classical guitar, and there are examples that are even heavier. The length of this guitar is 53 m, the thickness of the slim version at the widest point of the soundboard does not exceed 5 cm.

Ukuleles have 4 classic look, differing in dimensions - scale length (the length of the working part of the string - the distance between the lower and upper saddle), and the size of the drum. The larger the instrument, the more rich the sound it has (if you do not get attached to the materials from which it is made), the more low frequencies there are in its sound, and the more similar it sounds to a guitar. The smallest of which is a soprano ( total length 53 cm). This is a classic ukulele that existed in this form until the beginning of the last century. Later, the concert ukulele (58 cm long) with a slightly larger scale and larger drum dimensions was invented, the next largest is the tenor (66 cm long), and the baritone (76 cm) completes the line of classic ukuleles. There is also a bass ukulele, but this is rather an exception.

Due to the thin 4 strings, the ukulele has its own signature sound when played with strikes. You can put a thick 4th string with braid and tuned an octave higher, but this is only relevant when playing solo; it is not suitable for playing with classic ukulele chords - the guitar simply will not sound on some of them, since the bass note produced by the 4th string will not correspond to the main one chord note.

You need to get used to the tool. After classical music, the thin neck falls out of your hand, and your fingers don’t fit on the frets, no matter how you take it - it’s not convenient, but over time you get used to it. Although those with large fingers will find it a little difficult to play the soprano, it is better to take a look at the concert version. At first, singing with a ukulele is not very convenient; you constantly want to add bass notes to the accompaniment, as a result of which not all the songs that you played on the guitar will sound like that right away.

If you didn't have a guitar with nylon strings, then at first it will be wild that the system floats terribly for the first week. After installing new strings, the ukulele becomes detuned at the end of the first composition. The cheapest versions, due to poor tuning mechanics, will go out of tune even after the strings are stretched and rubbed in, so it’s not worth taking a really cheap one either. And due to the peculiarities of human hearing, at high frequencies, even a small mess is clearly audible even to inexperienced guitarists. It is because of this that when purchasing you should pay Special attention the way the instrument builds. Most cheap ukuleles don't build right away; you have to go somewhere beyond the 5th-7th fret. The most outspoken hacks sell instruments that are not built from the very first frets. Therefore, before purchasing an instrument, if you do not have perfect pitch, you should either purchase a separate chromatic tuner (the cheapest models of which can be purchased for 150 rubles in China) or install the tuner application on your phone. On Android I use gStings. You can also ask for a tuner in the store where you purchase the instrument; I think the sellers will not refuse. You tune the open string to the note that it should produce according to the tuner, check what note it produces at the 12th fret, you should get the same note, but an octave higher, without any deviations. Just keep in mind that an instrument with new strings will go out of tune very quickly. Once you have checked all the strings on the 12th fret, you should check them on the remaining frets. at least by 3,5,7.

Let's see what a ukulele is made of. The principles are the same as in acoustic guitars, in order for the sound to be rich in overtones and sound rich, the guitar drum must be relatively large in size (thin and smaller models do not sound as bright and loud). In addition to the volume of the drum, the materials from which the ukulele is made greatly influence the sound.

Cheap models are made from laminate - three-layer plywood. Which is not very good for the top deck. Usually such guitars have a cheerful coloring, which does not allow one to take the instrument seriously, and look more like toys than really musical instrument. Actually, they are toys - nothing more.

There are versions from not particularly common breeds, such as zebrano. The sound, I remember, of such instruments as that of a basin in public bath, but some people even like it

A convenient web application for determining chord fingerings, in which you can find many variations of the same triad.
Ukulele forum, where you can find answers to most of your questions about this instrument.

The ukulele has become one of the most popular instruments among young people - a compact, plug-free and easy-to-learn guitar has gained popularity all over the world. Musicians such as Tyler Joseph(Twenty One Pilots), George Formby, George Harrison (The Beatles) And Jake Shimabukuro. The latter, at one time, became a real sensation on YouTube.

Editorial website I didn’t want to ignore this miniature guitar. In this material we will tell you how to play the ukulele, talk about the structure and tuning of the instrument, and also look at simple chords and picking.

What is a ukulele

Ukulele is a Hawaiian type of guitar with four strings and sometimes eight strings (four pairs of double strings). According to the main version, the name of the instrument is translated from Hawaiian as “jumping flea”, since when playing, the movements of the fingers resemble the movement of this insect.

The instrument was invented by a Portuguese Manuel Nunez in the 1880s. Nunez developed ideas from the braguinha (miniature guitar from Madeira) and the cavaquinho (Portuguese miniature guitar). The ukulele quickly spread across the islands Pacific Ocean, and in Europe and North America became famous thanks to the tour of Pacific musicians in San Francisco in 1915.

There are five types of ukuleles, differing in size and sound:

1. Soprano ukulele (53 cm);
2. Concert ukulele (58 cm);
3. Ukulele tenor (66 cm);
4. Ukulele-baritone (76 cm);
5. Ukulele bass (76 cm).

The most popular type of ukulele is the soprano ukulele.

Build a ukulele

The ukulele strings are tuned as follows (low to high):

• Salt (G);
• Before (C);
• Mi (E);
• A (A).

The tuning of the ukulele is the same as that of a regular guitar at the fifth fret. The main advantage of this tuning is that you can play everything on a ukulele that you can play on a regular guitar from the fifth fret.

Please note that the standard ukulele tuning is different from the standard guitar tuning: the low open string (the thickest) is not the lowest note of the instrument, as on a regular guitar.

The neck of the ukulele is short, which allows you to adjust the instrument to any convenient tuning without any harm to the strings.

The ukulele can be tuned to regular guitar tuning so that the instrument sounds like the first four strings of a regular guitar. In this case, the ukulele's tuning will look like this:

• Mi (E);
• Si (B);
• Salt (G);
• D (D).

How to Play the Ukulele: Basic Chords

To understand how to play the ukulele, let's learn a few basic chords. These chords are the bare minimum and basic chord vocabulary for those just starting to learn the ukulele.

The chords are easy to learn. To get your hands and fingers used to the instrument, play these chords one after another in any order.

Major and minor scales

C major scale for ukulele

C minor scale (natural) for ukulele

The simplest scales for the ukulele will help you get used to the instrument. Play them using the pad of your thumb and index finger or nail, gradually moving to playing with a pinch of two fingers.

Gradually combine plucking with finger playing - the ukulele playing technique involves an active combination of plucking and strumming.

Major and minor pentatonic scale

To play the ukulele, you can use three fingers - thumb, index and middle. This playing technique is similar to plucking strings on classical guitar: thumb is responsible for playing the lower strings (third and fourth), and the pointing and middle fingers play on the upper strings (first and second).

For training basic principles To learn how to play the ukulele by fingerpicking, practice on the pentatonic scale. Mastering the pentatonic scale will help you become more comfortable with plucking strings and will come in handy in those moments when there are two sounds in a row on the same string.

Playing the ukulele

You can strum the ukulele using your index finger or pinch. Make downward strokes (away from you, up arrow on tablature) with the nail of your index finger, and upward strokes (toward you, down arrow) with the help of a pad. Strikes on the strings should be calm, but strong enough.

Use the strumming pattern with the other chords we learned earlier. Combine them in any order to find pleasing chord combinations. The essence of this example is to learn how to play any chords and achieve independence of the left and right hand when playing.

Once rearranging chords and strumming does not cause problems, complicate the example. Play the first note of the chord on the fourth string thumb- these places are indicated by the Latin letter p on the tablature. By practicing this exercise, you will learn to combine playing techniques.

Playing fingerpicking on the ukulele

This exercise will help you achieve finger independence when playing fingerpicking. Place your finger on each of the four strings:

• The fourth string (the thickest) is the thumb ( p);
• Third string - forefinger (i);
• Second string - ring finger ( m);
• The first string (the thinnest) is the little finger ( a).

All sounds should be played at the same volume. Practice fingerpicking and fingering to achieve an even, smooth, and clear sound.