Live ‘Ukulele

Tremolo is the picking of one note in rapid secession. You can use the nail on ether your thumb or your index finger (or any other finger that works) to produce tremolo.

On sheet music tremolo looks like this:

To create tremolo with your index finger or thumb, first anchor any number of your right hand fingers to the soundboard below the sound hole. Use these fingers as a pivot point. Place your thumb(nail) or index finger on the string (you can brace your thumb with your index finger and vice-versa) and then pick down. Do this without bending your thumb or index finger - instead rock your whole hand forward on the “pivot fingers”. Picking up is just opposite. Practice picking down and up consistently, speeding up, slowing down, changing strings.

A more advanced way to produce tremolo is with a roll of your fingers. Start by picking up with your middle finger,and then with your index. Follow those two with a down stroke of your thumb. This technique is hard to do on any string but the bottom. Start slowly and as you get the hang of it speed up. Bryan Tolentino uses this kind of tremolo in “G minor fleas” that he did with Herb Ohta Jr.

An octave is a grip (chord shape) of two notes. A main note, and the note an octave above (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8). Octaves can be used to make a single note sound bigger without playing an actual chord. Jimi Hendrix used octaves a lot - in songs like Villanova Junction. I have also seen Jake Shimabukuro use octaves on his “Play Loud ‘Ukulele” DVD in the song Europa.

I have seen people play octaves in three different shapes:

1. 2X5X
2. X2X5
3. 5XX3

I find that it is easiest to play the first two shapes with the index and pinky fingers of my left hand. The third seems to work best with the index and ring fingers of my left hand. The two strings that don’t sound are muted by any fingers you can use. Then you can strum just like you were playing a chord. Or you can just pick the two notes in a pincer movement with the thumb and index finger of your right hand.

Both notes are the root, so just move the shape around until you land on the note you are looking for. So a C octave would be X0X3 or 5X8X or 5XX3. A G octave would be 0X3X or X7X10 or 12XX10. (Etc.)

Try playing Jake’s Europa break. (In octaves): D E F E F A G F E E (or something close to that. Watch the video for the whole idea).

~Hippie Guy

Effects come in many varieties from little stomp boxes ($) to rack mounted effects ($$$$). Effects essentially change the sound the of incoming signal, by adding to it or changing it. There are many different kinds of effects. Only some are practical for ‘ukulele players.

Delay/Reverb is the first effect that comes to mind. Almost all of the pros use at least a little bit of delay or reverb when they perform or record. A delay pedal records notes and then plays them back after a specified amount of time. A reverb pedal uses the same idea, but instead of sounding like one individual note, the repeat is like a bunch of notes bouncing around an empty room. The typical controls for a delay or reverb pedal are:

• Level/mix adjusts the volume of the delayed signal
• Time controls the time between the first note you play and the delayed note(s)
• Feedback/regeneration is the number of times the delayed note is played back (at specified delay time) as it fades away (watch out for this, because if you get carried away and turn this up too much you can start the “loop of death” - or a delay that starts to feedback and “take off”)

and sometimes:

• Mode changes the different delay time segments (300ms-800ms, 600ms-2600ms) or overall reverb sound (hall, spring, plate)
• Tone controls different frequencies and the overall sound

An EQ (equalization) pedal is an effect that allows you to raise or lower the level of individual frequencies. EQ is nice to have control over because the average ‘ukulele sounds trebley when you plug it in. An EQ pedal can help boost bass frequencies and fix that problem. You can also use equalization to create a sound that is unique and more interesting than un-EQed ‘ukulele.

Volume pedals control the level (volume) of the incoming signal. They are mounted on a rocker so that you can use your foot to adjust output. If you put the pedal in the “toe up” position no signal is heard, so you can use it as a mute when you are tuning. By starting with the toe up, picking a note, and then rolling the pedal to toe down, you can achieve violin-like volume swells (think Jeff Beck).

Some of the less practical effects include:

• A noise gate cuts off any sound that doesn’t reach a certain noise level
• Compression balances tone and increases the sustain of a note
• Distortion is the result of to much input, which overloads a circuit and starts to distort the signal
• Overdrive is the sound of an overdriven tube amp (same idea as distortion)
• Tremolo turns the level of the incoming signal up and down
• The flanger was originally invented when a studio engineer played two analog tapes back at the same time and held his finger on one to slow it down. It creates a swirling Eddie Van Halen type of sound
• The phaser is the sister to flange except it is a frequency-based effect instead of delay-based (same EVH sound)
• Chorus makes the signal sound as if there are two instruments playing
• An octave pedal instantly adds a duplicate of your playing an octave above or below (or both) the original signal
• The wah-wah is a rocker pedal that removes treble frequencies

The videos at Expert Village give you a good idea of what each effect does

There is more info at: http://www.harmony-central.com/Effects/effects-explained.html

Learn how to plug effects in on our Amplifying Your ‘Ukulele page

Once you get past the down, up and down, down, up, up, down strums, most of the time you just have to learn by watching and listening. But, the good thing about strums is that you can play them how you like as long as they fit the song. All strums can be played either swing or straight. Most of the time a swing strum is easier.

Swing is lopsided - it takes longer to come back up than it takes to go down (listen to almost any simple strumming Hawaiian song and they are probably using swing). Straight is even - going up takes just as much time as going down (practice this with a metronome: down on one tick, and up with another). Here are some one-finger strum patterns (D=down, U=up, (space)=rest, X=chop).

• DU
• DDUUD (used in a lot of contemporary Hawaiian songs - i.e. “Surf”)
• DXUUD
• XDUUD
• D UX XUUD DU

Triplet Strum

Used by James Hill and Kimo Hussey, this is a nice addition to your strumming arsenal.

Strum down with your index finger. Then strum down with your thumb. Strum up with your index finger. Practice this over and over slowly. Try starting the rotation with different fingers.

Ten Finger Strum

Note that I myself cannot play this. I feel that it is more of a Jake performance thing than useful technique, but I do know how it works.

Strum up with your thumb. Then roll/brush up on the strings starting with your pinky,and going to your ring, middle, then index fingers. Next you roll/brush down with all fingers starting with your pinky ending on your index. Then strum down with your thumb. Repeat this with blistering speed until you can’t see your hand moving.

~Hippie Guy

The chop strum (usually shown as “X”) is used in many different strum patterns, especially contemporary Hawaiian songs (”Surf”, “Honey Baby”, “Kiss You in the Morning”, etc…). The chop is pretty easy; you are already halfway there when you strum down. All you need to do is add your palm to the mix.Start by making your right hand into a very loose fist. Hold the chord of your choice. Then strum down with your hand in the same shape. When your finger nails hit the top string, open your hand so that your fingers are fully extended, striking the strings on the way by. As you follow through with the strum bring your palm down to mute the strings a split-second after they sound. You will need to do this quickly to make it sound decent. Chop strums need to be integrated into strum patterns. Playing chop strums throughout a whole song would sound horrible!

Try adding chops to the DDUUD strum pattern. With chop strums it would go like: DXUUX.

If you have read our Hammer-ons and Pull-offs lesson and have pull-offs nailed down, another thing to try is a one-string run (I don’t know if that is the official term). You use one-string runs mostly in soloing and for vamps.

Using an A major scale as an example, start by placing your finger on the 12th fret of the A string. Pick the note and pull-off to open A (the only pull-off you will be doing is to the open A string, so if you see “pull-off” it means pull-off to the open A note). Pick the open A note again (it is easiest for me to pick up using my index finger). Then pick the 11th fret and pull-off. Pick the open A note. Pick the 9th fret and pull-off. Pick the open A note. Pick the 11th fret and pull-off. Pick the open A note. Pick the 9th fret and pull-off. Pick the open A note. (You see where this is going yet?). Pick the 7th fret and pull-off. Pick the open A note. Pick the 9th fret and pull-off. Pick the open A note. Pick the 7th fret and pull-off. Pick the open A note. Pick the 5th fret and pull-off. Pick the open A note. Pick the 4th fret and pull-off. Pick the open A note. Pick the 5th fret and pull-off. Pick the open A note. Pick the 2nd fret and pull-off. Pick the open A note. Practice speeding this up until your pull-offs are consistent.

• Example in tab

A great song to practice this technique in is the Glass Ball Slack Key.
Use other scales and different starting points to add something new to the songs you already know. Practice one scale up and down a string, then go on to the next one.

Slack-key is yet another genre that the ‘ukulele can successfully cover and is relatively easy to learn, but has many opportunities for advanced players.

Slack-key music is really beautiful. If you’re not familiar with it, I would recommend Legends of slack-key guitar. There is also a short clip of Ledward Kaapana playing slack key ‘ukulele on the ‘Ukulele Fest 2003 Youtube video.

To play slack key ‘ukulele you need to put a low-G string on your ‘ukulele.

Slack key is a style, not a tuning. You do not need to tune your ‘ukulele differently, but some artists do. Uncle Ledward Kaapana sums it up nicely: “When I was young my uncle Fred told me you can play slack key in Standard tuning. He said, ‘It’s easy, jus’ press the right strings’. Jus’ press’ was something he would always tell us when we’d ask him a question. One time when we were playing I asked him, ‘Uncle Fred, what key is this?’ He told me, ‘Boy, no worry what key, jus’ press.’”

The most commonly used slack-key guitar tuning is open G (taro patch). Since the ‘ukulele is tuned five steps higher than the guitar, the easiest open tuning to access is open C. To create an open C tuning you must tune the A-string down to G.

To play slack key you must play a bass line. This is tough to pull off on the ‘ukulele because of the limited amount of strings, but since most songs are in C, hitting the low-G-string or the C-string every few notes will work. This is important - play the bass line!

Harmonics are popular in slack-key music so try to ingrate them into your playing. If you don’t know how to play them, check out our lesson on How to Play Harmonics.

You also need to know turnarounds. Figuring them out by ear is probably the best way to learn them. There are so many turnarounds you can use that almost any combination of notes in a scale could work. I would recommend Exploring the ‘Ukulele by Herb Ohta Jr. and Daniel Ho to get you started. It has turnarounds for all of the major keys.

Hammer-ons and pull-offs are easy techniques to add speed and different sounds to your playing.

Hammer-ons

To play a hammer-on, pick a note and then ram another finger on a note above it. Don’t pick the second note. For example: 2h3 (the h means hammer-on) - pick the second fret then hammer-on to the third. You can only use as many hammer-ons as you have sustain. So you couldn’t hammer-on a note then rest, then hammer-on another note if the first note stopped ringing before you could hammer the second. This takes some finger strength, so don’t get discouraged if you have a case of “wimpy fingers”, just keep trying and you will eventually get it.

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Pull-offs

Pulling-off is the exact opposite of hammering-on. Pick a fretted note then pull (or push) your finger off the note up or down parallel to the frets to sound the note behind it (fretted or not). Don’t pick the second note. For example: 3p2 (the p means pull-off) - pick the third fret then pull-off to the second.

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Combos

You can do combos of the two techniques and create short, fast riffs. Try hammering-on and then pulling-off. For example: 2h3p2 - pick the second fret then hammer-on to the third then pull-off from the third to the second. Don’t pick the second and third note. Or pull-off then hammer-on a note. For example 3p2h3 - pick the third fret then pull-off to to the second and hammer back on to the third. Again don’t pick the second and third note.

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Or…

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You can also hammer-on or pull-off more than one note. Try double hammer-ons (2h3h5) or double pull-offs (5p3p2 - Santana uses this a lot with a bend at the end).

Finding - and playing - with inspiration is one the hardest challenges that I have had to overcome to improve my playing. I’ve found it helpful to have a few ideas that will get me out of a rut. Here are a few of the things I do:

~Play with someone who is better than me, even if they play a different instrument. I watch their fingers, and try to remember at least one thing they do, so I can practice it later.
~I watch a Youtube video of my favorite artist(s). Just seeing how/what they play is enough to give me a few new ideas to practice.
~I listen to as much recorded music as I can (‘ukulele or not), and try to learn one thing from each song. That could be a cool chord change, interval or technique. I try to integrate these things into my playing.
~I try to play in other genres. People who say that “that kind of music sucks dude!” are way too one dimensional, and are missing out on a lot of great music opportunities. Listening to other genres gives me many ideas for my playing; the hard part is figuring out how to use it. Here are some cool genres to check out and my favorite artist(s) in that genre:

Hawaiian: Hui ‘Ohana, Ka’au Crater Boys
Reggae: Bob Marly
Rock: Santana, The Doobie Brothers, Van Halen, Eric Clapton, Los Lonely Boys
R&B: Stevie Wonder
Blues: B.B. King, Buddy Guy
Acoustic: Andy Mckee
Other: Jack Johnson

~I watch (to the dismay of my family) concert videos (again and again) and watch the artist’s fingers. Some of the most inspiring for me to watch are Santana, Jake Shimabukuro, Ledward Kaapana and Bob Brozman, Clapton Crossroads Guitar Fest DVDs, and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones.

Sometimes a “rut” will seem to last forever and I won’t want to pick up my ‘ukulele for weeks, but I just suck it up and get it out and run the scales or plod through a song. At least when I’m inspired again I will still have a feel for the instrument.

Music is a great healer – the best in my opinion; let it do its job.

~Hippie Guy

This is a cool technique that can make your ‘ukulele sound like it is being played through a wah-wah pedal or some other kind of modulation effect. It is an interesting way to fade out the last chord of a song.

To play the arm-wah hold your ‘ukulele like you would to play a note, with your arm resting on the top-right corner of the sound-box (vice versa for lefties). Your arm should angle out and above the sound-board. Lay your arm on top of the sound-board bringing your arm parrellel to the bridge with your wrist pointing at the ground, then roll it back off. You can do this as many times as you like as long as the note(s) sustain. Wah-wah-wah-wah-wah…