Picking
This lesson covers the different ways to pluck the ‘ukulele’s strings with the right hand.
Jump to:
Thumb Picking:
Plucking the strings with your thumb is probably the first kind of picking you should explore. It’s easy and sounds good (the fat thumbnail makes for great tone). You can pick using either the flesh of the thumb or the nail. The flesh has a warmer, soft sound, and the nail a more defined “pop”.
To pick with your thumb, start by holding the bottom of your ‘ukulele up with your pinky and ring finger right in the middle of the instrument’s body, where the sides dip in. Then place your thumb or thumbnail on the string angling towards the bridge at about 45 degrees. To sound the string, just move your thumb straight down towards your fingers.
Before:
After:
Before (2):
After (2):
Index Picking (guitar pick style):
I’m going to separate this from the next section just because they are really separate styles and there isn’t much of an option to merge the two.
This is the ‘ukulele players way to pretend he is holding a guitar pick. Plus, it gives you a lot of options and sounds. You are going to need an index fingernail to do this type of picking. Troy Fernandez from the Ka’au Crater Boys plays like this a lot. If you play guitar with a pick, you are already close to knowing how this works. If not, here we go…
Curve your right hand index finger so that the first and second knuckles are bent to somewhere around 90 degrees of the rest of your hand. Then drop your thumb onto your index finger so that it rests sort of in the crook of your last knuckle. Like so:
This is your “guitar pick”.
Now, drop that shape down so that your “pick” fingernail rests on top of the string. You will probably find it easiest to brace your hand on the soundboard with your pinky and ring fingers somewhere below the strings and in between the sound hole and bridge.
Next, you just push your “pick setup” down through the string.
The really cool thing about this picking style is that you can pick up too. With the other two picking options presented here, it’s not as easy to pick up (or that’s the only direction you usually go). Just reverse your picking direction and maybe let your index knuckle bend a bit as you pull through the string.
Finger Picking:
Learning to play the ‘ukulele with your fingers along with the thumb can be very freeing. Using just the thumb for picking works very well, but both the thumb and fingers together can give you more speed and precision. When you start learning how to play with your fingers it will seem near impossible, but it’s not.
Start with your index finger. Work on playing with different fingers one at a time, because the first finger will learn the motions. After that it’s easier to add more to the mix. Anchor your ring and pinky fingers to the soundboard below the strings and in between the sound hole and bridge. This lets you start the picking motion in the same place every time instead of floating around worrying about actually hitting the right string. Your fingers are going to rest at an angle to the strings, because your arm is going over the top half of the ‘ukulele. This is fine, you don’t want to bend your wrist sideways to keep your fingers perpendicular to the strings.
Now place the tip of your index finger so that it’s resting on the bottom of the A string. (This is a good time to mention that growing your fingernail out might make this easier.) Pick up and out. If you pick straight up towards the G string you might ring the E or C string on accident. That is the basic motion. Playing like this will feel weird and clumsy for a while, but practice and you will start to feel more comfortable with it.
Once you get comfortable using the index finger to pick, you can start working on picking with other fingers. I find that using my index and middle fingers gives me plenty of freedom, so I haven’t gone on to use my ring finger very much.
Pima is the system that is used to show what fingers to use for what notes. Each letter is an abbreviation of a Spanish word that stands for a finger.
P = thumb
I = index
M = middle
A = ring
Using this system, it is easy to show what fingers to use in a song. The pima fingering is usually shown above the notation or tab.
I play with whatever finger works with the note I play at that time. Not helpful info, I know. But if I had to pin down my playing I would say that I use my thumb for the top two strings, index for E, and middle for A. The only time I use my ring finger is when I play all the notes of a chord at the same time – one finger to every string – or do a fast roll starting with my thumb. This is just how I play; depending on how many fingers you use, something else might work better for you.
Just to give you an idea how you can use more fingers to your advantage:
p i p i p i p i p i p i p i p
A |-----------0-2-3-2-0-----------
E |-----0-1-3-----------3-1-0-----
C |-0-2-----------------------2-0-
G |-------------------------------
Using both your thumb and index finger, you can play the C scale much faster than you could with just your thumb.
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The examples cited above are–in three finger banjo parlance–what is called “Reno” style banjo after developer Don Reno in the fifties. There is perhaps a more interesting picking pattern which could be applied to the uke–besides the typical Scruggs banjo bluegrass style–which is known as “melodic”, “chromatic” or “fiddle” style picking. It consists of using three fingers (not four, as in John King’s campanella style) to play scale notes (any melody notes) on DIFFERENT STRINGS (preferably open ones), never consecutively on the same string. It gives a nice effect and should work beautifully for uke.