Sample Lesson

This is one of 50 video lessons from my flagship course, Left Hand Technique.

Keep in mind that this lesson is part of a greater whole. The skills shown here lay the groundwork for future lessons in the course. Just because it’s highlighted on its own, don’t assume that playing along a single string is the best way to tackle the chromatic scale. The entire “best way” picture is available in the rest of Left Hand Technique.

Lesson 3 – Chromatic Scale

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Each lesson is accompanied by text, diagrams, and print outs to clarify anything that might be challenging to share in video form. There is also a practice section for actionable tips on applying and honing the skills from each lesson.

This lesson shows you how to play a chromatic scale that uses every fret on the ʻukulele! We’ll also learn how to shift positions.

The fretting pattern simply uses every single fret:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Play the first four frets with your index, middle, ring, and pinky fingers. Once you reach your pinky on the 4th fret, the trick is to shift your hand up so that your index finger plays the next highest note. This shift allows you to use your index, middle, ring, and pinky fingers again in a higher location.

You’ll shift once more when you reach your pinky on the 8th fret.

Here’s how the fingering looks for the whole scale:

Fret:   1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Finger: 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2  3  4

Practice:

Play up and down the chromatic scale slowly (50BPM or less) until you can do it perfect with crisp shifting and proper fretting technique (2/3 up, light as possible pressure).

Slowly increase the speed in increments once you can play it perfectly at each tempo. If you use a metronome, chunks of 10BPM at a time work well. 50BPM > 60BPM > 70BPM > etc.

Don’t rush your way to faster tempos. There’s nothing to be gained by playing faster if it’s sloppy. It’s good practice to play something slower for a while. In fact, it’s often harder to play slowly!

Once you’ve worked up to a moderate tempo (120BPM~), move the chromatic scale onto each other string and repeat the process. It should go much faster once you have the coordination and shifting down.

Make it harder: Instead of practicing the entire chromatic scale, you can practice shifting strings every time you change positions. This puts the notes out of order but follows the same 1234 pattern. It’s perhaps less musical, but more difficult, technically.

Just switch up the strings as you go:

A |--1-2-3-4---------------------|
E |----------5-6-7-8-------------|
C |------------------9-10-11-12--|
G |------------------------------|

This is just a tiny sample of all the learning that is a part of the Left Hand Technique course. Members get 50 sequential video lessons, TABs for eight songs, a 63 page ebook, and a discussion section for each lesson.

Join now and learn to play effortlessly across the fretboard.

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