How to Play Ukulele by Jake Shimabukuro

okay now I'd like to show you some you know different techniques and just some things that you can do to add to your songs to just kind of enhance the songs and you know add a little variation to them so I'm going to go over a couple of picking techniques and also a couple of strumming techniques you know so we can you know go over and explore both sides the first technique that I want to go over with you is the roll okay and it's a singer finger single finger roll okay basically you're going to use your index finger like this and when we roll it's basically we want to just use our wrist but we don't want to use an up-and-down motion like that's not an up-down motion but more of a twisting motion like this so for example if you're going to open a door you know when you grab the doorknob this kind of twisting motion that's the kind of motion you want you just want to relax your fingers like this okay so let's try this let's hold our D minor chord with our high D note there okay and let's chord that let's just roll it's nice and even and you should be able to control the roll so you should be able to make it very soft just like that you want to be able to have total control over your role all right and that's the role all right the next technique that I want to cover is something called a triple strum and basically you're going to be using your index and your thumb finger okay now I know you think I'll get triple strum so shouldn't we be using three fingers but it's actually it's actually just the index and the thumb like this okay and the stroke looks like this you're going to strum down with your index come up with your thumb and come back up with your index so it's a down down down up with the thumb with index 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 2 3 K so try that 1 2 3 1 2 3 little faster key and you cannot either leave your hand open or you can close it depending you know you can do it this way or you can open your hand whichever way you feel more comfortable ok so let's try this ready 1 2 3 1 2 3 even got it alright ok so let's try this with a chord now let's try holding your a chord like ok and we're just going to go 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 but alright now we're gonna do it we're gonna do it a little bit differently now instead of just you know we're instead of just you know doing it over and over and over we're just gonna do one two three one just like that see so let's try that with the a chord you flat just like that good you got it alright and that's the triple strong okay now this next technique that we're going to go over okay we did the single finger roll we did the triple strum now we're going to do something a little bit more something a little bit more unnatural this is called the ten finger strum okay the ten finger strum alright it's very simple are you going to do is you're going to use your right hand okay just your right hand like this and it's called the ten finger strum because what it is is basically basically you're using all five fingers twice okay so you're gonna you're going to come up with all five fingers starting with your thumb one two three four five and then come back down starting with your baby finger one two three four five so five and five is ten so one two three four five six seven eight nine ten one two three four five six seven eight nine ten okay got it let's try this all right hold your a chord for me get ready get psyched up alright here we go ready one two three five down six seven eight nine 6:17 okay so this is what it looks like fast watch okay got it got it okay now what we're gonna do is we're just going to go in between cords like this and I'm gonna I'm gonna keep it rolling so I'm going to come up like this come back down come on come back down come on okay watch this got it and that's the ten finger roll strum or roll whichever oh you can call it what you want ten fingers hey okay now we're going to go over some advanced picking techniques now usually I try to use as many fingers as I can but my main weapon would be my thumb this is probably my main tool I like the thumb because the nail is the thickest nail so I get the fattest tone with the nail okay so whenever I'm playing single note melodies I will always use my thumb all right now so you know the thumb can be used you know playing down strokes or we can also use up strokes to like a double picking style like this so I'm going to show you okay now for those of you that don't have a nail you can use a pick they have we have thumb picks too that you can use or regular flat pick but I prefer using the thumb because you know it's just I don't know what I really like my thumb come okay okay so anyway alright so let's try this okay all we're going to do is we're going to put our two fingers on the soundboard like this and we're just going to kind of get a good brace okay just so you know we have good reference of where thumb is and let's practice this on the second string like this okay so you're going to strum you're gonna pick down and then up just like this try to make it nice alright there you go okay just really controlling not try to strings you try the second and the first now just the first now the second now both now the more now third second first okay very good so that's that's your double picking technique there yeah just utilizing the thumb and just up and down and try to keep your thumb straight try to try not to bend it like this don't bend it too much but try to keep it more on the street okay you got it good job all right the next picking technique that we're going to use we're going to use some multi fingering techniques and this one I call it the three finger roll basically using these three fingers key unlike the triple strum which she was only two fingers but the three finger roll actually uses three fingers okay well two fingers on the thumb okay so anyway we're going to try this basically we're just going to number each finger 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 and the roll what we're just going to designate a string to each finger ok so say for the middle finger maybe I'll put it on the first string the index finger maybe on the second string and the thumb either the third or the fourth whichever you feel more comfortable let's try the fourth for now okay or let's try the third so a little 1 2 3 ok 1 2 3 so first second third all right and then you're just going to pick those strings in order ok like this 1 2 3 1 just like so just practice that game you know when you're watching TV just practice you sitting in for the television you know just practice 1 2 3 1 2 3 you're cooking breakfast breakfast 1 1 2 3 that's right maybe you just you just want it you you know what we're gonna do is we're gonna go one two three but we're gonna alternate the thumb between the third and a fourth string so like this 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 now hold a cord let's hold our D minor chord watch this and do the same thing now let's uh let's add our high D there slide it down a fret okay let's slide it down another friend and slide it down again that is the three finger roll all right we're going to go over one more one more technique now this technique a lot of the techniques that we've done so far required a lot of work with our right hand but this time we're going to we're going to have our left hand do some of the work here these are called pull offs so basically what we're going to do is we're going to hold a string like this for example let's hold our C chord we're going to hold our C chord here we're going to use our index and thumb of our right alright so I sometimes refer to it as a pick pull tap technique so what you're going to do is you're going to pick the first string with your right hand so you pick in your left hand you're going to pull just like that see big pull pick pull and with your thumb you're going to tap the top string okay so and then and then we're going to let's maybe go down the I don't know let's play different strings so we're going to go pick pull tap pull the tap then we're going to go to the string above it the note above it and do the same thing and let's go to the string above that okay so that's the pic pool tap technique now there's also another another technique where it's actually like a hammer on okay basically it's kind of like the reverse of the the pulling off but the pull off but it's a hammer on so that's when we play a string but we don't actually pick it with our right hand we just kind of hammer it on with our left with our left hand like this see that's how we can get the sound so you gotta okay and then you can also hammer on with your right like this for example this is a this is a fun technique here alright what we're going to do is we're going to hold let's hold our put our index finger on the on the fourth on the bottom string on the 4th fret and let's put our let's see our index on the AMIA ring finger on the 7th and our index finger on the 12th like this ok so basically all we're going to do is okay this this might be a little bit more difficult but we're going to pretty much tap with our right finger like this ok can you hear that just like that and then we're going to pull off with our right hand like this so it looks like this one and then we're going to hammer on with our end it with our ring so 1 2 3 1 2 ok you got to kind of do a little bit faster otherwise it's it's hard to really you know get the notes to ring 3 1 2 like that okay you can also move your left hand so that's the pull off and the hammering on techniques I guess all right good ready to go let's uh let's uh go into another song here's a combination of techniques you we're going to do a song that I'm sure you're very familiar with this is a tune it's an old Beatles tune titled yesterday and it's one of my favorite all-time favorite Beatles songs this one is in the key of F and there's a we got a little bit more chords in there but I'm sure you can handle it won't be a problem all right so I'm going to play it for you one time so you you can get familiar with the song and just the chord voicings that we're going to be using and then we'll go right into the lesson alright here we go yesterday but today yes sir that's key I don't leave alright ok no problem here we go so let's try this yesterday this is in the key of F alright so let's try this all right hold your F chord release your middle finger like this so you have it this is called an F at 9 chord alright and you're going to do a stroke up like this because you want this top string as you're moving so it's like this yes and then you're going to pick your second string that's your opening line okay now watch this you're going to put your middle finger right here alright on the 3rd string 2nd fret and you're just going to chord that that's all right my trouble is okay you're going to put you're going to add your ring finger right here on the first string 2nd fret just like that ok so you know watch this alright this is your g7 chord but we're going to slide it up two frets and that becomes your a7 chord ok now chord that okay now slide your ring finger out okay now watch this this is tough ok you're going to slide everything out like this ok from here you're going to slide it out so your index finger remains on the second string fifth fret now your middle third string 7th and your ring first string 7th ok and you're going to chord that ok got it so watch this okay now you're going to extend your ring out to the 8th there you go got it all right no problem okay let's try that one more time okay you don't have to cord everyone if you don't want to you can do it like this see I'm not courting everyone okay so you you decide where you want to where you want to cord all four strings okay now your next chord you're going to bar the fifth place your middle finger on the top string seventh fret and your ring finger on the first string seventh fret like this it's kind of a difficult chord to hold alright and you're just going to chord that like this see that's far far okay and then you're going to release this and pick the bottom string see got it let's try from here good and all right now all we're going to do is slide down to your C chord okay now you know this is this is your B flat chord actually here can we get this from the a chord this is your a okay now it's like your barring like this and then you move it up it becomes a sharp or B flat move it up again it becomes B move it up again it becomes C so this is your sequence just like this okay so after you pick that D mine after you chord that D chord you're going to come down to your seat okay and then you're going to come down to your B flat like that so watch this okay now B flat alright now all we're going to do is pick the bottom string 5th fret like this okay then you're going to hold your C chord chord that B flat note okay got that now you're going to hold F and you're just going to bend that index finger down so you get that B flat note in the melody and core that good let it go and pick the bottom string twice alright so watch this now okay from here and C B flat okay now watch this F been de-indexed I'll go ahead and pick the bottom string and you can strum so let's try it from here all right from the top right from the top chord up here we go good good D minor okay now there you go alright now come down for the C chord now for the B four five five three one open second string third okay now F chord Bend up bend the index finger down and then pick the bottom string and you can show me okay got it alright so now let's moving on okay now all you have to do is you have to hold that we did this in the other song here it's the second string third fret that's your G note okay and you can hold the you can hold the C chord if you want to and are you going to do is you're going to chord them but you're going to stop at the second string like this okay just like that now hold your D minor chord that's like your F but you're going to bend that middle down and you're going to chord that okay just the top three again alright stop on the second string okay then pick a now you're going to remember how this is your F chord here remember I told you all you got to do is move the bar okay so if this is your F F chord here okay and you move everything up one that becomes f sharp move it up again and it becomes G alright and that's the chord that we're going to use in just the top three again so watch this okay D minor now watch this good okay one more time do you mind good then pick the third string while you're holding the G chord

Channel: Jira Satta

Views: 1,361,671

Rating: 4.9367056 out of 5

Keywords: Ukulele, Jake Shimabukuro

Id: j_at_nglL3M

Length: 24min 24sec (1464 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 02 2011

Reddit Comments

[u/brandon7s]

Fantastic video; it's an essential for anyone looking for some techniques to practice long-term.