Welcome to Ukulele the Pickle, folks! If you have recently picked up this amazing instrument and you’re looking to get a good start on ukulele mastery, you’re in luck.
For all beginners looking to learn how to strum a ukulele, this guide for easy strumming patterns is just the thing you need to get started.
Foundations of Ukulele Strumming Patterns
In order to learn the ukulele strum patterns, you need to have a strong foundation. The first thing you should know about strumming is that it’s never about how fancy your strumming patterns are. Strumming is a kind of rhythm so honestly, it only has to be steady and consistent in order to be effective.
You see, no matter how complicated or simple the ukulele strum pattern is, as long as it is steady, it’s more pleasing to listen to. Now, before you actually pick up the ukulele and start with the strumming, you need to follow a couple of steps so you can understand how to stay in tempo.
- Step 1: Whenever you listen to a song, clap along with it. The natural inclination to clap is there when you’re listening to a song. It will give you an idea of the beat and the rhythm of the song. Getting a grip on that will help you learn how to strum a ukulele easily after you know the patterns.
- Step 2: Another way to get a better grasp of the beat, try counting from one through four throughout the time you listen to a song. Repeat it throughout the song. It’ll make it easier for you to learn how to strum a ukulele.
How to Strum a Ukulele
While there are several ways to start learning how to strum a ukulele, the most basic way to go about it is this:
- Start out with the loose fist hand position. It’s the most basic way to hold the ukulele.
- Strum with the index finger of your right hand with the fingernail side hitting the strings as you strum downwards.
- While strumming upwards, hit the strings with the fleshy tip of your index finger instead of the nail.
- Another thing to note is that you should use your wrist for the strumming movement instead of your whole hand, especially if you’re a beginner.
Now, matching the beats of the song, you should coordinate the up and down movement of your strumming to try and stay consistent with the rhythm of the song. The key here is to go for down and up movements in a steady and consistent manner.
The most basic way to go about it is down – down – up – up and repeat that throughout the song along with the rhythm. Timing the up and down strums in a way that the down strum lasts twice as long as the up strum can make the simple down-up strumming sound a lot more interesting.
Another way of how to strum a ukulele is to go for the down–up–down and down–up-down pattern. Getting creative with the strumming pattern like this and playing out either the down strum or up strum for longer is a pretty nifty way to get some interesting sounds.
Final Thoughts
Learning how to strum a ukulele is actually more about being able to keep yourself in tune with the rhythm and being consistent.
Once you practice enough to do that steadily, play around with the basic strumming patterns to make your strumming pattern more sophisticated as you keep on mastering them.
If you are still not sure how to strum your ukulele, you can always look for video tutorials online.