A Spotify Playlist & Index to ‘The Daily Ukulele’ YELLOW

Ukulele players, especially those in ukulele groups, everywhere have used ‘The Daily Ukulele’ book – both YELLOW and the BLUE sequel. We excitedly anticipate the third PURPLE edition. (Commissions Earned)

I can’t remember where I saw it but someone shared a SPOTIFY Playlist of all the songs in the ‘Daily Ukulele Yellow Book’- https://spoti.fi/3s0XBw5

Related…

Years ago I created an Index to the same book that lists keys of each song PLUS:

  • # of Chords
  • Meter
  • Copyright Decade
  • Genre
  • and sometimes a Secondary Genre

The index – https://bit.ly/3Fpt7Hh

ChatGPT sums up ‘How to Strum a Ukulele’

(‘An AI chatbot went viral. Some say it’s better than Google; others worry it’s problematic.’ NBC News)

My son introduced his old man to ‘ChatGPT’ (AI or Artificial Intelligence) – https://chat.openai.com/chat

You can type in a question, ask for an essay on ____ or something similar. The results are quite amazing.

I asked it two questions on strumming a ukulele.

  • – How do you strum a ukulele
  • What are some ukulele strum patterns?
Here are the results…

how do you strum a ukulele

To strum a ukulele, hold the ukulele in a way that is comfortable for you. Place your strumming hand on the strings near the sound hole. Use your thumb or fingers to pluck the strings in a downward motion, moving your hand from the top of the strings to the bottom. This is called a downstrum. You can also pluck the strings in an upward motion, moving your hand from the bottom of the strings to the top. This is called an upstrum. Experiment with different strumming patterns to create different sounds.

What are some ukulele strum patterns?

There are many different strumming patterns that you can use on a ukulele. Some common strumming patterns include:
Down, down, down, down (also known as “four on the floor”)
Down, down, up, down (also known as “three on the floor, one on top”)
Down, up, down, up (also known as “two on the floor, two on top”)
Up, down, up, down (also known as “two on the bottom, two on top”)
To create more complex strumming patterns, you can combine these basic patterns or add in additional strums. For example, you might try:
Down, up, down, up, down, down (also known as “the heartbeat”)
Down, up, down, up, down, up (also known as “the train”)
You can also try incorporating different rhythms and accents into your strumming patterns to create even more interesting sounds. The important thing is to experiment and find what works best for you.


Pretty good, huh??

Start Learning the Notes to Increase the Fun!

Strumming chords and singing is fun but I find that I have the most fun by playing the ukulele as a pianist or an organist would – by playing the notes of the melodies along with the chords. It isn’t near as hard as it sounds. It starts with learning the notes of the fingerboard., This video created by Phil Doleman is great for learning those notes! Give it a try!

Loving seeing the new products introduced at NAMM!

NAMM (the National Association of Music Merchants) is currently meeting in Anaheim, California. It ends on Sunday, January 19th.

Lots of musical instrument manufacturers and publishers are introducing new products. Among them are these great looking ukuleles from KALA…

Photo Source: Kala’s facebook page

“Announcing the new Surf Collection by Kala! These original designs were made in house by the Kala design team and they look totally awesome! 🏄”

“The Surf Uke will be starting at $79.99 and will be available in early March!”

Bernadette suggests ’20 Most Important Ukulele Chords’…

As part of her #30DayUkuleleChallenge ‘Bernadette Teaches Music’ provided a YouTube video listing and demonstrating the most important ukulele chords.

Of course, most of them are the common ones. A few of them , however, are good alternate chords by moving a barr chord up the fretboard (example: moving B flat up to form C, D and E.

Love the ‘Strum Together’ books from Hal Leonard!

Have you seen the series of ukulele books from Hal Leonard called, ‘Strum Together’?
The ‘Together’ part is cool – each song has the chords for the following:

  • Standard Ukulele
  • Baritone Ukulele
  • Guitar
  • Mandolin
  • Banjo

They are intended for casual jams with friends who play other instruments. Since the purpose of them is to allow people with different instruments who may not have played together the arrangements are not difficult.

They are also great for ukulele classes since they give both the standard ukulele chords and the baritone chords.

The music is on the right side page and the chords are on the left side

I have three of them:

There are a few duplicates among the three books…

  • some are in a different key, 
  • some are in the same key in both books
  • a few are in the same key but one has more advanced forms of the chords, 
  • some have different layouts [order of verses, chorus, coda, etc.], some are in 

I have these marked on and in my books if you’d like to see them.

There are three others…

The series can be found here. The names of the songs in each book are listed there. 

I know that a couple of them was arranged by Mark Phillips but I don’t know about the others.  

Below is an example of the chords page…

The song is on the right side with the chord names, the melody and the lyrics.