How to play Marry had a Little Lamb on the Ukulele Justin Swain, Miguel Hernandez, Nasser Alanazi, Yazeed Alanazi University of North Texas

Transcription

1 How to play Marry had a Little Lamb on the Ukulele Justin Swain, Miguel Hernandez, Nasser Alanazi, Yazeed Alanazi University of North Texas 10/20/2014 TECM MWF 10:00am-10:50am

2 How to Play Mary had a Little Lamb on the Ukulele Playing the ukulele can be a fun, and enlightening hobby. One of the easiest songs for beginners to learn is Mary had a Little Lamb, which a novice player can learn in about ten minutes. You only need a ukulele, and a tuner to start learning. The following instructions will help you learn to hold, tune, fret, strum, and play your first song on the ukulele. Holding the Ukulele Holding a ukulele can seem counter intuitive to some beginners. Like the guitar, all of the weight is held at the body with the right arm while the left hand is used to change the pitches of the strings. 1. Use your right arm to cradle the ukulele. Hold it as high as your ribs, using your forearm to press the ukulele against your chest 2. Curl your fingers around the body where the neck connects to the body 3. Position your thumb in front of the strings on the neck of the ukulele 4. Your left hand should hover under the neck of the ukulele. Your left hand will change positions with each new chord. Figure 1: Top: Holding with right hand Bottom: Adding the left hand Commented [DJN1]: Refer to figure

3 Although it may seem that the ukulele should be strummed over the hole, the ukulele s characteristic sound comes from the strings being strummed on the neck. Tuning Tuning is the most important aspect of playing the ukulele; even the best players will sound inexperienced on an out of tune ukulele. The ukulele consists of four stings; G, C, E, and A. A chromatic tuner is the easiest to use to tune your ukulele. 1. Set up the tuner near your ukulele. The tuner works by showing you the pitch you played in the center. If the pitch is too low the note will be purple, if the pitch is too high the note will be pink. The note will turn green when the string is in tune 2. Use the soft part of your thumb to pluck Figure 2: Top right: Tuner showing pitch too low the top string loud enough to be heard by Top Center: Pitch is in tune the tuner 3. Notice if the tuner reads a pitch lower or Top Right: Pitch is too high higher than G Bottom Left: Plucking a string with your thumb 4. Twist the knob clock wise to lower the Bottom right: Using the tuning knobs to change pitch pitch, or counter clockwise to raise the pitch. 5. When the pitch is close enough to G that the tuner turns green, move on to the next string 6. Tune the second string to C just like you tuned the first 7. Tune the third string to E 8. Tune the last string the A 9. Strum all 4 strings simultaneously to ensure the strings sound good together. If the chord sounds harsh to your ears return to step 2 and try again. You should spend more time tuning your ukulele than you might think. A good tuning job will help with learning new songs, and help with your performances. Fretting There are several raised bars running perpendicular along the neck of the ukulele. Changing the pitch of a string is accomplished by pushing the string down in between the raised bars. The notes required for Mary Had a Little Lamb are C, D, E, and G. Pitches D, E, and G require fretting, and are all played on the Second (C) string Fretting D

4 1. Use the tip of your index finger to push on the second fret of the C string. The second fret is between the first and second raised bar on the neck 2. Pluck the C string using your thumb while your finger is on the second fret to make the D pitch. Fretting E 1. Use the tip of your middle finger to push on the fourth fret of the C string 2. Pluck the C string while pressing the fourth fret to make the E pitch. Fretting G 1. Use the tip of your ring finger to push on the seventh fret of the C string 2. The seventh fret is easily found because of the white dot placed in the center of the seventh fret 3. Pluck the C string while pressing the seventh fret to make the G pitch. Moving between frets can sometimes be tricky, and may seem difficult at first. Try using different fingers that may seem more comfortable. Fretting will become easier with more practice. Strumming Strumming is done with the soft part of the thumb, in a downward motion perpendicular across the neck of the ukulele. Only the second string is used to play Mary had a Little Lamb. The song is played with notes of the same length, with some notes of equal value. 1. Use your thumb to practice strumming the C string 2. Play notes that are continuously the same length, and volume 3. Use the following strum pattern using the C string without pressing on any frets. This strum pattern will be used to play Mary had a Little Lamb: X is used to denote a strum O is used to denote a rest that keeps the same length as a strum X X X X X X X O Ma- Ry Had A Lit- tle Lamb Figure 3: Top: Fretting D Middle: Fretting E Bottom: Fretting G Figure 4: Using thumb to strum X X X O X X X O Lit- tle Lamb, Lit- tle Lamb,

5 X X X X X X X X X X X X X Ma- Ry Had A Lit- tle Lamb, It s Fleece Was White As Snow Keeping a consistent sound and tempo is essential to good ukulele playing. Playing the song The final step is to use the frets on the ukulele with the strumming pattern to play the song. 1. Start playing the song as slow as needed, get faster with each repetition until you reach normal tempo of Mary had a Little Lamb (140 bpm, the same tempo of Beat It by Michael Jackson) 2. Use the following note pattern concurrently with the strumming pattern above to play the song E D C D E E E O Ma- Ry Had A Lit- tle Lamb D D D O E G G O Lit- tle Lamb, Lit- tle Lamb, E D C D E E E E D D E D C Ma- Ry Had A Lit- tle Lamb, It s Fleece Was White As Snow 3. When playing a note with a fret, be sure not to push any other frets to avoid altering the pitch 4. After strumming a note, be sure to hold your finger on the fret as long as possible before switching to the next fret. Playing the ukulele can be a relaxing and enjoyable hobby. Now that you know your first song on the ukulele, you can use your knowledge to keep practicing and learn more songs.