I’m a pretty good ‘rhythm’ ukulele player … meaning I have a strong set of strumming and fingerpicking skills to lay down an accompaniment for my singing. I’m an O.K. ukulele instrumentalist … meaning I stay ahead of all my students in the Ukulele Youth Choir I direct and most of the members in my group, the Happy Valley Ukes. There are about three members of that latter group that really push me and make me want to be a better player. So, I’m planning on diving into some intense daily playing again.

I’m no stranger to practice routines, and I’ve written some practice advice for rhythm playing and self-accompaniment. Lately, I’ve been rehearsing some piano pieces that I plan to do in a concert soon and have picked up some more tips there that I think might transfer well over to ukulele (subject of a future post).

Anyway, I thought it would be a good idea to poll the collective wisdom of the ukulele community, via some Facebook groups, for their tips as well. Some of the ideas parallel things I probably would have said on my own, but there are other things in there I probably wouldn’t have thought about or considered. So here is some collective wisdom (though on some of these I couldn’t quite tell if they were serious, or poking fun at me for even asking: I’ll let you decide which ones are useful to you) . . .

• My tip is simply, repetition repetition repetition is the only way to improve and master any musical instrument. – Michael Nordahl Wallem
• To wit: Solo is best practiced ALONE! – Daniel Wesley
• Always practice with a metronome! Start very slowly and pick up the tempo as your accuracy improves. – Craig W Hurst
• Use iReal, BandInABox or a reasonable backing track software to practice soloing. – Tom Towle
• Learn to read music, both in jazz charts AND ukulele tablature…learn lyrics so you can ‘sing’ the melody in your head well enough to be able to contrive variations to it over the harmony. -Tom Towle
• Learn and practice scales in all keys … major, natural and harmonic minors, dominant, blues and whole tone half tone. Learn the importance of the root note and where to find it. And practice as many hours a day as possible. For a start. – Nick Bennett
• Study the blues….be able to play the blues at any point in an improvised line.
  Listen to the incredible Benny Chong constantly and tastefully play blues riffs throughout The Nearness of You. – Tom Towle
• Learn to read music, both in jazz charts AND ukulele tablature…learn lyrics so you can ‘sing’ the melody in your head well enough to be able to contrive variations to it over the harmony. – Tom Towle
• Little and often to get fingertips hardened. Use a metronome and tap foot in time with it to get accurate timing. – Colin Lamb
• When I am soloing or leading I personally use a pick. It helps to practice to backing tracks. -Scott VanderStouw
• Learn things in pieces and start slow. – Reham Kcirtap
• If you mean single note soloing and improvisation: Learn about chord tones, not just scales. Develop vocabulary, small licks that then can be connected, varied, developed, etc. See D Minor Pentatonic Scale Uke Tutorial. -Jeff Weinberger
• Tom Towle also provided a link to a tutorial where he works through a solo in Uke Go to My Head, demonstrating the process he goes through to take a fairly-sophisticated jazz tune from scratch to something cool.
• Learn the most difficult parts of the song first. In very challenging songs this helps to ensure that you learn the whole song. – Jon Kent Clayburn
• LISTEN! Listen to the songs you want to play, to the melodies until you know them inside out, until you can hum the melodies when someone wakes you up at night. Learn by EAR, not by tabs or notes. Follow the chords to find the melodies. Be courageous enough to improvise. Never try to replicate anything 1:1 (it‘s been done already, so why do it again?). Give the tunes/melodies you play something of your personality. But again, most important: forget about tabs and notes and LISTEN, and learn by ear. – Martin Neuhold
• Chord melodies are where it’s at! Before attempting something more complex, learn the inversions for a simple three chord song thoroughly. Remember to adjust the key of the song to fit in the range of the ukulele. Then, use the notes of the melody to build inversions. Finding the perfect chord to fit the mood of the song (and one that you can actually play) is the mark of mastery. You may not have to play every string every time. You may run out of room as you climb up or down the neck, so get creative! Study Roy Smeck, Del Rey, Herb Ohta, and Lyle Ritz, and practice! – Donald Whitley
• I have found that when playing solo, I might follow the chords, but try and pick the melody instead of strumming. It works beautifully with Aloha Oe and Silent Night. – Bob Carmichael, Temecula Valley Ukulele Strummers
• Little and often, as the actress said to the bishop. – Ernie Halls
• Learn the correct/efficient fingering. – Midori OnQuest
• Don’t let your practice be strictly off paper. Put on a background track, and play accompaniment to it. They come in all keys. – Jól Retzloff

Now some of this applies more to improvisation, and some to learning a written solo … there’s a lot of good food for thought on both fronts. A number of people mentioned practicing to backing tracks, which is a great idea. I’ve been a composer for a long time, and remember when Band in a Box first came out … it was a complete joke, but looking at the current version I was amazed at the quality of the sounds coming out of the program … something new has made it into my wish list. Anyway, there are enough ideas here to keep me busy for several years, so thanks to all who contributed their thoughts.

Post filed under All UkulelePlay! Blog Posts, Ukulele Education, Ukulele Technique, Ukulele Tips.