I’ve managed to get the chords down now, and it’s becoming a less frequent occurance that I substitute guitar chords for Uke chords, but learning some of the strumming techniques is a bit of a challenge. George Formby (for it is a pre-requisite of any Uke player that you can play a) Formby and b) Iz) created some pretty advanced strum patterns that involve multiple strikes of the strings with different digits. Who’d have thought it would be so complex?!

Anyway, with the help of YouTube I’m getting there, so I’m still feeling pretty pleased with my purchase. Still nowhere near good enough to inflict myself on the public, but in time…

I opted for an electro-acoustic model in the mid-price bracket (using up some of my paypal balance), and I’ll connect it up to garageband later on to see what it can do. In the first instance though, I’ve got it out the box and tuned it up to get a feel for the sound. According to my research the strings were likely to be “servicable” and nothing more, so I also bought some of the universally recommended Aquila strings which should dramatically improve the sound; restringing is a task for this evening.

I also hear that it can take a while for a uke to hold tune. My Ovation electro-acoustic guitar only needs very minor tweaks every month or so to hold tune, but this is definitely slipping out of tune within minutes.

So on the subject of Ukuleles, I found a nice useful site when doing my research which I’d recommend for anyone considering buying their first Uke: http://ukulelehunt.com/buyaukulele/

YouTube is full of uke-goodness too. I especially like Gus & Fin:

I’ll post some tests up when I’m feeling confident enough to play it!