TOP 5 Ukulele STRUMS MADE EASY!

Here are the 5 essential Strums.

Tips and a video...

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Here I walk you through the top 5 Strums, the proper order to learn them and some tricks to playing them!

NEW FULL LENGTH VIDEO (4/26/2024):

GRAB THE PDF HERE - Island strum variations from the pages of my play Ukulele NOW Method.

With these you'll be ready join a club or start a band!

Short version:

NOTES: Make sure your left hand is relaxed; the left arm dose not move  - just the wrist; your wrist is relaxed; strumming finger just brushes across the strings for the strums. 

Strum where the neck meets the body or at the 12th fret - you'll get the sweetest sound there...

The uke I'm using:

Kala KA-EBY-TE Ebony Tenor Acoustic-Electric Ukulele

The Strums 

Here we'll take a look at each of the strums presented in the video individually - and I'll let you know some of the names for each. These will work for songs in 4/4 time.

Tap your foot and count out loud while practicing these. Take it slow to begin with.

Basic Strum

The is the most basic strum - the first one a beginner would learn, just one down strum on each count:

Straight Strum

I call this the 'straight strum' because it's opposite of the 'swing strum' (the 'swing strum' has a swing feel to it - we don't cover that here) you may also call this the 'common strum.'

We take the basic strum and add up strums on the &'s.

Always play down strums on the counts and up strums &'s:

Country or Folk Strum

 

Here we mix it up a little for another popular strum - works great for almost any song:

Trick: on any up strums you can just strum the top few strings; you don't need to strum all of them - adds interest to the progression.

Pop Strum

Named after the popular music it's found in and very similar to the country strum this is another great go-to:

Island, Calypso or Syncopated Strum

This was originally called the calypso strum - This type of rhythm, along with with calypso music, was popular in the Caribbean in the 19th and 20th century's before it spread round' the world, this rhythm can be traced back to 18th century West Africa.

Playing the island strum is easy with this simple trick (beginners may otherwise have trouble with it) - strum on the 3rd beat but 'miss' the strings.

GRAB THE PDF HERE - Island strum variations from the pages of my play Ukulele NOW Method.

This is the same strum as the pop strum - you just play the pop strum and 'miss' the strings on the 3rd beat and you'll have the island strum:

This is likely the most popular strum used by ukulele players...

Now go join that group and have fun!

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