Use these simple techniques to add some hipness

Strumming
LESSON #2
CJ “Boom” Helekahi. Photo by Oceanfront Photography
ADVANCED
TECHNIQUES
Use these simple techniques to add some hipness to your strumming!
What is hip?
Now that you’ve mastered the
basic strumming concepts presented
in Lesson #1, it’s time to inject some
coolness into your comping chops
(Wanna sound hip? Say“comping”
instead of “accompanying”).
The simple techniques that follow
will open your ears and solve a lot
of mysteries for you. A fuller, more
sophisticated strum and a solid sense
of rhythm will improve your solo
singing performances drastically. As
an accompanist, your jam-mates will
Noteworthy
Ukulele Players
(surprised at some of
these names?)
have a lot more fun and when you
make it fun for them, you make it
easier for them to relax and play or
sing in a more inspired way. This is
hip.
Be sure to check out the song
examples in the following pages to
hear and better understand what
others are doing and remember there is no substitute for LISTENING.
From jazz to rock to country - all the
greats spent a LOT of time sitting by
their record player lifting that needle
and replaying their favorite parts as
they learned how to emulate what
they heard. If they can take the time
to do it, so can you.
So dust off those old favorites,
revisit them with an open ear, strum
along and HAVE FUN!
Contents
Left Hand Muting
Right Hand Muting
Chromatic Slides
Additional Resources
George Harrison
Lyle Ritz
Byron Yasui
Tiny Tim
James Hill
William H Macy
Bill Tapia
Troy Fernandez
Greg Hawkes
Jake Shimabukuro
Abe Lagrimas
Don Henley
Benny Chong
Bryan Tolentino
Johnny Winter
2
3
4
5
Song Examples
Listen closely to hear that
scratching sound on the guitars
in these songs:
Peace Of Mind
(Boston)
One Thing Leads To Another
(The Fixx)
What I Like About You
(Romantics)
L-R: Aunty Geri Brigoli, Leokane Pryor, CJ
“Boom” Helekahi. Photo by Marsha Aguon
Left Hand Muting
In “Mastering Strumming” (Lesson
#1), you learned how to properly
count and keep a 4 beat pulse going
as you strum. You learned to replace
up and downstrokes with “Ghost
Strokes” to emulate different sounds.
Simply replace those ghost
strokes with the scratching sound
you get when you use this left hand
muting technique and you will hear
those familiar disco, reggae and
rock grooves jump out at you.
Let’s start with the B♭chord at the
first fret. Be sure your
index finger is
properly covering the
1st two strings and
the fingertips of your
middle and ring
fingers are pressing
down the other two
spots. Now strum the strings, making
sure you’re getting a nice, clear
sound. Notice how all the strings are
covered and you are in complete
control of the sound.
Now release the pressure in
your left hand but keep your fingers
in their respective chord positions.
Strumming across the strings now
produces a scratching sound.
This is the basis for strumming
riffs from countless popular songs. In
fact, back in the 20’s as a boy, Bill
Tapia may have been the first to use
this technique to emulate the snare
drums he heard in the parade as the
band played “Stars and Stripes”.
Start with a “1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &”
pattern and release the pressure on
all the beats except “1”. You want to
time it so that by the time you reach
“&” after “1”, the strings will have
stopped ringing - or, in other words by the time your strumming finger
comes back up.
Now add in different beats and
practice these patterns where “x” =
“scratch”:
1x2xxx4x
1xx&xx4x
...and any other combinations
you can think of.
This technique works best with
chord shapes that cover all the
strings and will take some practice to
coordinate the strumming and the
letting-go of the pressure on the
desired beats. Start out slow and
when you have a pattern under your
fingers, gradually pick up the tempo.
Stir It Up
(Bob Marley)
Rock With You
(Michael Jackson)
The Long Run
(Eagles)
When The Morning Comes
(Kalapana)
It’s always a good
idea to practice to something
that will help you develop a
strong sense of rhythm like a
metronome, a track you create
in Garage Band, or by
strumming along to your
favorite recording.
On Practice:
“It takes a lot of devotion and
work, or maybe I should say
play, ‘cause if you love it,
that’s what it amounts to. I
haven’t found any shortcuts,
and I’ve been looking for a
long time.”
- Chet Atkins
Song Examples
Listen closely to hear the right
hand muting/slapping
technique in these tunes:
Venus
(Shocking Blue)
More Than Words
(Extreme)
Run To You
(Bryan Adams)
Right Hand Muting
This is another technique that
works hand-in-hand with Ghost
Strokes and is the preferred method
when playing open chords (chords
that have one or more strings not
covered by a finger).
Here we stop the strings from
ringing on a given beat by covering
the strings with the strumming hand.
You can either stop it very lightly with
the edge of that hand (depending on
how fast you are strumming) or you
can actually slap the strings as you
stop them to add the percussive effect
made famous in the song “More Than
Words” by Extreme (he’s not
strumming, he’s plucking, but same
idea).
Right hand muting is usually done
in place of a downstroke as in these
examples (x=stop with right hand):
1&2&x&4&
1&x&3&x&
When you do the stop/slap with
your strumming hand, be sure to stop
the strings with the index finger
pointing
slightly
toward the
ground,
below the
first (A) string. Why? Because an
upstroke will immediately follow and
you want that strumming finger to be
ready and in position to come right
back up.
Try the previous two patterns plus
a few you create yourself. Once
you’ve played through each one a
couple times, stop counting and focus
on the sound itself as you assign the
movement to muscle memory. Muscle
memory is important - at some point
you have to stop thinking and start
feeling.
Combining different strum
patterns with different chord
progressions such as C-G7-C, G-C-D7G, F-Dm-Gm-C7-F, etc. will help keep
things interesting and make it even
easier to “discover” songs.
Just keep that strumming hand
going strong - up, down, up, down.
Once you’re consistent with that and
have mastered Ghost Strokes and
Left and Right Hand Muting, there is
no strum you won’t be able to figure
out in a matter of seconds - you’ll
actually be able to hear it before you
even pick up your ukulele!
stopping
the strings
with the edge
of the hand
My Favorite Mistake
(Sheryl Crow)
Wild Night
(Van Morrison)
No Rain
(Blind Melon)
Somewhere Over The Rainbow
(Israel Kamakawiwo’ole)
To best match what
“Bruddah Iz” is doing on his
version of “Somewhere Over
The Rainbow”, use a low G
string for the bottom string and
emphasize that one string
when strumming down on beat
one: 1 x 2 & x & 4 &
“A nonmusician is thrilled to be
doing music and is quite
happy to sit there and plunk
one note all day.
Nonmusicians really listen
sometimes, because that’s the
only thing they have available
to them”
- Brian Eno
Song Examples
Listen closely to hear examples
of chromatic slides in these
tunes:
Jailhouse Rock
(Elvis Presley)
Talk Dirty To Me
(Poison)
Bring It Back Again
(Stray Cats)
Bryan Tolentino (L), Jeff Peterson (R)
and Pomaika’i Keawe Lyman at the
2009 Aloha Falsetto Festival in Los
Angeles. Photo by Marha Aguon
Summertime Blues
(Eddie Cochran)
Roll Over Beethoven
(Gene Vincent)
Johnny B Goode
(Chuck Berry)
Fun, Fun, Fun
(Beach Boys)
Achy Breaky Heart
(Billy Ray Cyrus)
Tip: Watch Video Workshop #4 for
ways to apply the concept of
chromatic slides to improvising
single note ukulele solos sound like a pro without even
having to learn scales!
Chromatic Slides
Here’s one more gimmick to add to your strumming arsenal, one you
often hear in jazzy swing tunes as well as in a lot of rockabilly music.
Let’s use the G chord for this example (open circle on bottom string is
optional). Strum a “1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &” pattern. On “4” slide
that whole G chord shape DOWN one fret (your fingers should
now be in the 1st and 2nd frets). What would you call this new
chord? Who cares? We’ll only be on it for a split second. Now
slide back up to “regular” G on beat “1”. Practice both slow
and fast tempos. Sounds pretty cool, eh?
Second version: Slide down to the weird G chord on the “&”
after “4”. This means you will be hitting that chord on an upstroke and
immediately return to the original G chord as you strum down on beat “1”.
Notice how just a subtle shift in timing makes a pretty big difference.
Slides, Ghost Strokes and Left and Right Hand Muting are fun, easy ways
to instantly make your strumming sound more sophisticated!
Enjoy!
- Mitch Chang
Visit www.UkuleleWebsite.com for a complete listing of products, including
the video companion to this lesson. Plus:
• Advanced Strumming Techniques
• Create complete harmony/melody ukulele solos!
• A super-easy method to learn chords & keys
Additional Resources
Treasury of Ukulele Chords
(Roy Sakuma)
Kamaka Ukulele
www.kamakahawaii.com
The Ukulele - A Visual
History
(Jim Beloff)
Koaloha Ukulele
www.koaloha.com
Zen Guitar
(Philip Toshio Sudo)
Nalu Ukulele
www.naluukulele.com
Lanikai Ukulele
www.lanikaiukes.com
Get
the video
companion to
this lesson!
Only $7.95
La Bella Strings
www.labella.com
Take Your Skills To The Next Level!
The “Big Three” Chords:
why you NEED to know
them!
How would you like to instantly
learn dozens - even hundreds of songs?
Sound too good to be
true? Well, the truth is
that most any song can
be boiled down to
these “Big Three”
chords. This is a mustknow inside scoop that
will have you slapping yourself upside
the head saying, “After all these
years...I never noticed that!” and
“Howcome no one ever taught me this
before?”
Here’s what you’ll learn in this
lesson:
• How to instantly identify chord
changes
• How to easily and instantly
transpose a given chord progression
into your preferred key
DOWNLOAD THIS LESSON
The secret to instantly
increasing your chord
vocabulary
Did you know that it takes just one
finger and the tiny bit
of music theory in this
lesson to increase your
chord knowledge
tenfold? Build upon the
basic chord shapes you
already know and add
interest and spice to your playing.
Breathe new life into those tired old
songs you’ve been playing at the club,
impress the other members - and have
more fun!
Here’s what you’ll learn in this
lesson:
• The trick to getting the ukulele
fretboard to “light up” for you
• How to use those fret markers the
way they were meant to be used
• How to go beyond chord shapes
that have had you stuck at the first and
second frets for years
DOWNLOAD THIS LESSON
Visit
www.UkuleleWebsite.com
for a complete listing of
products, including the
video companion to this
lesson
“Thanks a lot for this
explanation. You gave me the
keys to being able to figure
out strumming patterns with
much more accuracy”
Improvising: How to hit the
right note every time and
sound like a pro!
“You have been blessed with
a talent for clear explanation
and teaching.”
Does the idea of improvising freak
you out? Wish you could throw out some
jazzy licks of your own
once in a while instead
of just strumming
through the whole darn
song? Want to be able
to hang with the others
at the jam session and
actually contribute something? This
lesson will fool your friends into thinking
you’ve been doing this for years!
Here’s what you’ll learn in this
lesson:
• How to play fun, jazzy sounding
licks...without knowing a “lick” of
music theory!
• How to finally let your
imagination and true inner creativity
come shining through
About Mitch Chang
DOWNLOAD THIS LESSON
A graduate of the University
of Hawaii music program,
Mitch has
been
teaching
ukulele since
1994. A
former
student of
legendary
jazz ukulele
musician Bill
Tapia, Mitch’s ability to
present clear, easy-tounderstand lessons have
earned him consistent praise
and a loyal following.
WWW.UKULELEWEBSITE.COM