It’s often said that the ukulele is a very easy instrument to learn. And there’s some truth in that. You only have four strings to memorize finger positions for, the strings are more forgiving on the fingers and the stretches are less challenging.
Having said that, all musical instruments are challenging to learn. If you think the ukulele is easy to play, watch some ukulele YouTube videos and it’s pretty clear many people find it difficult. It’s certainly no easier to play the ukulele to a high standard than it is to play the guitar to a high standard.
According to Jim Beloff, “If you were a poor guitar player, you suddenly become a pretty good uke player.” I’d disagree with that entirely. It might be that the ukulele suits you better than the guitar, but there are no guarantees.
Like most instruments, the ukulele is easy to play badly and hard to play well.
photo credit: gburneau
The price of vintage koa ukuleles seems to be going up and up in recent years. Not long ago, there was very little price difference between a Martin ukulele made of mahogany and made of koa. Those days are long gone. A 2K will fetch hundreds of dollars more than a 2M.
Part of this increase in price is due to the availability of koa. True koa is only available on Hawaii and is getting increasingly hard to find.
There’s little doubt that koa is more beautiful than mahogany and this is probably the biggest factor in the price difference between koa and mahogany ukuleles. There is a difference in sound between them, but I wouldn’t say one is better than the other.
If you want the look and sound of koa wood without the price tag, you do have options. There are an increasing number of ukuleles being made of woods in the same family as koa, Acacia wood, such as Australian blackwood. These include brands such as the Koa Pili Koko Kelii and Lehua ukuleles. It would take a more eagle eyed and eared connoisseur than me to tell the difference.
photo credit: uketeecee
It’s sad to say, but it is far more easy to find guitar chords online than it is to find ukulele chords. Luckily, there’s no problem whatsoever translating them to ukulele.
Chords written for the guitar will be exactly the same on the ukulele. If the guitar chord sheet tells you to play G, you just play the standard G chord shape on the ukulele. It’s as simple as that.
Make sure you have a ukulele chord dictionary on hand to check the chord shapes. You’ll want to ignore the guitar chord diagrams as the G chord shape for guitar looks different to the G chord shape on the ukulele.
There’s no getting around it, the way a ukulele is strung is absolutely ridiculous. But that’s what makes it such incredible instrument.
Almost all stringed instruments go from lowest string (thickest) to highest string (thinnest). Not the ukulele. The ukulele strings sizes go like this from nearest your head to nearest the ground:
G string: Second thinnest.
C string: Fattest.
E string: Second Fattest.
A string: Thinnest.
Anyone who has experience with string instruments will find this baffling. I certainly did. When I first bought a cheap ukulele and, being a guitarist, was completely ignorant, I changed the order of the strings. Now I’m much wiser and know that this is the only way to have your strings.
The best quality ukulele strings around are Aquila and Worth.
