First of all, Ukulele tricks are a nice thing to know. Why? It can make your playing something to remember for your audience, and it’s also a lot of fun to do the tricks and add some variety to your musical expression.
You will probably be considered an outstanding Ukulele player!
Some of the tricks are easy to learn and some you have to practice a lot to master. Anyway, if you know some tricks it can cover up some losses in your skills, or if you’re really good, it will bring your playing to a new level.
Also, Ukulele tricks are for all types of Ukuleles.
The Chunking techniquehas its own post!
You can find several more of tricks on the internet for scaling up your Ukulele playing. We have some particularly relevant examples here in this post.
Three tricks for Ukulele Showboating by Peter Forrest:
Peter Forrest has some good tricks that you maybe find easy to learn, and probably they give you a flying start.
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Finger 8
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Spammy Whammy
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Flippin´ the Bird
Drumbeat Technique:
James Hill is amazing. He takes the Ukulele playing to a new fun level on an acoustic/electric Ukulele(#Ad).
James Hill is a Canadian classically trained musician who has focused on the ukulele, both as his primary instrument and as a method of music instruction for school children. He earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of British Columbia. He is also the founder of Uketropolis.com, home to unique ukulele courses like Ukulele Jazz, UkuleleX, The Ukulele Way, Booster Uke and the JHUI Teacher Certification Program.
We will show you two really amazing videos he has on YouTube below.
Here is one of them:
And another with Chopsticks and a Comb 🙂
Here you have a good old one 🙂
As an American musician who was skilled on the banjo, guitar, and ukulele, Leroy Smeck earned the nickname The Wizard of the Strings.
Chord-Melody
Chord-Melody is playing melody and chords at the same time. Not the easiest, but if you’ve been playing the ukulele for a while, try it out.
If you’re looking for Chord-Melody tutorials, here’s one of two parts by James Hill, with a simple example. He also shows us Strum-Pick-Strum-Pick technique where you only strum on the 1st and 3rd beats, and Pick-Strum-Pick-Strum where you strum on the 2nd and 4th beats.
Natural, Pinch (artificial) and Slap/tap harmonics.
Amos Lim have a video about this tree Harmonics.
Jussi Ukulele´s Tapping technique:
And Pick, Strum and Slap:
How to end a song.
What about HAWAIIAN ENGINGS!
If you have more suggestions for tricks, let us know. You can also use our Facebook group for sharing.
Please note:
Basic Ukulele is an independent website that does not have any sponsors. The only way we earn some money to keep the website running is by getting clicks on Google ads in our posts. We appreciate every click you make on our ads and express our gratitude for your support. Thank you!
(We do not own the advertising in the videos.)
Finally, Basic Ukulele was founded in 2015 with the aim of making it easier for anyone who wants to learn or find out more about this wonderful instrument.