Table of Contents:
1. introduction/how to use this booklet
basics
- what kind of instrument am i working with
- anatomy of the instrument
- how to tune, how to restring
2. getting good
- coming up with goals for yourself
- How to get there: start small and work up
3. breaking down things that sound hard
- learning the fretboard
- why is this helpful
- music theory 4 guitar
- this is a lot, how do we pare this down into manageable bits
- song structure
- singing and playing + playing syncopated rhythms
4. ukulele vs guitar thoughts
- musical approaches
- power chords and "power" chords
- common picking patterns
(very bare) index
If you learn how to play one fretted string instrument, wham bam, there's a solid foundation for picking up and playing the other ones. And if you learn how to play one instrument, you have a medium through which you can learn more about music generally! This booklet aims to tie together the two instruments you have some experience with, help you realize how much you've already learned, and give you some strategies for approaching electric guitar.
Read the basics section, then look through the table of contents for specific things you want to learn about when they come up. There are 'tracks' in Section 2, but you should treat those as suggestions. Mix and match as you will.
In this booklet, I'll always refer to guitar for things that work the same across guitar/ukulele. I'll refer to ukulele where it differs from guitar.
Happy, satisfying, challenging, relaxing playing!]
- what kind of instrument am i working with
- anatomy of the instrument
- how to tune, how to restring
The basics of fretted string instruments are basics, and thus true across the acoustic, classical, and electric guitars, including electric basses. It's also the same for ukuleles!
You know that guitar is played by strumming or plucking the strings. Hitting a string causes it to vibrate, and its wiggling moves the air at a certain frequency, resulting in a sound at a certain pitch. You can change what wiggles you're making by pressing down on the strings at different places on the neck. Changing the length of the string that's vibrating = changing the pitch that results.
[diagram: how frequency works] You don't have to understand how this works to know how it works, but it is good to know.
Experiment:
Try this by sliding up or down the frets for one string -- yes, one can only assume this is how all Super Mario sound effects were conceived of.
Guitars have a head, neck, and body, just like you.
The head of the instrument is where the tuning pegs are. They make the strings tighter (higher pitched) or looser (lower pitched). The strings go from the head all the way to the bridge.
The neck is the long bit that the strings stretch across. The end with the head is 'low' on the neck, and the end closer to the soundboard is 'high' on the neck. The neck has this separate little board, which is called the fretboard cause it's where all the metal frets are. Don't fret about there being a lot -- most guitars have fret markers that help you remember where you're at.
On many guitars, you'll find fretboard markers at the 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th frets, with the pattern repeating starting at the 12th fret. Some classical guitars don't have fretboard markers at all, or you might see more or fewer than that -- we'll talk about why they're at those specific frets in Section 3. There are dot inlays on the fretboard themselves, and also a dot on the side of the neck that faces you so that you can see them without having to tilt the whole guitar.
[diagram: the markers on my ukulele are at 5, 7, 10, 12, 15 and 17]
On acoustic instruments, the body is super important because it's where the sound resonates, so it determines a lot about how the instrument sounds, including, importantly, how loud it can be. On electric instruments, it's less important for sound because the string's vibrations are picked up by the apt-ly named pickups. On electric instruments, you can typically find knobs for controlling the volume and tone of the instrument on the body.
Strings might be tied at the bridge, as with ukuleles and classical guitars, or they might be secured with pegs, like with dreadnought and electric guitars.
The standard or default tuning for guitars is EADGBe, where the capital E stands for the thicker, lower-pitched E string, and the lowercase e stands for the thin, high-pitched E string. When you buy packs of strings, they'll usually separate each string into its own little packet or mark them with informational tags (something like: E, 6th string, .011mm)
We number the strings with the thinnest string being 1 because we started from the bottom now we're here.
The ukulele strings are also numbered from the thinnest string.
The standard tuning for ukuleles is GCEA. It's called re-entrant tuning because, unlike guitars, the pitches of the strings don't follow a linear order. The top, fourth string is a G -- but then the next string is a C, and it's lower, not higher. Re-entrant tuning is part of what gives ukuleles their iconic, sweet, higher-pitch sound, and it's also what makes playing it a little different than playing guitar. There are ukuleles that have regular, non re-entrant tuning (usually tenor and baritone ukuleles), and they tend to sound more guitar-like.
You can use an electronic tuner (I recommend Snark tuners, since they're clip on and easy to read) to tune each string. I recommend this because they're helpful in situations where there's distracting noises (it's loud outside or there's other instruments playing), and as a bonus, you can use it to doublecheck against your ears if you tune by ear. Try tuning by ear first, then check how close you got with the tuner.
To tune by ear, you can use a piano app, video, another instrument, anything you know is already in tune which you can compare your strings to. Play your comparison note first, then play your string and listen. If there's a kind of wobble and the notes don't seem to match up, that's called a 'beat' (no, not the rhythm and no, not the comedic silence. Yes, I know it's a little weird). If you're hearing a beat, then you know you should retune your string. If you can't tell whether it's flat or sharp, just turn the peg one way until it gets worse, then backtrack until you get your comparison note and your string sounding the same.
Note:
Some tuning pegs are a little finicky and won't hold right if you tune down -- the gears that hold the tension don't click right or something, so it's liable to keep slackening (which would be bad cause then the string would slowly go flat). To avoid that, my dad taught me to go a little bit under pitch, then tighten the peg so that it holds the tension properly.
The one hard and fast rule: definitely change strings if one of them snaps. If you only recently changed strings, you can just replace the one that snapped (usually one of the thinner ones), but in general you want your strings to all have about the same level of wear, so if you've been playing on them for a couple months and one of the strings snaps, you should just go ahead and change all of them.
Otherwise, you should change strings when you notice that they don't perform or sound like you want -- e.g when they sound dull or they're super scuffed up. There are some rules of thumb about how often you should change your strings, but they depend on how much you play and the environment you keep the guitar in, so the thing to remember is if you're playing them and they feel fine, then they're fine.
Extend the life of your strings and make them feel better to play by taking care of them -- wipe them down with a cloth after you play to get the sweat and other gunk off of them. If you're really pressed for time, just wipe the strings with your shirt or something. When I have time, what I do to get in between the small spaces is push a thin cloth through the strings like so, then gently use a finger or the blunt end of a pen to move the cloth:
Here are videos on how to change strings for tied strings and pegged strings. On most electric guitars, you just loosen the strings and pull them out from the bottom, since the only thing holding them in place was the tension of the tuning pegs -- see this video.
How do I hold the instrument?
The short answer is: whatever is comfortable for you AND secure for the instrument.
[draw: uwu sir crab]
The longer answer is that you should hold it so that you're relaxed, your fretting wrist is straight, and you're not unnecessarily muffling the soundboard with your arm or leg (the soundboard is what the vibration of the strings reverberates from, so covering the soundboard means the sound won't resonate as much and it'll be quieter).
Caution: Do NOT tilt the guitar towards you. Playing with the guitar tilted towards you is just gonna make it harder for you to switch chords. If you need to see the fretboard better, angle it higher or lean forward a little.
Here are some prototypical ways people hold the guitar.
[draw: comparison of seated guitarists]
[classical with the footstool] Classical guitars are held at an angle to give the player more access to the fretboard. People usually play with a footstool to keep their leg up and get that angle.
[acoustic] If you think of campfires, people usually play with the guitar just above parallel to the ground. However, this isn't the most comfortable position and can be tough if you have less reach with your fretting hand, so you should angle it further up (up to about 45 degrees if that helps you). Balance the instrument on your thigh so that it's secure and chilling. You're not really holding it so much as resting it on you.
[electric] You'll usually see people playing electric guitar standing up, but it can be tiring to stand while you practice all the time. Some electric guitars are a bit weird to play sitting down because of their shape, but you basically want to achieve the same things as with acoustic guitars.
If you're playing sitting down, try to sit on a hardback chair that doesn't have armrests. While playing on the couch is comfy and casual, it can also be a little annoying to finagle your way into a position where the neck doesn't bump into an armrest, and the back being so far away can lead you to either like leaning back into a strange posture that makes your neck tilt too far backward making it hard to see, or hunching over your guitar. Either way, sad back = sad you = sad guitar. If you play on a couch anyway because you are a chill soul, sit on the edge of the couch. Play with good posture to make things easier on yourself.
Playing with a strap is usually more comfortable for people, with the benefit that it lets you play standing up, which can be 1) fun and cool, and 2) good for your posture.
[draw: buck dewey jamming out standing]
For guitars, 2-2.5 inch straps are standard. If you want to spread the weight more evenly on your shoulder, there are wider straps -- I have a 3 inch one for the bass I have because it's pretty hefty.
Pick up the ukulele with your strumming hand, right where the neck meets the body. Ideally you can hold it in the crook of your arm, where your elbow curves. You'll have to finagle how that works if you're not flat chested, but it seems like people are generally successful if they hold it either out in front of their chest, or slightly below -- try a couple of different ways to find what feels most comfortable to you.
[draw: ukulele hold sit (amity) and stand (luz)]
[draw: david listening to lite rock]
Think of all the songs you've heard and enjoyed. Across everything, there's so many different genres, moods, and techniques they use -- so many it can feel a little paralyzing to think of what to start with or how you'll get to doing the things you dream of doing.
Getting good is a never-ending process, but if you can conceive of milestones in that process, it'll be a lot more satisfying and you'll be able to practice way more efficiently.
If you've played RPGs, you might be familiar with the concept of skill trees. In a skill tree, there's a couple things you can learn on their own, but most skills build on others.
[image: skill tree from save the light or something]
It's the same with learning a musical instrument. You can do a lot with the basics, and once you have them down, you can build on them.
[flowchart diagram: Learn how to hold the instrument standing up and sitting down
Learn the fretboard -- first just a couple memorable markers, and add on as you go
If you want to accompany yourself singing, learn chords
If you want to do rippin solos, learn scales
If you want to copy existing riffs or solos or picking patterns, learn to read tabs
Learn to watch other people play -- look at what their fretting hand is doing, look at what their strumming hand is doing
Learn to listen to music for the structure of it
song structure, melodic or rhythmic patterns, the progression away and back to the chords that sound like home]
A big part of learning anything is basically just managing your own expectations, and taking care of your mood and body so that you can do stuff without fighting your brain or fighting your body. Even stuff that's supposed to be fun can stress you out, and especially so if you're contending with chronic illness of any kind or mood disorders.
Be kind to yourself. You know that teachers demeaning you would not be conducive to you learning things, so you as the person learning shouldn't demean yourself. If something isn't working, try another strategy, or come back to it another time. Genuinely, sleeping on stuff often helps. Like with other habits, making small successes for yourself is key. The ideal is to reward yourself for getting good with the feeling of getting good.
[draw: edathumbsup]
In order to play freely, you gotta practice. But what's the difference between playing and practice?
First, what practice is not -- practice should not be soul-sucking. The point of practice is to get better at something. And usually, the more specific your goal is, the more effective your practice is. If I just say, 'alright self, today's the day I'm gonna become Feng E', that ... basically gives me nothing to work with. Maybe I realize that and I think, 'okay, that's a little vague. Today I'm gonna practice rock music.' That's a little more specific, but still not something I can really practice. Rock music? Am I really going to learn every single aspect of rock music in my 20 minute practice session? (No. The answer is no!!)
So it's a bit unfortunate but the first thing you have to be able to do to effectively teach yourself is figure out what specific skills you want to learn. When I started, my goals were almost always songs. 'I want to learn the Adventure Time opening!' That's narrow enough to let you hone in on specific things, but help you learn general skills transferable to other songs.
[draw: :luzrighteous: doodle]
Once I know what song I want to learn, I can look up what the chords are -- then learning each new chord might be a goal. Maybe I know C, D, and G, but I don't remember what the F chord looks like. Maybe I technically know all the chords in the song, but I'm struggling with switching between them in the chorus. Maybe I can play it fine at like half speed, but I want to get to the tempo of the original song. These are all great specific things to focus on, and there's ways to practice more efficiently than just playing the whole song over and over until you get it right.
When you start, your muscles are not used to playing an instrument. Your fingers, arms, and shoulders are all learning something new along with your brain. You should stretch your wrists, shoulders, and neck before and after you play -- if you make the effort to do it when you're starting out, you'll find yourself naturally wanting to do it before you start playing.
[draw: zuko stretch, katara stretch]
If your fingers are feeling a little sore from fretting the strings, that's normal. But if you're in pain, stop playing. Pain is a sign you need to change something about what you're doing. Especially if your wrist is twinging, just take a break and rest your wrist. There are so many fine motor skills we need our hands for that it's really not worth trying to push yourself to play for another 10 minutes or whatnot. Then carefully think about why you might be hurting -- is your posture bad, so you're having contort your wrist or neck to play? Are you using more force than you need to to fret something? Are you tilting the guitar instead of keeping it parallel with your chest? Take a break, and then the next time you come back to guitar, don't repeat the thing that hurt you.
[diagram: proper guitar angle vs don't]
Keep water with you while you practice, and take sips as you take mini breaks.
If I forget what the F chord looks like, and I look it up and just play it five times in a row, that's better than not looking it up at all. But if I really want to remember what it is and how to get there from different chords, I should practice it in context. If I'm learning it for/from a song, I'll practice playing the chord before it, F, and then the chord after. That way I get the muscle memory of switching from chord to chord. And if I really want to remember it, I'll play it in something I know by heart -- like maybe I know that the C scale goes C Dm Em F G Am Bdim|B7 C, so I'll play it in that order and back.
Invent contexts for yourself! Things are more memorable when you've got a story or a reason to remember them. Maybe you know that the E-shape at the 5th fret (577655) is a A major chord because it's used in We Are the Crystal Gems.
[draw: SUF!steven 'we...']
Just like how learning an instrument is a big project that's manageable in small pieces, chunking a song or a technique into parts can make it much more approachable.
A song is almost never one long thing [see Song Structure, p //]. There's always patterns you can work on. Start with one section, maybe just the chorus or just the verse. The part you're working on can also be split into parts.
Here's an example of how you could approach learning a new song you want to sing along with:
then:
Because songs typically repeat parts, learning one section means you've usually learned 90% of another as well, and you might only need to work on remembering what the words are/how the melody goes.
[draw: alfur_wellactually]
Practicing shorter but more often is much better than practicing longer but infrequently. In other words, practicing for 15 minutes a day is more efficient than practicing an hour once a week. Doing things regularly helps your brane get used to them, and also practicing for shorter amounts of time means it's easier to fit into your day and you're less liable to hurt yourself.
That said, while I respect them and think they're a great idea, I've rarely been able to stick to scheduled practice routines myself, and I don't think you need to schedule practice routines in order to improve. My approach is more that I bring my ukulele with me around the house if I'm just sitting and using a laptop, and I use sunny weather as a reason to sit outside and play ukulele as a sort of two healthy things with one stone type deal. Occasionally I'll get inspired to learn a song, and that'll lure me into practicing more until I can play it or I've figured out an arrangement for it. It's also been helpful to me to call or join general purpose art sprints and use them as a reason to play.
You don't owe anyone practice time except yourself, so you shouldn't compare yourself to other people since everyone's situations are different. If you want to practice more regularly, then do so on your own terms.
[draw: frida taking a break]
- song structure
- learning the fretboard
- why is this helpful
- music theory 4 guitar
- this is a lot, how do we pare this down into manageable bits
- reading chord sheets and tabs
- singing and playing + playing syncopated rhythms
Almost everything you listen to on a day to day basis has a clear song structure. Recognizing song structure can help you listen to, learn, and write your own songs.
Here's a typical structure for popular music:
(intro)
Verse
(prechorus)
Chorus
(Bridge)
(verse | prechorus | chorus)
(outro)
The vast majority of songs you hear from the west are gonna have a verse and a chorus. Sometimes there'll be a bit before the chorus, a pre-chorus. Sometimes there'll be a breakdown (all the instruments drop out except for the drums or the bass or something).
Each of those parts has its own set of musical tells or stereotypes. You've memed about not knowing anything except the chorus of popular songs, or everyone totally forgetting that a part of a song even exists. You can basically tell how long they are supposed to go, because people like phrases, meaning musical statements not words, of a certain length (bc we are used to it and bc phrases of a certain length are singable).
Even if you don't hear the words at all, you can often tell when an instrumental for a song is changing from verse to chorus -- try listening to a karaoke track and you'll be surprised by how much you can recognize even if you listen with your eyes closed. Without keeping count of whether it's been like 16 bars or whatever, you can hear the percussion or instrumental change to fit the new section.
Let's take two songs as an example:
In Familiar, both the verse and the chorus are eight measures each.
[print: Familiar]
Same for Dare You to Move, even though it's a super different feeling song.
[print: Dare You to Move]
So the amount you write is basically never "random". It fits in some sort of structure, and for pop songs there is a well established formula you can follow if you want your thing to fit into that canon.
Experiment:
Pick a song you like. Chances are it's in 4/4 or common time, with four beats per measure. While you listen to it, try to count how many bars/measures there are in each part of the song. How many bars are there in the verse? How many bars are there in the little instrumental between sections? How many bars are there in the chorus? Can you hear any transitions between the sections? How can you tell it's a transition?[image: :perikey: on answer key covered by paper]
Like tropes in other media, these can be used for good or ill and won't apply to every song.
*Sometimes instead of a chorus you'll get a refrain. Refrains are a repeated section that doesn't follow the other conventions. You find them in folk songs, frequently. [example of folk songs with refrains]
Since you know songs are made of repeating parts, you can save yourself work and make the idea of songwriting less spooky.
Experiment:
Write a little song. Use any old chord progression you want. If you feel like the thing you came up with bears repeating, make it the chorus. If not, make it the verse.
The fretboard ofc is different across ukulele and guitar, but how it's organized is similar.
To recap, each string is tuned to a different pitch . So if you play it open, without pressing down on any of the frets, you'll get EADGBe on guitar, and GCEA on ukulele (assuming you tuned it properly and you're using standard tuning). But when you hold down the first fret and play a string, you play a higher note than before. Going higher one fret makes the pitch go higher by a half step. So open strings will always play the lowest note possible on a string, and then the higher up the neck you go, the higher-pitched the note you'll play.
[diagram: half steps on fretboard]
But what are steps? Well, to answer that it's time to take a short digression into --
Don't worry, I have included cute doodles to pace this out so it doesn't feel like woah golly that's Some Text right there.
[image: willow watering a plant] The plant is you, and Willow is also you.
In western diatonic music there's 12 'steps' in an octave (as opposed to say like, pentatonic music which splits an octave into 5 steps, or the Arabic maqam system which divides an octave into 24 steps). That means there's 12 steps before the scale repeats itself:
| C | C#/Db | D | D#/Eb | E | F | F#/Gb | G | G#/Ab | A | A#/Bb | B | C... |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 1... |
It doesn't matter where you start -- 12 steps later and you'll get to the same note you started with, just higher or lower.
[piano diagram -- 8 notes = octave, 12 half steps also]
On the guitar, you'll notice that the 12th fret has two dots. It's an important place, so it's unique among the fret markers. The reason it's important is cause it's where the open notes start again, but an octave higher. If you play open E, then fret the 12th fret and play it, you'll still be playing an E, just higher.
What does this mean? Well, it means anything you learned lower on the neck can be reproduced all the way up there. Since this is true for individual notes, it also works for chords. Let's see how this works with a G chord. The first version of G people learn is 320003. If you slide your fingers all the way up (15-14-0-0-0-15), you'll still be playing a G chord, although it'll sound different because now three of the notes are an octave up. Similar thing with the F chord. All the way down the neck, it's 133211. If you slide that up the neck to the equivalent place (one fret past the 12th fret, which you're now taking as the 'starting' fret), you're still playing an F (13-15-15-14-13-13).
[image: chords down vs up the neck]
Taking a step back -- notes are pitches. but what pitches?
the diatonic/12 step chromatic scale repeats. and you know so do major and minor scales, otherwise the Aristocats would be extremely hard pressed to defend their teaching methods. if it repeats, then ... that means notes repeat. obviously, i guess. but how?
we perceive different pitches as the same note. this has to do with intervals and waves and stuff.
[diagram: excessively complicated fourier stuff] it's actually pretty interesting, but not something i want to handwrite another 4 pages about. just roll with it.
Intervals are a pretty useful concept in music, or anything where you're recognizing, using, and making new patterns.
Both scales and chords are built off of intervals.
[scales]
[chords]
Recap: if you recall, strings are numbered from the bottom (1) to the top (6). In chord diagrams, the top of the instrument (6) is on the left, and the bottom is on the right (1).
[image: ukulele chord diagram for G]
There’s four long lines which are strings, and there’s dots on the string which tell you what to do on each string. Open dots means you’re playing open, and not fretting those strings. The filled dot means you do press down at that fret.
Note that although sometimes there's suggested fingerings, it actually does not matter what finger you use -- so long as you’re pressing down on the specified frets, the chord is the same. This is very helpful idea since it means you can always change up how you’re playing a chord to make it easier or more comfortable for you.
You can play this G chord like this, this, or even this. [image: G chord three, bar, weird three]
[guitar chord diagram for G]
Chord diagrams are similar for guitar, just with two more strings. The same idea applies that technically it doesn't matter what fingers you use, but the more fingers you have to use, usually the more specific your hand position has to be in order to get there. You can play an Em (022000) with whatever fingers you want basically, but with a B7 (021202) there's pretty much just one comfortable way to do it.
[image: Em normally, Em switched up; B7, x on other awkward B7]
[image: the Mayor squinting at a can of tab]
Tabs are basically maps of where you're supposed to put your fingers over the time it takes to play a song -- they're read left to right, just like sheet music is. Some people call any kind of guide on how to play songs tabs -- I personally distinguish between chord sheets as sheets with chords and lyrics, whereas tabs tell you specifically what notes to play and when (via 'tab notation'). They’re generally more specific than chord sheets. Chord sheets might have just the chords for most of the song, but have a section with the tab for an instrumental intro or solo or something.
A tab has the string on the very left, in the now familiar order of the 6th string (low E) closest to you, and the 1st string (high E) furthest away. Sometimes there'll be an explicit count that lets you know okay play this on one, play this on 2 & 3 &, but sometimes there isn't an explicit count. It's generally pretty straightforward if you already know the song, but that's why good tabs will show an explicit count.
Tab notation tells you which frets to play and the way you're supposed to do it -- maybe some notes are hammered-on or pulled-off or you do a slide to or away from them. Often they'll also include the chord shape your fretting hand should be doing so that you can read the tab quicker (e.g if you know you're playing an Am, then you can just look at what strings you're playing next rather than decipher each individual line of the tab).
Equivalent guitar notation:
G = 320003 = [diagram] = [tab]
Equivalent ukulele notation:
G = 0232 = [diagram] = [tab]
[Peace and Love On the Planet Earth]
[image: :periready: 'it's exceedingly do-able]
Good chord sheets will have the chords lined up at the appropriate place over the words, but some won't, and on mobile sometimes the placement gets messed up. If you're reading a chord sheet and the chords look like this
[image]
rather than this
[image]
then ignore the placement and just work off of your knowledge of the song.
In tab notation, it looks like this:
[image: tab]
Even if you have no concept of what notes are written here, you can glean a couple things from the tab:
But since you have heard the song, you know that Peace and Love on the Planet Earth starts with a scale. Steven sings 'do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti-do' and plays the same scale on his ukulele.
[arrow] This is a C chord, although it’s being played as an arpeggio, or a split up chord. On the tab you can see they’re saying you should play each string one at a time, starting from the G string.
Even without playing it, you can surmise that to go from the first bar to the second, you're just moving your finger one fret down, going from the 3rd to the 2nd fret on the A string.
Hold on, brain hurts. Too many numbers. Please make it simpler.
Let’s break down what’s happening here with the scale. First you play some notes on the C string, then some notes on the E string, then some notes on the A string.
So let's do it in chunks to start with.
First, the C string -- play 0 or open it says, and then 2, the second fret.
Then move to the E string, and play open, 1, then 3.
To get comfortable with it, practice just that first part, from the C to the E string. C open, 2. Then E string open, 1, 3. One more time all in a row.
Then the last part: A string, open, then 2, then 3. A open, 2, 3. Now string it all together.
The feeling of a song just 'clicking' in your brane is a wondrous thing. Sadly, it's often not the case that you can immediately sing and play something, especially if the timing of the melody or the timing of the accompaniment you're doing is syncopated (not on the downbeats) or otherwise unusual.
the mechanics of playing are the same -- the big change is how you approach the instrument, not just the difference in strings.
less strings and re entrant tuning means that the picking patterns from one instrument aren't one to one on the other one.
ukulele also only has one string that could be considered a 'bass' string (and lmao it's not a bass string). so if you were going to do picking or strumming patterns which highlight the guitar's EAD bass strings, you'll have to adjust them for the ukulele.
On a guitar, power chords refer to a root and fifth. Practically speaking, it's like if you take a barred chord, but you don't play the third, the one that tells you whether the chord is major or minor. You'll immediately recognize a power chord from its... powerful nature, and maybe it'll make you want to dramatically chug some eighth notes.
[image: :YEAHHH: but with e guitar]
So for example, you can play a G power chord like this: 355xxx . You only play the root (G, the 3rd fret of the E string), the fifth (D, the 5th fret of the A string), and then the root again but an octave up (the 5th fret of the D string).
[image: G power chord] I remember this shape because it's how barred chords work, but since you're not playing any of those higher notes, you don't have to fret them. Thus, power chords are a friendly and cool option for electric guitar.
Yes, since technically it's a root and fifth and octave, you can do this on the ukulele. No bass, but if you play aggressively and believe in yourself, it's still cool!
The way I remember power chords is from C5:
[image: ukulele chord diagram 0033, label the notes and the relationships (use piano to point out it's a fifth)]
If you just move that shape around, you get power chords.
[image: ukulele chord diagrams which preserve that relationship]
[image: steven playing ukulele dramatically]
You can also achieve this root-fifth-octave relationship in other ways.
[other ways]
Learn patterns, then mess with them! Steal your favorite chord progressions then change them up and try to make new things with them. Mix and match.
*Most of these are folk or country adjacent patterns because... that's what I play :3
[image: peridot in sunbrim hat leaning on an ukulele, lapis behind her and facing away with a loaded six string on her back]
There's a lot of patterns which build off the same basic idea: alternate a bass note with the other notes.
Here's a simple version of this pattern: play the bass note, then strum.
[image: tab, using Em]
Now let's alternate the bass notes. Hear how you've made the bass part more interesting?
[image: tab, using Em. Alternate 6 and 5th strings]
We can also make the strumming a little less staid.
[image: same tab, now include upstroke. 1 2 & 3 4 1 2 & 3 4 &]
You can play the bass notes as eighth notes too. Now you have 'dum digga dugga digga'.
[image: same tab, but dum digga dugga digga]
[image: plucking]
You can also pluck or pick instead of strum. Here's a simple example of plucking, where you play the bass note with your thumb, then you pluck with your index and middle fingers.
[image: tab, C plucking]
And here are two common picking patterns -- first play each separately, then see if you can play it as written.
[image: tab, dum digga then dugga dugga]
[image: hammer-on, pull-offs]
One common style thing in folk songs is using hammer-ons, which is when you voice a note by pressing it with your fretting hand. The reverse of that is a pull off, where you make a sound by pulling your finger off the fret. You might have already figured this out or done it by accident before. Here's a really common folk sound:
[image: tab, either something by the oh hello's or i will follow you into the dark, switching between two chords, using hammer on/pull offs]
On the ukulele, we don't have bass strings. The lowest pitched string isn't even on the top. But you can still play this pattern. The same idea applies: play the 'bass' note, then do something else.
[image: tab, C string then strum]
hammer on
pull off