In this mixed level in-person ukulele course, my goal is to give the necessary skills to the 20 adults to play and enjoy my book 12 Timeless Love Songs, the 5th title in the Pick Pluck Play! Series on their own. Supported by a grant, this 8-week course is entirely free to those who sign up and show up.

After full participation, each student will receive a copy of the 104-page book to keep at the end of the course. Full participation means providing advance notice of any absences, attending the 1.5 hour class each week, and doing the required homework to keep up with the class until the end. I only give handouts and address questions in class, when I take attendance.

I changed my approach to teaching the ukulele. To make the ukulele sing, I start by opening the black box that’s the fretboard.

C major scale on the ukulele

After finding and naming the notes of G, C, E, and A on the fretboard, next is to find the notes of the C major scale from the open C-string. This is the subject of the 4th title in Pick Pluck Play! – 24 Progressive Studies on the C Major Scale with Harmony.

There are many ways to identify the notes of the C major scale, or any major scale on the ukulele. One way is to sing or hum the do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do and use your ear. Another is to check the notes against your tuner.

A more logical way is to follow the major scale formula: the first and second notes are separated by a whole step (i.e. skip a fret). Notes on the same string on adjacent frets are a half-step apart. Two halves make a whole. The formula is thus WWH WWWH – just like the groups of two black and three white keys on the piano keyboard.

We can do this for each major scale on each of the strings, e.g. the G major scale on the G-string. Notice that starting the first note on the open string means ending an octave higher on the 12th fret of the same string.

It’s also possible to play a major scale on many strings and fewer frets.

Play the C major on just the first three frets of the ukulele using 1) thumb only; 2) repeating notes using alternating index and middle fingers; and finally 3) thumb only intermittent with chords, as shown below. I demonstrated the following “Thumb Up the C Major Scale” in class, an example of chord melody arrangement, that is, melody notes and harmony interwoven together.

New piece with barre chords, up the neck

Along side mapping the fretboard to the tablature is the task of learning a new piece that I introduced in the first and second classes. I start on the 10th fret and work my way to the 1st fret. How do you represent and communicate what I play so you can learn it?

Here’s the full piece to be represented and communicated on paper.

Air strokes, down strokes, up strokes

In the second class, I introduce the concept of air strokes, similar to lip sync, i.e. movement without sound. An airstroke is represented by a hyphen. The down strum pattern is a series of downstroke alternating with air strokes on the “up” – i.e. d- d- d- d- where d represents downstroke. The alternating down and down-up strum pattern is d- du d- du.

The famous Island Strum, also known as Calypso Strum, has a syncopation in the 3rd beat. There are many variations of it. The easiest is du du -u du. Add accents (capital letter), and we get du Du -u Du. Remove the upstrokes, and we get d- D- -u Du.

Transition from chord diagrams to tablature

A good way to get used to reading tablature is to write the fret numbers below a chord diagram. The number 0 refers to the open string – nothing is pressed but that particular string must be played. The assignment is to write all the fret numbers, that is, the four numbers associated wtih each chord diagram.

Right hand fingering & technique

In terms of right hand finger picking, the first letter of each finger refers to the finger name in Spanish and Portuguese. From the easiest to hardest, the fingerpicking for both rest stroke and free stroke are:

1. Thumb only (p) – 1st class
2. Alternating index and middle fingers (i, m) – 2nd & 3rd class – especially for notes that are repeated
3. Thumb and index finger (p, i) – I will teach this in the 4th class
4. Thumb, index, and middle fingers (p, i, m)
5. Thumb, index, middle, and ring fingers pima

After everyone is able to communicate what’s played on both chord diagrams and tablature, we are ready to explore a common diatonic chord progression. In a subsequent class, we will explore a famous chord progression, which is the bonus piece in the third title of the Pick Pluck Play! Series – Step by Step to Chord Melody – in a 4-sheet 8-page handout.

I will update this blog post as I add more material in subsequent classes. My intention is to extract a piece from each of the titles of Pick Pluck Play! Series including my 7th title, which has entered the online auction of the 2nd New England Ukulele Festival. The book will be published in May 2026.

Introduction to chord melody

“Chord melody” is commonly used term in ukulele-speak for instrumental ukulele, combining both melody and harmony together.

Learning the notes of the C major scale is important for melody making. I will be handing out two pages from Book 2 of Pick Pluck Play! in class. Pick Strum C Major Scale is a study on fingerpicking each note from the scale intermittent with chords that harmonize. You only need the right thumb to play 90% of this piece.

All pieces in the Pick Pluck Play! Series with chord names can be played as duets. Thrive on Five from Book 1 is a good piece to practice the first four ways of right hand fingerpicking.

Handouts

The handouts for this course comprise the printed copies given in class only. The bolded numbers in square brackets refer to the class session in which the handouts are given.

Landscape Orientation

1. Ukulele Fretboard to Tablature: mapping locations, naming the notes—questions 1 to 10 [1st class handout – pages 1 to 7]
2. Ascending C Major Scale high G ukulele: Right Hand finger names and tablature [1st class handout – page 8]
3. Understanding Chord Diagrams (one sided, one sheet) [2nd class handout – 1 page]

Portrait Orientation

1. C Major Scale Unplugged (from 4th title of in the Pick Pluck Play! Series C Major Scale with Harmony) [1st class one side of 2-page handout]
2. Ascending C Major Scale Harmonization (Reharmonization) – 9 chord progressions [1st class one side of 2-page handout]
3. Pick Strum C Major Scale Open Strings [3rd class handout – 1st page]
4. Thumb Up Pick Strum C Major Scale Open Strings [3rd – page 2 & 3]
5. Thumb Up the C Major Scale [3rd class handout – page 4 & 5 ] as preparation for Pick Strum C Major Scale from Book 2 [3rd class handout – 2 pages]
6. 1+p = 1p [3rd – last of the 6-page handout]
7. Chord Switching Exercise – 4-page article from Uke Magazine, March 2026 plus easy chord switching exercise shown in chord choreography blog post [4th class handout – 6-page PDF]
8. Sakura chord melody arrangement and song sheet (see blog post) [4th class handout – 2-page PDF]; Revised one-page song sheet and one-page lead sheet [5th class handout]
9. The Fate of Ophelia – lead sheet (1st page only) and song sheet (3 pages) [5th class handout]
10. Thrive on Five from Book 1
11. Slurred C Major Scale Up and Down – left hand techniques (hammer on, pull off, slide)
12. Chromatic scale – exercises in future title in Pick Pluck Play! Series
13. FUN with Ukulele – the 20% you need to play the 80% you want – 4 sheets stapled (8 pages), part of 3rd title in Pick Pluck Play! Series Step by Step to Chord Melody.

Visit and follow Anne Ku’s Facebook Page to see the daily reels (short 90-second videos) of what’s covered in class.