If you’ve ever dreamed of being like Taylor Swift, today’s your lucky day! In this article, teacher Willy M. will show you how to play ukulele like Taylor Swift, and channel your inner rock star…
There’s no doubt that Taylor Swift is a music phenomenon. She has accomplished more at such a young age than most artists will ever achieve in their careers. And one of the reasons for her success is her mastery of the ukulele.
In this blog post, we’re going to show you how to play ukulele like Taylor Swift. So whether you’re a beginner or an experienced player, keep reading for some tips and tricks!
Is it Easy to Learn to Play the Ukulele?
Learning to play the ukulele can be a lot of fun, and most people will find that it is fairly easy to pick up the basics. To learn how to play ukulele like Taylor Swift, you will need to:
- Choose the right ukulele
- Learn the basic chords and strums
- Experiment with different sounds and techniques
- Practice often
- Work on Taylor Swift ukulele cover songs
- Join a ukulele group
Of course, taking lessons can help. With just a little bit of time and effort, most people can quickly get the hang of basic strumming patterns and chords, making it relatively easy to start exploring new melodies and jamming along with their favorite songs.
Whether you are a seasoned musician or just looking for a casual hobby, learning how to play the ukulele can be a wonderful way to explore your creative side and add some joy to your life. So go ahead and give it a try – you won’t regret it! Then you can start learning some easy songs to play on the ukulele by Taylor Swift.
See a few more of the many benefits of learning how to play the ukulele below, in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwDvPPxP814
How to Play Ukulele Like Taylor Swift
If you want to learn to play the ukulele like Taylor Swift, there are a few key steps that you’ll need to follow.
1. Choose the Right Ukulele
To play the ukulele like Taylor Swift, it’s important to start with the right ukulele. Ideally, you should look for a classic concert or tenor ukulele, as these instruments tend to produce the most clear and rich sound. It’s also important to make sure that your uke is well-made and has a good tone, as this will help ensure that you can play complex chords and melodies with ease.
Additionally, it’s usually best to opt for an instrument made from solid woods like mahogany or cedar rather than laminate woods like maple or beech. When buying a ukulele, it’s always a good idea to try out as many different options as possible before making your final decision. By choosing the right instrument and taking the time to practice your technique, you can play the ukulele like Taylor Swift in no time!
2. Learn the Basic Chords and Strums
Taylor’s musical skill on the ukulele is truly impressive, and her masterful performances are a testament to her years of dedicated practice and hard work. If you want to learn how to play like Taylor Swift, the first step is to familiarize yourself with the basic chords and strums.
At its most basic level, playing ukulele involves using your fingers to pluck or strum the strings in different patterns and at different speeds. There are a number of different chords and strums that you will need to learn in order to replicate Taylor’s sound, such as downstrokes, upstrokes, hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides, vibratos, barre chords, and more.
These may seem challenging at first, but with regular practice and patient focus on each individual technique you will quickly pick them up and be well on your way to playing like Taylor Swift!
So don’t wait – start learning those chords and strums today so that you can one day grasp the ukulele as masterfully as Taylor herself.
3. Experiment With Different Sounds and Techniques
If you want to play ukulele like Taylor Swift, you’ll need to experiment with different sounds and techniques. For example, try using a softer touch when you strum the strings. This will create a gentle, lilting sound that’s perfect for ballads. You can also add some percussive elements by using your fingers to pluck the strings.
This gives the ukulele a more lively sound that’s perfect for up-tempo songs. To get the most out of your ukulele playing, it’s important to practice regularly and listen to lots of different music. This will help you develop your own style and learn how to use the ukulele to its full potential.
With a little effort, you can soon be playing like Taylor Swift.
4. Practice Often
If you want to play ukulele like Taylor Swift, you need to practice often. While Taylor is undoubtedly a natural talent, she has also put in countless hours of practice to hone her skills.
In addition to practicing regularly, it’s important to listen to music and watch videos of other ukulele players. This will help you develop your own style and technique. Also, don’t be afraid to experiment with different strumming patterns and chords. The more you play, the better you’ll get at finding the sound that you’re looking for. With a little bit of practice, you can definitely play ukulele like Taylor Swift.
5. Enjoy Playing Your Favorite Ukulele Cover Songs
Start practicing by playing along with your favorite Taylor Swift songs.
Next, it’s important to gain some familiarity and comfort with fingerpicking patterns. Many Taylor Swift tunes feature intricate fingerpicking rhythms, so it helps to practice a variety of different picking styles in order to give your playing an authentic sound.
Finally, be patient and take the time to develop your own style and musical expression. Listen to lots of different cover versions of easy songs to play on ukulele by Taylor Swift, and try imitating or incorporating elements from those performances into your own playing. With hard work and dedication, you’ll be strumming along like Taylor in no time!
6. Join a Ukulele Group
Consider joining a local ukulele group. There are many great forums and community groups geared specifically towards helping players at all levels improve their skills. By learning from others and playing alongside fellow musicians, you can gain valuable insights into the art of ukulele playing and find new ways to grow as an artist.
Practice regularly and set achievable goals for yourself. Don’t just wing it when you sit down with your instrument – take time to familiarize yourself with the various techniques and patterns that form the building blocks of great music.
Set concrete goals for yourself each week or month, such as learning a new song or mastering a particular chord progression, and make sure to spend enough time practicing each day so that you can achieve those goals.
Best Taylor Swift Ukulele Songs
Taylor Swift has rapidly risen to stardom with catchy songs that are very simple in their structure. Her songs have a way of boring into the listener’s head and lodging in there for days on end. Today, we’re going to learn how to play ukulele using a few of Taylor Swift songs.
Whether you’re a ukulele beginner or a seasoned player, you’ll have fun playing these songs. So kick back, relax, grab your uke, and let’s learn to play these fun little numbers!
1. “Mean”
Taylor’s songs are not extremely difficult to play. In fact, the first song, “Mean”, is made up of only a couple chords. The song “Mean” does not have ukulele in the recording, but it translates quite nicely when I play it. Mean is in the key of D and the main chords are D, G, A, and Bm.
It opens with a duet between the banjo and the mandolin, but both instruments are sparse in their picking arrangement, emphasizing the “boom-chunk-chunk” country rhythm of the song. The rhythm is like a swung triplet, where the first beat is slightly emphasized more than the second two beats.
For beginner ukulele players, a triplet is when you have three beats where you should only have two. For instance, let’s say you have space for two eighth notes, but you cram three into that spot. So instead of “1 and,” you get “1 trip-let.”
I play this rhythm in “Mean” by striking the bottom strings of the ukulele slightly harder, and then playing a down strum and an up strum in quick succession on all four strings of the ukulele.
Bonus: Play It on Mandolin
What’s great about a song like “Mean” is that, if you get used to playing it on the ukulele, it’s relatively simple to transfer over to the mandolin tuned in Open D (a.k.a. Dead Man’s Tuning). The original mandolin tuning for the song is in Standard Mandolin, but the open tuning of Dead Man’s Tuning gives the mandolin more of a ukulele quality. Thus, by learning it on one instrument, it opens up doors to other similar instruments, which will make you a more well-rounded musician!
“Mean” also gives you a chance to practice some ukulele finger-picking patterns. One pattern that I find particularly useful for the intro is picking the second string, followed by the fourth, and then the third in that swung triplet pattern.
2. “Fearless”
Another great Taylor Swift song for the ukulele is “Fearless.” If I’m not mistaken (according to what I can tell from the video), Taylor plays this song on a nylon-stringed guitar with a capo on the third fret. Luckily, the nylon strings of the ukulele work well for this song, too.
Again, this isn’t a song that’s structurally complex. The chords are D, A, Em, and G (these are great chords for the mandolin in Dead Man’s Tuning) – although, the third fret has a capo, making the chords sound like F, Bb, C, and Gm.
When I watch Taylor play “Fearless” in the video, she employs a straight 16th note rhythm on the guitar – it goes like this: 1 – e – & a, 2 – e – & a, 3 – e – & a, 4 – e – & a. She never seems to deviate from this rhythm for the duration of the verse.
When she gets to the chorus, I do notice that she slightly emphasizes the fourth beat when strumming. Check out the video below and you can see this rhythm in action. Other than the slight emphasis on the fourth beat, however, the rhythm of the chorus is exactly the same as the verse.
When I play “Fearless,” I like to tune the ukulele out of standard and play it in D4, A4, D4, and F#4 tuning. This puts the open strings as a D chord, the fifth fret as a G chord, and the seventh fret as an A chord. By holding down the 2nd string 2nd fret, you get a type of Bm chord which you can substitute for the Em in the song.
Or, you could tune the ukulele (depending on the type of uke you have) to F, C, F, A, and play it without a capo in the same manner. I found that when I tried this, my uke stayed in tune better when I tuned it to open D and put a capo on it, but you may have a better ukulele than I do!
3. “Fifteen”
Here’s another mandolin-driven song that’s in the key of G, but it still translates great to the ukulele. The rhythms have a lot of starts and stops, but the majority of it is easy to play. It’s more complex than the previous two songs, but regardless, anyone can play it.
I count the rhythm as 1 –e – & a, 2 – 3 – & a, 3 &, 4. Or, four 16th notes, four 16th notes, two eighth notes, and a quarter note. As a slight variation, that last quarter note could be an eighth note and a eighth rest. That distinctive rhythm repeats on both the verse and the chorus.
If you want to learn it on the ukulele, I would recommend trying it in standard ukulele tuning. If you want to switch over to the mandolin at some point and play it like the recording sounds, you can still keep your mandolin tuned like the other two songs. This is because open D tuning works great in the key of G.
In the video, I noticed that Taylor emphasizes her fourth strum like she does in “Fearless” – it seems to be her trademark strumming style.
When Taylor gets to the end of the chorus, she does a little flatpicking on the upper notes. You can mimic this on your ukulele by switching from the main strumming pattern to emphasize some of the notes of the chords.
Finally, when she gets to the bridge, she abandons the 16th rhythm for a staccato chop; 1 – 2 – 3 – 4, where all of the beats get equal emphasis.
Can I Teach Myself Ukulele?
Learning to play the ukulele can be a fun and rewarding experience, and it’s definitely something that you can do on your own. There are a few things that you’ll need to keep in mind, however, if you want to be successful.
First of all, you’ll need to be patient and dedicate some time to practice. It’s also important to find a good quality ukulele and some instructional materials that will help you understand the basics of the instrument.
With a little bit of effort, you’ll be playing your favorite songs in no time!
How to Play a Ukulele Like T-Swift: Practice Often!
So that’s it, uke players! I showed you three Taylor Swift songs that are fun to play on the ukulele. I want to remind you, if you’re having trouble with any of them, TakeLessons has a whole bunch of great teachers that can help you learn how to play ukulele.
Keep playing, and I will see you next time with some more info on how to be a better uke player!
Just like Taylor Swift, by using the tips we’ve given you can make learning and playing the ukulele seem easy and fun. With a little bit of practice, you will be strumming to your favorite songs in no time. Give these tips a try, and let us know how it goes!
Do you know any other Taylor Swift songs that would sound great on the ukulele? Comment below telling us which songs and why!
Post Author: Willy M.Willy M. teaches guitar, ukulele, and mandolin lessons in Winston Salem, NC. He’s the author of the Dead Man’s Tuning series of mandolin songbooks, and is a former member of the American Federation of Musicians. Willy has been teaching for 20 years, and his students have ranged in age from young children to folks in their 80s. Learn more about Willy here!
Photo by Larry Darling
Suzy S.