Ukulele Lessons in Holts Summit, MO

Students will benefit from a personally customized approach to learning, exploring musical styles that range from rock to pop, blues to country, punk to folk, and at every level of musical experience. Tim is a teacher with 20 years of teaching and performing experience.

The ukulele is a creative adaptation and redesign of the machete de braga, a small stringed instrument that was introduced to Hawaii by Portuguese immigrants in August of 1879. The Hawaiian people fell in love with the sound of the instrument and named it “ukulele" because the fingers of the performer dancing around on the neck and strings as a song was played resembled jumping fleas. Ukulele means jumping fleas in the Hawaiian language.

Since the ukulele is related to a European instrument and the guitar from Spain, the relative tuning is the same. It should be tuned a perfect fourth up from a guitar, so the first string is tuned to an A, second string should be tuned to an E, third string will be a C, & the fourth string should be tuned to a G an octave up. Most ukuleles have a fourth string that is an octave above what the normal progression would be of most stringed instruments. If your G string is not tuned an octave up it’s a larger size than the average ukulele G string ...

The ukulele is a fun way for young or inexperienced players learn to play a string instrument without the tedious and sometimes painful process involved on a guitar or bass guitar. You can learn many skills very quickly on the ukulele, that will eventually translate to the guitar. Reading simple melodies and playing a wide range of chords that fit neatly and comfortably on the ukulele make it a fun and easy first instrument to learn. Can you say Kamakaiwaole?

I have been playing ukulele for four years.

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I find ukulele to often work better than guitar for many young students (typically years 10 and younger). When appropriate, the student can transition to guitar having increased hand strength and learned many of the concepts needed to excel. Of course, ukulele makes for a fun (and ultra-portable) instrument in its own right!