How To Learn New Songs Easily

Learning a new song is more tricky than it seems. Singing along to something on the radio is one thing, but learning to play it is a whole different kettle of fish. In this blog post, I'll explain how to learn new songs easily by breaking it down into its building blocks.

Breaking It Down

Especially if you're new to ukulele, its hard to just pick up the uke and instantly be able to play an entire new song in one go, so we need to break it down into its constituent parts. To my mind, those are:

• Chords

• Strumming pattern

• Lyrics

• Melody

We start with the chords because that's the base of the song, and we then layer the others on top.

Chords

The chords for most songs can be found easily online now, but that's just the start. Playing the chords in isolation is great, but playing them one after the other and keeping it nice and even is the trick. We don't want large gaps between them, buzzing strings, or confused faces as our fingers flail around trying to find the right fret. So learning the chords in order is the first step.

We only want a basic downstrum on each beat for this. If it's a fast song, you might even just play one strum per chord. Make sure you have the diagrams in front of you if you need them, and don't be afraid to slow it down as much as you need. Once you can play the chords one after the other with a nice clear and even sound, then you're ready to move on.

Strumming Pattern

A simple strum to get started with

The strumming pattern can change the mood of the whole song. You wouldn't strum hard and fast for a lullaby, and you wouldn't strum slow and soft for rock and roll. Have a listen to the music, and hear where the strong beats are. This should be the main way to pick your strumming pattern.

Try to fit this in with your chords now - it will be tricky at first to stay in the strumming pattern and change chords at the same time, but again by slowing it down and using a metronome, practice will help you get there.

Lyrics

Once you're comfortable with your chords and strumming pattern, we can add the lyrics. We don't want to sing them just yet, but we'll just speak them at the right time over the top. This might feel strange, but getting the lyric timings right is important, especially if you're playing something like Chas n Dave and you have loads of words to try to fit in!

Once again, I cannot emphasise the importance of slowing it down enough here. We're not trying to hit a words-per-minute target - we're trying to get it right.

Melody

Now that you've got the words at the right time, let's try to get them at the right pitch. Some

people prefer to hum through the melody first, some people like to go straight onto singing the melody with the words - it all depends on how well you know the song and how comfortable you are.

Listen to the original as many times as you need to, slow it down again, practice tricky sections in isolation and then put them back into the context of the song - do whatever you need to get it.

Tips For Practicing

If there is one particular line you always mess up in the middle of the song, don't start the whole thing again. So many people make this mistake, meaning that they end up practicing the bits they're already good at over and over, and not focussing enough on the trickier sections.

Instead, practice just the tricky bit until you can get it right every time, and then put it back into the context of the song. This way, you're strengthening the weakest part of the song and not spending time going over what you already know.

Recording yourself and listening back is also a great idea - does your strumming pattern change during a tricky chord change? Do you speed up at the parts you like better? Are you singing the right tune? All of these things are hard to notice in the middle of playing, but you'll see them watching or listening back.

Next Time

If you have suggestions for the blog posts you'd like to see, let me know!