My Dog Has Fleas

If you have never picked up any musical instrument and have no background knowledge of music then how do you start to play a ukulele? I know how I started. As a teenager I played guitar and I was taught how to hold it and how to play it but I didn't have a ukulele. A friend did have a banjolele and he showed me how to hold it and the George Formby strumming patterns as well as how to play basic chords. So I suppose the best way to learn is to have a friend to show us. Failing that, I suppose the first step is to buy a ukulele.

When I bought my first guitar I took another friend with me for support and advice. I had a paperback book full of information as to what made the best guitar but it couldn't tell me which guitar would be best for me. Whichever guitar (for guitar read ukulele here) I chose, it had to have good intonation - it had to play the right notes! It had to be easy to play. If the action, the distance from the strings to the fretboard is too high then it isn't easy to play, but too low may lead to their own problems. I don't want to sound shallow but how a ukulele looks is very important. If you like the look then you are more likely to play it.

You are even more likely to play it if what you are playing sounds good, and that starts with the ukulele being in tune. The common tuning is GCEA from the string nearest the ceiling to the string nearest the floor, and the biggest difference between a ukulele and a guitar is that the G has a higher pitch than the following C and the E strings. My banjolele owning friend had pitch pipes as well as a piano to help him get it in tune. Nowadays electronic tuners are a wonderful aide to tuning even if it stops everyone thinking and makes us just follow a flashing light. However I have no hesitation in recommending their use.

I would also recommend knowing about 'my dog has fleas'. If you haven't heard this before then it is nonsense but you can't play the ukulele for long without hearing the phrase and someone singing the words to the notes - you've guessed it - GCE and A or 'My(G) Dog(C) Has(E) Fleas(A). It is nothing to do with dogs, nothing to do with fleas and nothing to do with any song that I know but it certainly helps you recognise the pattern of open notes on a ukulele.

Aloha