Ukulele Lesson 5 - Uke 2 & 4 Hit Strumming (UK-005)

Ukulele Lesson 5: 2 & 4 Hit Strumming. Adding a hit or a mute on beats 2 & 4 gives you a more rhythmic feel to your strumming and sounds well cool. See the web site for more info and help!

Taught by Justin Sandercoe.

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Have fun :)

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Hey, how you doing?
Justin here today!

We are going to be looking
at some more ukulele.

We're gonna have a look
at the 2 and 4 hit rhythm,

really cool little groove. (♪)

Now the cool thing with
the ukelele is it is

it's own kind
of whole orchestra

You're not usually playing
a ukelele as part of a band

although it's definitely very possible,

much more common is for
people to be playing on their own.

So, if you've been working a little bit,

on your strumming and
you're confident

with your down and up strumming,

and you're staying in time,

this is a really really cool little trick

to get under your fingers.

Basically a drummer, when
they're playing,plays a kick drum

the big fat drum, on beats 1 and 3

and they play the snare drum, which is

a really loud one on beats 2 and 4

excuse my terrible beatboxing,
but it kinda like:

and it's this 'ka' sound
that is the...

Called the back-beat.
Happens on beat 2 and 4 - Okay?

So, if we introduce that idea of playing

a little accented hit on beats 2 and 4,
gives you a little bit more groove.

So, if I'm just playing regular (♪)

and then I add the back-beating

It's just like-"Oh yeah, it's
moving along a little better!"

it's kinda introducing a rhythmic element

if I can learn to talk today.

So, what do we do?

So, normally we're playing
1-and-2-and-3-and-4-and

down-up-down-up
down-up-down-up

1 and 2, and on that beat 2

What we're gonna do is: mute a little bit
with the palm of our hand

On the strings..
and give it a little strum.

So, I'd recommend doing this without
any chord at all

to make sure that you're doing it right.
Just going: 1-and-2.

Just try that. So, down-up,
and then let your hand fall down

and let your finger hit the strings
after your hand has already hit the mute.

So, 1-and-2-1-and-2.
Start-off with that!

♪

Then try and get: 1-and-2-and-3-and-4-and
1-and-2-and-3-and-4-and

♪

Now the reason for not using a chord is it's
very tempting to use your fingers to mute the strings.

Which is another way of doing it...
It's just not as good.

Okay, so not holding your chord down,
see if you can get that little muted hit.

It will take some practice, it's
not something that you're likely to go

"Oh yeah, I can do it!"
- perfect straight away

or maybe you can, which would be great.
But what you want to work on is

getting that hand to sit down on the
string and you're strumming just behind.

I think this is almost certainly gonna be
cool for a close-up.

So let's just look at this muted hit again.
So we've got the palm of the hand

That's gonna touch the strings and then
you're gonna strum in front of it

So it's already muted. If it wasn't there:
(♪)

So it's just using the heal of your hand
just to rest on the strings.

So there's nothing coming out.
And then going through:

1-and-2. So try and get that hit.
1-and-2-3-and-4

Just try to get that first,
so you can get your nice muted click.

♪

Then try and lock it into the whole groove.
So: 1-and-2-and-3-and-4-and

1-and-2-and-3-and-4
1-and-2-and-3-and-4

and 1-and-2-and-3-and-4

Now you'll notice there as well I'm
starting to put the shuffle.

♪

Okay? So it's not just straight.
Straight would be:

♪

Wth the shuffle:

♪

Both of those are pretty useful. But (♪)
that little kind of shuffle with the mute:

♪

Is definitely where it's at.

For nearly everyone, this kind of strumming
pattern takes a little practice.

Takes a while to get used to
the technique.

Which is something that you wanna work on
separately- right?

Just, you know, literally working on doing
that and then doing the 1-and-2 thing.

♪

You know, just making sure that you kinda
get that under your fingers first

before you try and lock into
the whole groove.

Okay? Really big deal. Just learning
things one-step at a time and

definitely, definitely don't be trying to
change chords while you're learning this.

Okay? Either do it with no chords at all,
or just pick a simple chord like C or G,

or whatever, whatever chord you really
feel comfy with and just stay on that

one chord while you get the rhythm.
Then once you've got the rhythm,

maybe try changing just between 2 chords (♪)

And if you've got 2 or 3 chords,
and you can start to mix them up,

you'll find that it's properly under your
fingers and you can apply it to

any tune you want. So, have a bit of fun
with that, 2-and-4 hit strumming,

I will see you for plenty more lessons
on uke and guitar and maybe something else

sometime in the future too.
Take care of yourselves! Bye-bye!