This week in the Magic Ukulele Club we’re looking at five essential turnarounds in the key of C! A turnaround are those last few chords at the end of the section of a jazz standard that get us harmonically back to the top of the tune. Let’s look at how we can take a simple progression such as C and G7 and make it a bit more interesting. All five of these patterns are also moveable up the fingerboard so that you can adapt them to any key.

Join the Magic Ukulele Club for a PDF to accompany this lesson as well as 100s of other lessons, livestreams, and a new jazz standard each month.

This week in the Magic Ukulele Club we’re looking at how to take the humble G chord up to the next level. In this lesson we explore many of the options to add extensions and different flavors to a major chord.Adding major 7ths, 9ths, #11s, and 6ths to a chords all can give us different degrees of what we call G.

This lesson is part of our long form series on the old tune Out of Nowhere exploring the history, melody, harmony. and soloing over this great standard. Join us for over an hours of lessons and three livestreams on this wonderful old tune.

This month in the Magic Ukulele Club we are taking a deep dive into the 1931 Johnny Green standard ‘Out of Nowhere’. This tune was a hit throughout the years for everyone from Django Reinhardt to Charlie Parker as well as the chord progression being the catalyst for the original Star Trek theme! In a series of four lessons we’ll be breaking the song down from understanding the basic harmony (it’s all about that flat 6!) to melody, chord substitutions, and soloing. Along with over an hour of video lessons you also get an 8 page PDF as well as backing track to practice along with.

Join us as we dive into a new standard each and every month and see what it has to teach us!

Let's not let bass players have the fun! Learning to walk a bassline on ukulele can be a great insight into the harmony of songs when you're learning jazz. Let’s look at how to walk a bit over the standard ‘On the Sunny Side of the Street’.

This month in the Magic Ukulele Club we're diving deep into the 1930 hit by Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields: On the Sunny Side of the Street. In this four part series we'll go over the history, basic harmony, playing the melody, chord substitutions, and how to solo over the changes. Plus 1 hour of video instruction, guided practice sessions, PDF download, and backing track to practice with.

This month in the Magic Ukulele Club we are taking a deep dive into the 1930 classic ‘On the Sunny Side of the Street’ in a four part lesson series. Starting off with the basic harmony of the tune we’ll be addressing the form, history, melody, the chords I play (and how we find them!) as well as soloing concepts over this popular jazz standard.

This is the first in our Learning Jazz Standards series breaking down one essential song each month.

This week in the Magic Ukulele Club we’re look at the classic song ‘White Christmas’ by Irving Berlin. In addition to the basic play-along our lesson analyzes the original changes that Berlin wrote and puts some of our voice leading concepts from last week to work. Join us for the PDF as well as extended lesson on this wonderful song.

This week in the Magic Ukulele Club we're looking at the basics of voice leading or how chords move to one another. The exercises in this video are broken down into two sections: One based around the C E and A strings, and another utilizing triads on the G C and E strings. in each of these we go through the three inversions of major chords and look at what note we can add, the leading tone, to give them a sense of motion.

These exercises are a great way to work your way up and down the fingerboard while keeping an awareness of where the notes are in each chord.

What are shell chords? In short they are chords stripped down to the most important pieces of harmony. Why should we play four notes when three will suffice? By using these three note voicings we have the flexibility to add a lot more color to the harmony later on.

If you’re starting out on your jazz journey these shapes will help you navigate chords up and down the fingerboard, learn your notes, and see how chords work all at the same time. Not sure how chords are built? Start here

This week in the Magic Ukulele Club we look further into this concept with an extended video, play-along, and PDF. Join us over there for 100s of Jazz ukulele lessons

This week in the Magic Ukulele Club we're looking at the lovely little tune from the Sound of Music 'Edelweiss'. Even the basic version of this song is a great look at the genius of Richard Rodgers harmonizing a simple melody. In the extended lesson we're taking that harmony up to the next level by creating a countermelody on the C string and building chords around it.

This week we’re taking an aside from learning songs and techniques to talk about something we often overlook: How to practice. Streamlining your practice routine means making more time for music!

In this video we look at 10 ways to improve your practice.

Let’s take this week to set some goals for our ukulele journey and figure out how we intend to get there.

This week in the Magic Ukulele Club we’re taking a look at the fabulous standard ‘Confessin’. Originally recorded by Louis Armstrong in 1930 this tune was an instant hit and quickly became a jazz standard.

This is a great tune to strum along to but also a wonderful vehicle for us to apply different harmony over top of. In the lesson we look at the chord melody intro and chord choices throughout the tune. We have a lot of room for experimentation in a song that uses so many of our common chord progressions throughout.

Join us for a full 20 minute lesson and PDF download to accompany this beautiful song.

Playing a single note melody on ukulele seems easy but to make it sound beautiful is one of the hardest aspects of playing this instrument. This week in the Magic Ukulele Club we look at four ways to layout the melody of the Disney song 'When You Wish Upon a Star' across the fretboard and how each influences the sound.

While I spend a lot of time talking about music on this page also need to learn how to navigate the tool that is ukulele. The more easily we can play the instrument without thinking about the technical aspects the more we can focus on making music! If you're going to do one exercise for finger independence on the instrument this should be the one: the 1-2-3-4 Exercise. Simple in concept but hard to execute cleanly.

This week in the Magic Ukulele Club we are going over five exercises to get the left hand moving! Join us for an extended lesson, PDF as well as 100s of other lessons.

This week on the Magic Ukulele Club we’re looking at a song that is a staple in the ukulele works: We’ll Meet Again. Recorded by vera Lynn in 1939 it quickly became a timeless classic that keeps popping up in popular media even today.

This song comprises two of our most used chord progressions - The I III VI II V circle progression and the Honeysuckle Rose Bridge. Join the Magic Ukulele Club for exclusive lesson on this song: ‘How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love Tritone Substitutions’ which focuses on reharmonizing the familiar A sections as well as the bridge

This week in the Magic Ukulele Club we’re looking at a song that needs no introduction: ‘Fly Me to The Moon’. This song predates the Sinatra recording by nearly 10 years having been a minor success for Kaye Ballard in 1954 before Quincy Jones got a hold of it. That would become the swinging version that we all sing today!

This tune is a masterclass is starting to hear the difference between ii V I progressions that target minor and major chords as well as how many chord voicings can be used to imply different harmony depending on context. Another great song to look at this concept in is Autumn Leaves.

Join us on the Magic Ukulele Club to learn for a full lesson breaking down the chord melody intro, the chords I play as well as the Count Basie Ending.

This week in the Magic Ukulele Club we’re looking at moveable 7th chords and how four simple shapes can get us every 7th chord up and down the neck. As a seventh chord contains four notes there are only a limited number of ways we can arrange those notes. We’re looking at the four main inversions of the chords or what note we put as the lowest note in the chord. This gives us four shapes you are already familiar with: G7, C7, E7, and A7. By turning these into barre chords and being aware of where the root note is we are able to change them into any other 7th chord that we desire.

If you are new to chords and theory watch this quick video on how chords are built before diving into today’s lesson. You can continue diving into more harmony lessons in our Harmony/Theory Tab.

Join the Magic Ukulele Club for an extended video featuring the secret 5th moveable voicing and how to integrate open strings into your seventh chords!

This week in the Magic Ukulele Club have the first installment of a new monthly series: Ukulele Rudiments. Each month we’ll be looking at challenging rhythmic exercises to open up the possibilities of the right hand. This month we’re looking at the George Formby split stroke and how to apply it starting on different beats.

In the drumming world rudiments for snare drum are the small piece that build nearly every other rhythmic combination. By learning the rudiments first you are setting yourself up for success when tackling rhythmic concepts.

Join the Magic Ukulele Club for the extended lesson, PDF, and 100s of other ukulele lessons!

This week in the Magic Ukulele Club we’re looking at a few simple ideas to fine tune your strumming hand. No matter where you are in your ukulele journey taking a step back from time to time and addressing the fundamentals is an important part of making progress.

In all honesty, almost everything in the video can be solved with just step number one: Relax. Holding tension in our bodies and in our hands is one of the biggest obstacles to making a beautiful sound on the instrument. A great accompaniment to this lesson is my video on focusing on sound.

Join us on the Magic Ukulele Club for an extended video, worksheet, and hundreds of other lessons.

This week in the Magic Ukulele Club we’re looking at a few simple ideas to fine tune your strumming hand. No matter where you are in your ukulele journey taking a step back from time to time and addressing the fundamentals is an important part of making progress.

In all honesty, almost everything in the video can be solved with just step number one: Relax. Holding tension in our bodies and in our hands is one of the biggest obstacles to making a beautiful sound on the instrument. A great accompaniment to this lesson is my video on focusing on sound.

Join us on the Magic Ukulele Club for an extended video, worksheet, and hundreds of other lessons.

What does it mean to go further than simply memorizing a song but to truly learn it? In this new book and video series we look at what it takes.

Dive into the nitty gritty of how a song works with videos on harmony, chord substitutions, alternative chord voicings, chord melody, as well as exercises in all 12 keys.

Includes two hours of video instruction and Play-Along's for each exercise in the book.

*This course is also available as part of the Magic Ukulele Club membership along with over 200 other lessons and five other ebooks.