In this ukulele lesson we look at how to take the basic 8 bar blues form of St James Infirmary (based on the Louis Armstrong version) and breathe new life into it through chord inversions, substitutions, and harmonic movement.

Whether you are a beginner, intermediate, or advanced ukulele player you can take this concept as far as you like and join us at the end of the video for a full play-along with the band: no matter which set of chords you choose.

Download the Free PDF

Join us over on the Magic Ukulele Club for a in depth 8 part series on this song with over 3 hours of lessons going deeper into chord substitutions, how to construct single note, octave, and chord melody solos over the form, a note for note transcription of Louis Armstrong's recording and even a lesson for U bass players.

Looking to play a Solo Ukulele Version of this song?

Join me live on youtube this Saturday at 3pm Eastern Time (8pm for those of us here in the UK)

Whether you're trying to strum like George Formby or just add something new to your rhythm repertoire join me as I break down this classic syncopated style or ukulele strumming. We'll look at how to effectively practice this technique so that you can add it to your strumming toolbox. As we'll see the Split Stroke goes well beyond George Formby and truly hails from Hawaii!

Grab the Free PDF Ahead of time.

This technique can seem mystifying at first but you'll have it in no time after we spend an hour breaking it down and practicing together.

Over on the Magic Ukulele Club this month we're taking a deep dive into 'St James Infirmary'. Over the course of 5 lessons and two livestreams we'll learn tasty chords, rhythm, and three approaches to soloing over top of this classic number. In addition to that we'll also be hosting a special guest workshop for member with the incredible Phil Doleman.

Join us for new lessons each week:

https://www.thetinman.co/join-the-magic-ukulele-club

Rhythm is essential to playing Brazilian bossa nova and in this lesson we look at four right hand techniques to capture the groove. Sure we could pluck the notes just a like a guitar, and it sure sounds great especially on Low G, but how can we accomplish these rhythms utilizing the ukulele to its full potential?

Download the Free PDF to Accompany this Lesson

For those of us that strum we can take a page out of the cavaquinho playbook and use the techniques of George Formby or maybe a more gentle thumb and index finger strum. We can even add percussion much as the great Ohta-San does with his Tick-Tock strum.

If you'd like to dive deeper into the Bossa Nova Ukulele rabbit hole join us over on the Tin Man's Magic Ukulele Club where we are picking apart Antonio Carlos Jobim's 'The Girl from Ipanema' in a series of five lessons addressing chords, rhythms, strumming, u bass playing, and more.

Join me live on Youtube at 1pm Eastern Time to dip your toes into the beautiful style of Bossa Nova. We’ll be working through Antonio Carlos Jobim’s ‘So Danco Samba’

Grab the Free PDF ahead of time here

It’s been much too long since I’ve released any recordings. Today is the release of my first electric ukulele single: Time After Time.

This is based on the arrangement from Chet Baker Sings which we’ve been spending the month on the Magic Ukulele Club learning every little bit.

You can download this song for free on Bandcamp

The further we get in our ukulele journey the harder it can seem to memorize the seemingly impossible amount of chord shapes up and down the neck.

The reality is that all of those fancy jazz chords you see are all coming from just a few shapes you already know. In this lesson we look at how to take one basic chords - the diminished seventh - and explore it's tonality by moving individual notes. Let's not worry about the names of the chord but simply the sound it makes. With this method we can find all the different shades of the chord. None of this matters if we don't have a way to practice is so let's put it in a chord progression and practice along with a bass player!

If you want to put these concepts to use join us over on the Magic Ukulele Club

Join me in learning a solo ukulele chord melody rendition of ‘St James Infirmary’. In this lesson I’ll break down how to not just play the arrangement but how to go about learning it efficiently.

Free Tabs to Accompany the lesson

We’ll go over the melody and chords independently before putting them together for the full arrangement. This song is a great exercise in using partial strums with the thumb to bring out the melody of the song.

Enjoy more lessons like this on the Magic Ukulele Club

Written in 1933 'It's Only a Paper Moon' was an instant hit for Cliff Edwards aka Ukulele Ike. Over the years it would go on to be recorded by such greats as nat King Cole and Ella Fitzgerald. In this quick lesson we look at the basic ukulele chords to both sections of this jazz standard and strum the tune along with a full backing track.

You can download the chord chart as well as tabs for the electric ukulele introduction here

This month on the Magic Ukulele Club we'll be taking a deep dive into this tune with 5 lessons and 2 live streams covering:

• History & Harmony

• Playing the Melody

• Cliff Edwards Chords

• The Two Feel (U-Bass lesson)

• Chord Melody Soloing

High or Low G?! The eternal ukulele question (let's be honest that the only right answer is we need both!) . In this quick lesson we look at some techniques that make high G tuning special to me.

While reentrant tuning can seem limiting it also opens you up to a host of musical techniques that are not available on other instruments. From strumming patterns to picking to chords, let's look at five techniques that this ukulele tuning can do that Low G can not.

A few lessons on these techniques to get you started:

Campanella (Sam Muir Lesson)

Clawhammer

Split Stroke

All of the Chords

You can always explore all of these topics more in depth on the Magic Ukulele Club

Join the band as we dive into Irving Berlin’s ‘Blue Skies’! This month on the Magic Ukulele Club we’ll be taking apart this arrangement piece by piece in a series of five lessons:

-History/Harmony/Analysis

-Playing the Melody with Chords

-Three Note Chords

-Building a Bass Line

-Applying Swing Rhythms

In addition to this we have two livestreams focusing on learning the melody by ear as well as crafting a solo using the melody as a guide. If you feel stuck in your playing join the community to learn a song front to back each month from beginner to advanced.

Join on in with the band this week as we strum through the classic jazz standard ‘Deed I Do. The basic chords are suitable for beginners while the chord melody solo will challenge the intermediate and advanced players.

This month on the Magic Ukulele Club we'll be diving deep into this tune with five lessons teaching the Harmony, 6 Turnarounds and chord substitutions, melody, Chord melody solo, u bass lesson and more. Join us for access to over 200 ukulele lessons, a new tune each month, PDFs, livestreams and more.

Have you ever wondered how you could take a simple song and breathe new life into it? In this free lesson we’re looking at exactly that! We’ll start with a basic two chord version of the classic ‘Singing’ in the Rain’ and slowly build up the harmony piece by piece through five levels of harmony. In this building block approach you’ll be able to not just play the chords but begin to understand why these chord substitutions work so that you can apply them to other songs.

This month on the Magic Ukulele Club we’ll be using this song as a vehicle to learn all about chords, substitutions, and moving harmony. You can view as 20 minute extended version of this lesson along with three other lessons throughout the month focusing on Melody, Soloing, and How we can use 6th chords in multiple ways up and down the neck. In addition you can download a 12 page PDF, backing track, and join or two live-streams to practice together.

Whether you know this classic Frank Loesser tune from Zooey Deschanel & Joseph Gordon Levitt's duet or the incredible Ella Fitzgerald it has become a seasonal staple. In this quick tutorial I"ll walk you through the chords for both sections of the tune in the key of F and then we'll do a play-along with a full band to back you up. This is a great tune for the advanced beginner or intermediate player but can be tackled by anyone who puts in the effort!

Join the Magic Ukulele Club for $7.50 a month for an extended video of this lesson as well as three additional lessons teaching melody, harmony, and soloing throughout the month in addition to access to over 200 ukulele lessons, PDFs, livestreams, Backing Tracks, members only slack channel, and more:

This month on the Magic Ukulele Club we've been studying the jazz standard 'Autumn Leaves'. Here is a solo ukulele take for you to give a try complete with campanella sections and chords that can even challenge the advanced player. You can download both High and Low G tabs for free here.

Join us over on the Magic Ukulele Club for a soundslice file to practice along with as well as over 50 other solo ukulele arrangements

In this quick and easy ukulele tutorial, you'll learn how to play the timeless jazz standard, "Autumn Leaves". This song is one of the first standards people learn as it is built upon two essential chord progressions: the Major and minor ii V I. First we'll learn these two chord progressions in the key of G and Em and then put the puzzle pieces together while playing along with the full band.

Want to dive deeper into ukulele jazz? Join the Tin Man's Ukulele club where we'll be using this song as a learning vehicle throughout the month playing the melody, the chord voicings I play in the video as well as how to solo, chord melody, and ii V I voicings up and down the neck. All this with a 9 page PDF and backing track to practice with plus two livestreams so we can practice together. Join the largest jazz ukulele community on the world:

What is a turnaround? A turnaround is that last little harmonic bit at the end of a song, or section of a song, that gets us back to the top of the tune. Usually this means getting us from one chord back to the same exact chord. In this lesson we look at 14 different options to get us where we need to go. These options keep the chords in their most simple form without any voice leading so that we can truly hear all of the sonic possibilities.

Want to dive deeper into ukulele jazz? Join the Tin Man's Ukulele Club where we'll be putting these turnarounds to use on the tune 'The Nearness of You' all with a 9 page PDF and backing track to practice with plus two livestreams so we can practice together, and new lessons each week.

Let's learn the 1940 jazz standard by Hoagy Carmichael and Ned Washington: 'The Nearness of You' on ukulele. Strum along with me as we practice the chords together and then play-along with the full band. This song has been a hit for everyone from Louis Armstrong to Glenn Miller To Norah Jones to Laufey and even Keith Richards. Don't let the amount of chords in here scare you away. With a few modifications it can be an approachable tune for any skill level.

Want to dive deeper into ukulele jazz? Join the Tin Man's Ukulele club where we'll be using this song as a learning vehicle throughout the month playing the melody, the chord voicings I play in the video as well as how to solo, and learn 12turnarounds to replace chords all with a 9 page PDF and backing track to practice with plus two livestreams so we can practice together.

Playing swing music on ukulele doesn't take much more than simple down strums but is much easier said than done. Let's put strumming patterns aside and focus on the feel of the music. In this lesson we look at building our swing strum using three essential tools - quarter notes, left hand muting, and syncopation.

Watch the extended version of this lesson with an exclusive section on double time swing over on the Magic Ukulele Club where we're putting this to use over the standard 'After You've Gone'. Join us for $7.50 a month for access to over 200 ukulele lessons, a new tune each month, PDFs, livestreams and more

Whether you know the 1918 classic 'After You've Gone' from Marion Harris, Hugh Laurie, Bioshock Infinite, or Salvador Sobral it's no doubt that this beautiful song is still beautiful after more than 100 years. In this tutorial we'll quickly learn the chords that you'll need to play this jazz standard and then try a play-along with chords and lyrics along with the full band.

This month in the Magic Ukulele Club we have over an hour of lessons on this song going through the harmony, original verses, playing the melody, soloing, double time swing strumming, soloing, and more. Join us for only $7.50 a month to learn one jazz standard per month.

Memorizing a million chord voicings is one thing but putting them to use is another!

Grab the Free PDF to Accompany this lesson

In this lesson we use the majority of the moveable chord positions that you will use up and down the neck in one exercise through all 12 keys encompassing 51 different chords. This exercise will put your fingers to the test and help you more easily conquer these chord shapes when you see them in a tune.

Can you get through all four levels ?

This month on the Magic Ukulele Club we’re putting these chords to use over the classic tune Smile