The ukulele is a fantastic little musical instrument. It’s portable, easy to play, and sounds great! But it only works if you hold it correctly.
You’ve your ukulele, and you want to play, but it’s not relatively as easy as you thought it would be. You’re holding the ukulele wrong!
That’s OK. We all do it. But if you want to make the most of your ukulele-playing experience, you need to learn how to hold the instrument properly—and that means holding it correctly.
Learn how to hold the ukulele in the following sections.
2 Basic tips for holding a ukulele
There are a few ways to hold a ukulele, and each one has its own set of benefits.
Tip 1
The first and most common way to hold the ukulele is by the neck, with your hand placed along the neck where it meets the body of the instrument.
This method is good because it allows you to easily access all four strings, making it easy to play chords and other musical patterns that require your hand to move up and down on more than one string at once.
It also gives you greater control over how much pressure is applied to each string, allowing you to make subtle changes in tone or volume without having to change your hand position at all.
Tip 2
Another way you can hold your ukulele is by placing both hands on either side of the instrument’s body. With your index fingers wrapped around opposite sides of where they meet to keep them from sliding off when strumming chords or moving between different positions within those chords themselves!
This method gives you more leverage over each string as well, allowing for more power when strumming or picking notes that would otherwise be impossible with just one hand alone!
Holding ukulele while standing: 4 Tips
If you stand up while holding your uke and play it at the same time, you’ll find that it’s really hard to make good music.
You’ll have trouble keeping time with the beat and playing in tune. So here are some tips for holding your ukulele so that you can play it without pain or discomfort:
Tip 1
Hold the uke like a guitar—but don’t strum too hard or hit the strings too hard with your fingers. It’s not like a guitar, but it feels similar enough that you can use similar techniques when playing chords (which we’ll talk about in a minute).
Tip 2
Keep your elbow down as close to your side as possible when strumming (if you want). This will help make sure your hand doesn’t move when you strum, which will make it easier to keep time and play in tune with the song you’re playing.
Tip 3
Try not to rest any part of your arm on anything while playing—especially not on something soft like a couch cushion or pillow because that could cause injury!
2 Tips on hand positioning
Let’s talk about what you’re doing with your hands when you’re holding a ukulele.
Tip 1
The first thing you need to know is- there are two basic hand positions for holding a ukulele: the classical position and the fingerpicking position.
In both cases, your thumb should be behind the neck of the ukulele and resting on top of it as much as possible.
If you’re playing classical music or Hawaiian music (two genres for which this instrument was originally designed), then this is your primary hand position, and you’ll want to keep it in mind throughout practice and performance.
Tip 2
When playing fingerpicking, the other hand position becomes important because it allows for more control over each string individually while still keeping them all moving in sync with one another.
To do this, place your index finger on top of the fretboard and strum across all four strings at once. Then move that same finger down one fret at a time until you’ve returned to where it started off. Once there, repeat until done!
To conclude
The ukulele should feel natural in this position and shouldn’t require any effort to hold up. If it does feel heavy or awkward, try adjusting where you place your hands until it feels comfortable! 🙂