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4 Easy-to-Use Ukulele Apps for Beginners

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The ukulele is one of the easiest musical instruments to learn. There are plenty of resources that can help you get started playing your favorite songs, from online courses and web articles to instructional videos. For greater convenience, beginners can also install ukulele apps into their mobile devices so they can have all the learning resources they need right in their phone or tablet.

But with so many apps out there, it could be daunting for beginners to choose which one would prove to be the most useful and least stressful in helping them learn to play ukulele.

Don’t worry, we’re here to help! We’ve selected some of the best user-friendly apps for ukulele beginners and highlighted their features. These apps are all easy to use and can have you playing in no time at all. So grab your beginner ukulele, install the app of your choice and start making music!

Real Ukulele Free – Tabs, Chords and Songs on Uke

This app offers a realistic ukulele simulator. This means that the screen of your device would show the strings and fretboard as they are on a ukulele so you can pluck, strum and strike strings as if you were playing on a real ukulele – thus the name.

This app features a big chord database with tabs, a ukulele songbook and high fidelity sound (all of the notes were recorded using a real ukulele). You can also choose between a nylon and steel-stringed ukulele to play. Real Ukulele is a handy tool to get started even if you don’t have your own uke yet. Now who wouldn’t love having a ukulele in their phone? It’s free too!

Availability: Android and iOS (under a different name). Again, it doesn’t cost a cent!

Yousician

This app is a favorite among those learning to play the piano, bass, guitar or ukulele. It’s packed with features to help you become the best musician you can be, from step-by-step tutorial videos, lessons on music theory and even a Weekly Challenge that lets you compete with other Yousicians around the world.

This app has the ability to listen to you play your ukulele and give you instant feedback on your performance, including rhythm and accuracy. You can track your progress so you can see how far you’ve come along since Day 1 – a great motivator for beginners!

Availability: iOS and Android. It’s also free to install and offers in-app purchases.

Fret Trainer – Learn the Fretboard

If you’re the type of person who learns best the method of teaching feels like a game, then this is the app for you. As its name implies, Fret Trainer helps you learn all of the notes and chords on the fretboard of your uke. There are plenty of games to play, each one with the aim of teaching you fret and chord mastery.

With this app, you can match random notes, train your ears by naming chords and practice reading notes on a staff, among other activities designed as games. There’s a progress tracker too, and each fret has its own statistics. Fret Trainer can be used for learning not just the ukulele but other stringed instruments as well, like the guitar, bass, banjo and mandolin.

Availability: iOS and Android. It’s free with in-app purchases so you can fully unlock an instrument.

The Ukulele App

If you’re familiar with or have come across the YouTube channel The Ukulele Teacher by Jon Howard, this app was developed in conjunction with that. It has an extensive chord library, a reverse chord lookup feature, a chord progression tool with a built-in metronome, a comprehensive scale library and a video library where you can search for ukulele lessons from The Ukulele Teacher.

It’s got everything beginners need to learn, and the lessons are clear and easy to follow.

Availability: iOS and Android. It’s free and offers in-app purchases (you can upgrade to the PRO version).

Those are the apps we recommend for ukulele beginners. We know that people learn differently, so we recommend giving each of these apps a try. They’re all free anyway, and if you find something that works well for your learning style (and your device), then it’s worth shelling out some cash for PRO features. Have fun and let us know how your ukulele learning journey goes!

4 Tips for Buying the Perfect Electric Guitar for Your Budget

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Buying your first guitar can be an exhilarating experience. It can also be a very confusing one. With all the brands and specifications out there, it can be easy to get lost. You also have to consider your skill level and how much you can afford to pay for a brand-new guitar. However, when you understand the basics, finding a great guitar should be a breeze. Here are a few tips for beginner guitarists on a budget.

Know That You Aren’t Simply Buying a Guitar

While your guitar will be the centrepiece of your audio equipment, know that you’ll have to buy much more than just a guitar to get started. An electric guitar, as good as it is, will be pretty much useless without a few crucial pieces of equipment. Make sure that you factor in the price of an amplifier and a few cables as well when buying your guitar. You also have to save up for an eventual effect paddle as well.

Be Prepared to Pay for Quality

While it may be true that if you gave a great guitar player a mediocre guitar, he’d still be able to make it sound good; if you gave them the choice, they’d probably pick the best guitar they could find. Not only will a great guitar make the learning curve less steep, but it will make you sound much better as well. So don’t be afraid to spend a little more on a good amp and guitar at the very least if you can.

Look at What Your Favorite Guitar Players Are Using

Imitation in this case can be a great way to find a great guitar for you. One of the best ways to find the perfect guitar with the kind of sound you’re looking for is by looking at what guitars your favorite guitar players are playing with. If you like a particular guitarist, it’s not only because of their technique, even though it plays a large role in it. It also has to do with the type of guitar they’re using.

Two different types of electric guitars can have completely different sounds. For example, if you grew up idolizing Jimmy Page and want to sound like him, then you wouldn’t want to buy a Stratocaster. However, if you’re more of a Jimmy Hendrix type, that may be just what the doctor ordered. Don’t be afraid to do your research, finding out what guitar top players play takes all but a few minutes since brands are often just as popular as the guitarists that play them.

Choose a Guitar According to Your Musical Tastes

If you can’t find a hero to pattern your style from, you should pick a guitar that fits the style of music you want to play. While you can always make guitars work for any situation, they all have their little quirks that make them better for certain genres. For instance, if you’re thinking of playing heavy metal, a Stratocaster HSS would be much better because of the humbucker pickup that is situated on the bridge position. But for punk or Blues, a Telecaster might be better because of its smoother sound.

Buying a new electric guitar can seem like a daunting task at first, but once you know your way around, finding one that fits you should be easy. With these few tips, you should find a great guitar in no time.

The Essential Packing List for Your First Ever Music Festival

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Whether you’re going to Glastonbury or Coachella, your first music festival is going to be an amazing experience. You’ll meet hundreds of new people, make plenty of new friends, try foods from around the world, experience art installations like no other, and above all, see some of the best bands and solo artists in the world. To ensure you have a good time, you need to make sure you’ve packed all the right essentials – being sun burnt or soaked from heavy rain won’t make you enjoy the weekend away! When you’re at a festival, daily essentials can be hard to come by, so it’s always better to pack more than you need. So, make sure that you’ve got a good backpack, fitted by a professional – it’ll be heavier than you think, and you might have to carry it for quite a while, depending on where you’re camping.

Items for your normal morning routine

Whichever way you plan to spend your days and nights at a festival, you’ll want to wake up feeling fresh and ready to take on the coming day’s activities. So, try to pack everything you’d use in the mornings while at home. Toothbrush, toothpaste, moisturizer and antiperspirants are vital. As are face wipes and make-up remover – even if you don’t plan on wearing any! A mirror will also come in use, as well as all of your normal make-up items. If you wear contact lenses, don’t forget to bring plenty of solution and hand-sanitizer gel. Likewise, if you take medication on a daily basis, bring plenty of it – you never know what you might need.

Shower substitutes

If you’re at a festival, you’re going to get sweaty, muddy and covered in glitter. There’s unlikely to be many showers around (and if there are, there will be queues like no other), so you need to think up ways to substitute getting clean. Body wipes, like wet wipes, are great for a quick clean, but you might want to think about bringing a solar shower or a foldable bucket so you can have a quick douse in water! Likewise, dry shampoo is a must if you have long hair – though wearing a head scarf or bandana will cover up the worst of greasy roots.

Safety items

Try to pack a mini first aid kit: plasters (especially blister plasters) will always come in handy, as will antiseptic creams, sun lotion and after sun cream. You’ll also need a torch for venturing out of your tent at night – if you need the toilet in the early hours of the morning, you won’t want to risk climbing over guy-ropes in the dark! Here are some of the best tactical flashlights on the market, so you won’t have to worry about falling and hurting yourself.

Clean clothes

Always bring more clothes than you think you’ll need, especially when it comes to socks and underwear. If you’re heading to a festival in the UK or Europe, waterproof, comfy footwear is essential – you can’t trust the rain not to arrive. Wellington boots or walking boots are a great idea, though make sure you’ve broken them in and have the right socks. When it comes to normal clothes, pack items that are comfy and easy to move around it. Bring plenty of layers, so you’re ready for when it gets cooler at night. Don’t forget to bring any fancy dress pieces too!

Understanding the Basics of Music Theory

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If you want to be a musician, or otherwise involved in the creation of music or the business of music, then you have to understand music theory. Luckily, you can take music theory classes by MI to get to grips with the confusing language of music. Below are some of the key things you will learn about.

Nomenclature

Nomenclature is about interval and chord names. Some of the key concepts within this include:

  • The major chord, which is usually represented by the letter of the cord itself.
  • The minor chord, which is usually represented by the letter “m” after the name of the cord.

Sharps and Flats

Again, these are denoted using certain symbols. When you see a “b”, it refers to a flat, whereas a “#” refers to a sharp.

Octaves

An octave covers 11 different notes, ranging from A to F, including the flats and sharps. They may also be donated from “do” to “ti”, again with sharps and flats. Once the end of an octave is reached, it starts from A or from do again (do, by the way, is not A, it is C).

Scales

Just as there are major and minor chords, there are major and minor scales as well. The scale is A to F (or do to ti) without the sharps and flats. The minor key, meanwhile, means that the key has started on a different note. In other words, the do to ti scale is a minor scale of the A to F scale.

Key Signatures

A key signature is a half-step, or semi-tone within a scale. When taking the do to ti scale into consideration, for instance, going from one octave to the next will require a semi-tone to go from ti back to do. What a key signature can also do, and particularly on the guitar, is make two notes sound exactly the same. In fact, you need this to tune your guitar. The different accepted keys are the:

  • C Major
  • G Major
  • D Major
  • A Major
  • E Major
  • B Major
  • F# Major

And then, there are flat keys, which are:

  • F Major
  • Bb Major
  • Eb Major
  • Ab Major
  • Db Major

Chords and Intervals

During music theory, you will also learn about chord structures and intervals. The interval is the silence between two notes, while also highlighting their relation within their key. Simply put, you take a root note and move up five semitones to find out what the next one is.

Chord Structure

Next, you will learn about chord structure. It is said that you only ever need three chords to play any song in the world. Each chord is made up of three notes, and those notes refer to the other chords you need. In order, they are your key note (or chorad), then the third one, then the fifth one. So if your key chord is an A, the third one would be C and the fifth one would be E. And that is all you need to create a beautiful song.

You will learn many other things in music theory classes, including:

  • Musical timing
  • Semi-breve
  • Minim
  • Crotchet
  • Quaver
  • Semi-quaver
  • Dotted notes

You may feel like you do not need these things, but they describe both the  vocabulary and the grammar of the language that is music.