Learning to play guitar is challenging at first, but you will master the skill with practice. So are you a guitar fanatic who wants to master playing the instrument?
Fortunately, you can buy a guitar from the shops and start practicing at home or join a music theater. Guitar-playing YouTube tutorials might help improve your skills, and you may incorporate a Ukulele to improve your guitar-playing skills.
So does learning a ukulele help with guitar? Yes, it does, as it does make you a better guitarist. Here is how a ukulele can help improve your guitar playing skills.
Is Ukulele Good For Learning Guitar?
Ukulele is good for learning guitar skills as it produces rhythms and harmony, similar to a guitar. The ukulele has more restrictions, and you may need to be keen to play the instrument effectively as it is limited to a particular range, sound, and strings.
You should use a particular scale to create a theme, and most people would leave the ukulele to expert guitarists.
Thus, if you start your guitar lessons, the ukulele would be the perfect instrument to improve your guitar skills. The ukulele will drive you out of your comfort zone as you would need to figure out many things with little help.
Unlike the guitar and other musical instruments, the ukulele’s inside-out wiring is complicated. Its strings don’t go from the lowest to the highest.
The strings setup is from second highest-lowest- to second lowest- and highest; you will not only play from up to down as you can play across the strings.
You can easily run challenging notes on the ukulele; this helps first-time learners learn more skills.
Ukulele makes learning chords easier as the chords are a bit different. The G-cord on the ukulele does not correspond to the one on the guitar and needs basic skills and knowledge to tie the chords.
Some guitar players would tie the chords with a specific pattern which is not an effective way to master chords. You can master the ukulele chords using a metronome at a slow speed, and a player can increase the speed between the breaks.
You can learn the ukulele anywhere as it is portable and convenient; it is a useful stringed instrument.
You will carry the ukulele easily on a trip as it is small and fit the backpack. The portability ensures you enhance your skills anywhere you go.
You can play the ukulele on your road trips and practice the strings during a silent camping trip.
Ukulele is fun, especially if you start slow and simple; most instruments might not offer the skills as they are complicated.
The four-stringed instrument offers up to 788 chords; the springs make learning the instrument easy, and you can transfer the same skills to the guitar.
Do Ukulele Skills Transfer To Guitar?
You can transfer the ukulele skills to the guitar, as the relationship between the ukulele’s strings corresponds to the guitar strings.
All the skills and chord shoes learned on the ukulele are usable on the guitar. However, you may need to differentiate the chord sound from the chord shape as the same chord on the ukulele does not produce the same sound on the guitar.
A guitar chord shape would produce a fourth higher chord sound on the ukulele. For instance, the D chord from the guitar produces the G sound on the ukulele.
Thus, moving from the ukulele to the guitar is simple as long as you understand the cord shapes and sounds it produces on both instruments.
Should I Learn Ukulele Or Guitar First?
True beginners should start with the ukulele first, as it is physically easy to play the instrument. The ukulele is smaller and is easy to manage; on the other hand, the guitar has a bigger fretboard, higher string tension, and long scale, which might be an issue for beginners.
Starting with the ukulele helps build muscle memory and techniques which you can transfer to the guitar.
The ukulele is cheaper than the guitar and would be a wise investment for true beginners who need to master the chord shape and sound.
You can find a good ukulele at $150, meeting your learning needs. Moreover, guitars produce obnoxious sounds, unlike the ukuleles with peaceful and gentle sounds.
Beginners should get an instrument with the right sound balance as they would play off-key for a few days before they master the chord shape and sound.
Unfortunately, if you start with the ukulele, you may encounter fewer lessons as it is hard to find a teacher specializing in the instrument.
Is It Difficult To Learn Guitar After Ukulele?
It is not difficult to learn the guitar after mastering the ukulele as you will have muscle memory which makes it easy to operate the strings.
However, you will need to learn the string chords that respond to a given sound to play the guitar effectively.
How Long Does It Take To Learn Ukulele?
You may not graduate from learning how to improve your ukulele playing skills, but you will play the instrument comfortably between three and six months of active training.
Some people may learn to play the ukulele in a shorter time, while others need more time. Thus, you should not be discouraged when it takes a long time to master the instrument.
Can I Learn Ukulele By Myself?
You can learn the ukulele by yourself, and you may need to invest in the beginner instrument, follow the basic music theory and practice properly.
Moreover, you can follow online ukulele playing resources from trusted sources like YouTube and music schools.
Can Ukulele Play Songs?
You can play different music genres on the ukulele as long as you understand the sound mix. You may need to pare down the complex music sounds to the ukulele to increase the ease of playing the songs. Ukulele produces harmonized and peaceful sounds suitable for different music genres.
Conclusion
Learning a new instrument like the guitar requires patience, and you can start by learning the ukulele before transferring the skills to the guitar.
The ukulele produces peaceful noises and is cheap and smaller than the guitar. Thus a first-time user will easily master the chord shapes and sounds and transfer the same skills to the guitar.
You will play different songs on the ukulele and learn the skill yourself within six months. Good luck learning how to play your instruments.
