This is a free video course for beginners, although uke players with some experience might also find some helpful information. Many songs are taught using the five most common keys on the ukulele. Strumming is kept simple, but later on, you can revisit the same songs and apply other picking techniques, such as clawhammer or fingerpicking, to these same songs for additional practice and a better understanding of improvising on the ukulele.

Here is a list of the parts of the Basic Ukulele Video Course and a short description. Just click on the links to access each part.

• Introduction—The page you are on now introduces the course with the five short videos below. They explain some basic information about the course and basic explanations about how to hold your ukulele. There is an explanation of the difference between a note, a chord, and a key. The last video below also explains how the songs were chosen. When this course was created, video creators were prohibited from using copyrighted material such as popular songs. Over the years, that has changed, and now YouTube does allow copyrighted music to be used.
• Part 1 — Key of C — Play the C, F, and G7 chords while learning these songs: My Dog Has Fleas, Oh Susanna, and Big Rock Candy Mountains.
• Part 2 — Key of F — Play the F, Bb, and C7 chords while learning these songs: Mountain Dew, A Beautiful Life, and Will the Circle Be Unbroken.
• Part 3 — Key of G — Play the G, C, and D7 chords while learning these songs: Do Lord, Simple Gifts, and When the Saints Go Marching In.
• Part 4 — Key of A — Play the A, D, and E7 chords while learning these songs: Hard Times Come Again No More, Church in the Wildwood, and The Crawdad Song.
• Part 5 — Key of D — Play the D, G, and A7 chords while learning these songs: My Old Kentucky Home, Banks of the Ohio, and What a Friend We Have in Jesus.
• Part 6 — Minor Chords — Learn the relative minor chords for the 5 major keys we used in earlier lessons. The chords included are Am, Dm, Em, F#m, and Bm. We’ll learn two songs in minor keys: Shady Grove and House of the Rising Sun.
• Part 7 — 3/4 Time—All of the previous lessons used 4/4 time, and this lesson introduces 3/4 time, also called waltz time. We’ll learn two songs in 3/4 time: Amazing Grace and Down in the Valley.