Jan 27, 2018

Beginning Classical Ukulele: Lesson 2 - Country Dance - Ferdinando Carulli


Welcome back! Here's the next installment in the Beginning Classical Ukulele mini-course

With these easy fun lessons you'll learn to play classical ukulele!

All of the pieces in this mini-course have been carefully selected and arranged for this special graduated introduction to classical ukulele.

You will Learn More and Play More with Play Ukulele NOW.

Find out for yourself why teachers and students have depended on Play Ukulele NOW Methods and Songbooks since 2009


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Find all my fingerstyle and chord melody solos here.

An understanding of the basics is necessary to establish before attempting this course, if you've completed the Play Ukulele NOW Method and Songbook you'll have all the basic instruction you need to do this!

IMPORTANT! Before attempting this lesson, these preliminary lessons must be mastered:

Are you holding the ukulele wrong? Avoid these 5 mistakes

Beginning fingerstyle ukulele made easy

The lessons above will lay the groundwork needed to begin classical ukulele - do not skip them.

Also you must complete lesson 1 of this mini-course

Beginning Classical Ukulele: Lesson 1 - Scottish Dance -  Mauro Giuliani

Country Dance


Click on the picture below to see it up close

Click here to get the PDF: Country Dance


Performance notes


The marking that has a note, and then = 100, indicates the tempo that the piece should be played at.

Feel free to start at a slower tempo. A metronome should be used to insure you're playing at the proper temo and to be sure you are keeping a steady beat. This piece is mostly eighth notes, see the Play Ukulele NOW Method and Songbook for details on basic note values, so the eighth notes will get two notes per click. Basic note values are easy to understand with the right method.

Learn about using a metronome here:

Three secrets to learn and play faster

Take it a few measures at a time, get the measures down that you are working on, then move on to the next ones.

Measure 1-8

Play the dyads* with i and m; p will play the notes on the 4th string.

*A dyad is a pair of pitches sounding together (in other words, a two-note chord).

For the single notes: i and m will play the notes on the 2nd and 3rd string, and p will play the notes on the 4th string - this is a shift from whet we talked about here.

Measure 9-16

Here we'll shift, i and m will will play the dyads on the 1st and 2nd string, the thumb will continue to play the notes on the 4th string. We'll shift back to what we did in the first 8 measures as necessary.

A more complicated approach: If we were using the three finger technique, which would be more difficult, you'd use m and a for the dyads on the 1st and 2nd string. If your you like the whole piece could be played using the three finger technique (that's thumb for the 4th string and i, m and a on 3, 2, and 1).

When playing notes on the same string alternate fingers. For example: The last three notes (measure 15 and 16) will be played, m, i, m.

Measure 17 and 18

Use the three finger technique we talked about here

A different approach: It is possible to use the two finger technique for the whole song, for these measures you'd use p for the notes on the 4 and 3rd string.

Measure 21 and 22

Here, p will handle all of the notes on the 3rd and 4th string; i will take care of the rest.

Measure 24

Use m for the note on the 1st string p for the note on the 4th.

UPDATE: Here's the next lesson: Beginning Classical Ukulele: Lesson 3 - Ukrainian Folk Song

Stay tuned! More classical ukulele lessons to come...

Check out my previous fingerstyle lessons - You'll find lots of great tips and tricks on fingerstyle playing and technique along with these songs:

What Child is This?

Jingle Bells

Silent Night - two arrangements, and Silent Night - Easy Fingerstyle

The First Noel - two arrangements

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