Ukuleles: Automatic Happiness!

10 reasons why the ukulele is the perfect instrument

Come forth and add your own in the comments!

Hey guys! For today's post, I actually wanted to alert you to a feature on the ukuleles community page. On the left column is a collection of links that you might find helpful. This is a quick run-down of what you can get from each. Some of these sites have premium content that I haven't explored yet, but if any of you decide to give that a shot, I'd love to hear about it!

Ukulele Tricks was the first website I found in my search for outside help, thanks to its great online tuner. Site maintainer Brett McQueen has a very easygoing, friendly style. He posts videos, tutorials, sheet music and tips on a variety of topics, from the very basics (choosing an instrument for beginners) to reading music (including tabs), strumming, fingerpicking and more. His free ebook, Your First Ukulele Lesson and Then Some, is great, and I'm just getting into his chord library too.

Dr. Ukulele's Waiting Room is run by an actual MD who performs with his daughters. The real gold mine is his song library of free downloadable PDFs, many of them "classic" or "traditional" songs.

Ukulele Underground aims to teach classes through video, and they do a great job -- the instructors are really engaging and personable, and it looks like they're filmed in Hawaii, which is definitely an added bonus in my book. The lessons are both practical (check out Ukulele Minute for tips on things as basic as how to hold your ukulele) and song-related.

Ukulele Tabs is a gold mine of popular sheet music. This is where you'll find your arrangements of everything from Dusty Springfield to Def Leppard to Neutral Milk Hotel. The tabs are all user-submitted, and because of copyright issues, there aren't always full lyrics posted, but with a little fiddling you can generally figure out what you need to know.

Ukulele Songs is another free sheet site, with a smaller selection but with full lyrics.

Ukulele Hunt is one I've just discovered, but it looks like a clearinghouse for pretty much anything ukulele-related you could ask for. There seems to be less free content in terms of ebooks and lessons, though it does have beginner tips and instrument/accessory reviews.

I'm always on the lookout for more links to share, so if you guys find a site you really like, please feel free to post about it here!

I know AFP put the ukulele on the radar for me again when I heard she was releasing an album of Radiohead covers. I Heart Guitar Blog recently did an interview with Ms. Palmer, part of a larger article for Beat Magazine, to be released soon. Here's the text, if the font is too hard to read on the original post.

( It’s a deceptive little beast. And that’s why I fell in love with it. )