Playing a Ukulele with a Pick

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Part of the video series: How to Restring a Ukulele

Where to Buy Ukulele Strings

Summary: The ukulele can be played with a pick just like that of a normal sized guitar. Learn how to play a ukulele with a pick in this free video clip form our instrument expert.

Views: 650 | Tags: strings, scales, chords, tuning, instruments, notes, musical, songs, ukuleles

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About the Expert

Thomas Marchevsky Thomas Marchevsky is a professional guitarist/composer and college professor. He has an M.M. in guitar from the New England Conservatory in Boston. He teaches... read more

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Video Transcript

Playing a Ukulele with a Pick

To make the strings sound out you could pick with your fingers or your finger nails to get a little bit more sound, a little bit more crispness to the sound, or you could use a pick which is technically known as a plectrum, something that picks a string. Now as far as what type of pick to use, you could use a guitar pick which is a plastic pick usually, pretty small thickness and you can get them in different gages, different thicknesses but they strike the strings very hard, it's a very abrasive sound for the ukulele. You also have mandolin picks which are slightly smaller and they pretty much create the same tone but they don't have quite as much attack on the strings because there's less pick here. Now traditionally a ukulele pick is made of felt and it's much bigger. It's probably fifty percent bigger than one of these guys and by using a felt pick it makes the sound a little softer and you don't get that abrasive attack sound you'd get with a guitar or mandolin pick.