Ukulele: My First Chords, Strumming, and a New Tuner

I've goofed around with the new ukulele off and on for a week retuning it constantly. Tuning with an iPod Touch app isn't easy, but it works. The strings are pretty well broken in now. I only need to tune it slightly every half hour or so.

Not really loving the strings that came with it. They are nylon, and the C string doesn't have a lot of tension on it making it twangy. Is that a standard musical term?

Aquila corde armoniche

After a bit of Googling , I decided I may as well get my finger tips in shape, so I started looking for Aquila Nylgut Soprano regular tuning strings. They are synthetic, but are formulated to feel as much like gut strings. I'll probably need to polish the frets so they are smooth and well rounded or these strings won't last long.

I emailed our local music shop to see if they had any, and that I'd like to restring before we go camping this weekend. They emailed back they had some GHS and Martin strings. Here's the great thing about Schafer's House of Music, he went ahead and ordered some Aquila strings and emailed me back again they would probably be in tomorrow. That's my kind of customer service.

Snark!

Got a nice surprise from my family tonight. They had to stop at Schafer's to get Lydia's marching band flute repaired before band camp. They bought me a Snark clip-on chromatic tuner. Makes a world of difference!

Tonight I started learning a couple of chords; C major and F major. C major is a piece of cake. Third finger, first string, third fret. F major is a bit more difficult with my fat fingers, but doable. I tried G major for a few minutes but decided to focus on C and F for now. Started switching between C and F major while just strumming down. Not too bad.

Decided I should at least try to add a more complex strum; down, down-up, up-down. The first down is the same length of time as the second down-up and third up-down. 

After an hour and a half I had to give it a rest. My fingertips are sore. I know they will get tougher with time. Yet another reason to do finger-tip pushups at the dojo.

Maybe in a week or so I'll post a video. I'd like to record something each week just so I can look back someday to see how truly awful I was.