C'mon, own-up!
Just got one for my Birthday. Any tips guidance, good tutorials or books?
Turned-out nice again asn't it ....
Welcome to the wonderful wacky world of the ukulele. You will find that a new uke will keep going out of tune to start with. The nylon strings keep stretching to start with. After a while, they will settle down. But don't think that, just because it may keep going out of tune initially, that there's anything wrong with the uke.
If you haven't got one, buy a electronic "clip on" tuner. You can get them from
ebay for about a fiver. It makes life a lot easier when you are having to re-tune a lot to begin with......
There are loads of "how to" type videos on youtube, covering everything from tuning to strumming to simple songs and much, much more. Have a browse and see what you can find. There are lots of websites with songs all written out for ukulele, with the chord shapes drawn in for reference. Taunton Ukulele Strummers Club have a website with links to lots of their songbooks, which they are very happy for people to refer to. Likewise lots of other ukulele clubs.
I am not sure if you already play any other instruments. If not, you may not realise that a great many songs only require about 3 or 4 chords. So even if you only master a very few simple chords, you can still knock out quite a few songs. It will impress the hell out of non-musicians (which is probably 90% of people). I guess what I am trying to say is, don't set your sights too high to start with. Learn about 3 or 4 chords, use them to play things like "Happy Birthday to you" or "Rudolf the red nosed reinder" or some other song that you know really well, and then gradually build from there.
Above all, practice frequently. Maybe literally just 5 minutes a day. More if you can spare the time. But please, please, please keep plugging away and with the uke you will see (hear?) progress quite quickly. I guess it's a bit like cycling. A beginner should just do a couple of miles every day and gradually build from there , not try for 20 miles just once a fortnight and get frustrated when it doesn't go right.
The uke can be a very serious and technically complex instrument. But it certainly doesn't have to be. Just keep on practicing. Little and often will bring surprisingly quick results.
Enjoy yourself!