Tapping a Backbeat Plus Playing a Melody on Ukulele – How to Lesson & Guide
This lesson provides eight exercises to help you learn how to tap a backbeat while playing a melody simultaneously.
How to Add a Backbeat to Your Rhythm Playing (a.k.a. Chucking or Chunking)
Adding a backbeat (slap/chuck) on beats 2 and 4 adds a percussive quality to your rhythm playing.
“Severance Theme” – TV Show
This fingerstyle arrangement brings the theme’s eerie atmosphere to life, layering tension with every note and chord.
“Free Fallin'” – Tom Petty
This arrangement tastefully blends fingerpicking and strumming with a percussive backbeat.
Melody to Harmony – ML026
Learn a catchy fingerstyle song that shows you how a single-note melody becomes a chord melody!
Chunking Etude – ML018
Level up your chunking technique with this fun-to-play strumming etude!
Dynamics – ML008
Learn three ways to apply dynamics in this fingerpicking and strumming etude.
“St. Anne’s Reel” – Irish Reel
This traditional Irish folk song has a trick up its sleeve! It’s performed with a rhythmic backbeat AND a triple pick right hand technique.
“Misirlou” – Dick Dale
Learn an iconic surf rock guitar riff on ukulele! But wait, there’s more! This song is arranged as a ukulele duet with a full band backing track (Drums & U-Bass), which makes this lesson infinitely more fun to play!
“Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)” – Harry Belafonte
A Jamaican folk song with a melody that’s guaranteed to put a smile on your face! This fingerstyle arrangement is played alongside a U-Bass and Cajón backing track.