How To Hold A Ukulele – Guide And Tips

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How To Properly Hold A Ukulele – The Basics

Why is it so important? Well, mostly because:

# 1 – It can save you from long-term injuries in your neck, hands and back!

Yeah, we know playing the ukulele is not a contact sport, like Rugby – which we love, by the way.

Anyhow, if you’re serious about playing the ukulele, this is something you want to factorize into your practice time investment.

We’re very serious about this aspect because it’s true.

A bad posture can cause you long-term back, neck, shoulder, and even hand injuries from the strain of playing the uke without good posture. The hand ukulele form is critical!

At the very least, and if you’re a hardcore student and player, it can cause you to adopt a bad standing posture – which is hard to get rid of.

# 2 – It also affects how good you’re at playing!

If you want to play your best, you need to have a good posture while playing.

Aside from being the healthiest way, having a good posture is also the most efficient way of playing your ukulele.

This is because good posture gives you a better range of motion, which affects strumming, your chord shapes, and even how easy it is to play certain chords.

If you’re struggling with barre chords, you’re probably holding your uke with improper technique.

# 3 – It’s something so small, you can get it right from the beginning

Having a good posture from the beginning will allow you to entirely master the ukulele.

It will also rid you of acquiring bad habits while playing, which are hard to eliminate once you’re used to them!

Also, it will rid you of the possibility of injuring yourself, which is our foremost goal with this article.

Something we forgot to mention up there is that, well, bad posture can also affect your ukulele, making it have a shorter lifespan to put it mildly.

In this article, we’ll guide you through the process of obtaining good posture in a simple, easy, and applicable manner.

Start playing the right way today!

Standing Position Vs. Sitting Position

After that lengthy intro – we’re very concerned! – we must discuss the two different postures you can use: standing up and sitting.

Holding A Ukulele – Standing position

Playing while standing up is the most common position.

It’s comfortable because the ukulele is not a heavy instrument, so if you’re straining your body, it’s probably because you haven’t achieved good posture.

It’s also common that it hurts when you try to have good posture, mostly because your body has adopted a natural bad position.

With a proper standing position, you can:

• Have improved playability because of a better range of motion.
• Avoid the different types of injuries we’ve mentioned.
• Protect your ukulele from a bad posture.
• Master the ukulele music more easily.

We prefer the standing position because it’s simple, and we recommend it to most healthy people who don’t already have a back, knee, hip, or another type of injury that prevents them from standing.

Below, we explain how to obtain the right posture.

Feet

It all starts with a good base.

You must:

• Stand with your feet at a comfortable distance from each other, which is usually in line with shoulder-width.
• Lock your knees. This removes the strain from your leg muscles.
• Be relaxed. You shouldn’t ever play if you’re tight or tense, as this will surely lead to injury.

Chest

The chest should pop out a little bit, but the rest of your body should be relaxed.

If you’re a beginner, you might notice that it’s slightly hard to see the fretboard, which is ok.

Once you’ve mastered most chords, you won’t have to look at them!

To solve this, we recommend beginners master the chords while sitting since it’s way easier to check if you’re shaping them alright.

Right arm

The right arm is what’s holding your ukulele from falling down, and you should press gently but firmly with the inside of your forearm.

The ukulele should rest on top of your chest and be aligned like this:

• It should be placed on top of your breastbone or sternum.
• You should press only the lower, wider side of the body.
• The sound-hole should be pointing slightly to the right side if you’re pressing the body in the right position.
• The neck should also stick out a little bit forward.

Left hand form, neck, and elbow

Your left hand is your fretting hand – the one you’ll be pressing chords with.

At the same time, this hand will serve to complement the position you obtain by pressing the ukulele with your right arm. So, the left-hand form is very important.

Since the neck of the ukulele (so the fretboard) sticks out a bit, you can take advantage of that to press the shapes of the chords more lightly to make the uke achieve better sounds.

Additionally, this is the correct way to hold it because it gives space to the soundbox to have enhanced resonance and sustain.

Your elbow should never stick out to the side so you can achieve a better wrist and hand position.

However, this may vary depending on the length of your arms, and the size of the ukulele you’re playing – for bigger ukes, it’s ok to stick it out a little bit.

Check out the following tips that will make you have a correct hand positioning:

• You should place your thumb on the back of the neck of your ukulele, and it shouldn’t stick out from above the fretboard.
• If your thumb sticks out, you won’t have the same strength to press the strings and range of motion for complex chords.
• The rest of your fingers should be disposed comfortably on top of your fretboard.
• A good measure for this is to check if the base of your fingers (and half of your palm if you have big hands) is visible and above the fretboard from your point of view.

Holding a Ukulele – Sitting Position

There are two types of sitting positions.

We call the most common one the straight sitting position, because it takes the same precepts of the standing position we explained above, while you relax your legs and back a little bit more.

And the Spanish guitar-style sitting position. In this position, you place the ukulele on your lap, leaving the neck exposed diagonally toward your fretting hand.

Playing while sitting, in either style, has several advantages that are worth considering:

• It’s easier for people who can’t stand up for long periods.
• It’s better for ukulele beginners because it’s easier to look at the fretboard.
• If you place the ukulele on your lap, it removes the possibility of straining your back, neck, shoulders, and arms too much – if you adopt a good sitting position, of course.
• If you place the ukulele on your lap, it also removes a little bit of the strain you put on your uke. This is because you don’t have to press it against your body with your forearm.

Take into account that, for tall people, the Spanish guitar style is rather impossible, because the instrument is too small for their bodies, making the position awkward.

Straight sitting position. Your neck

The straight sitting position is almost exactly the same as standing from the waist up.

To resume:

• Try to keep it in a good posture at all times to make the uke playing more comfy.
• Set your feet on the ground however you like, but supporting correctly your good posture.
• And use the same posture we explained above from the waist up.

Spanish Guitar Style Play. Your left hand

As we briefly explained, not everyone can use this position because of the small size of the ukulele vs. the size of their bodies.

Following that same principle, you may be able to apply it with a bigger version of the ukulele, like the baritone ukulele.

To do it:

• Place the bottom of your ukulele on your lap.
• The neck of the uke should point up, and to the side of your fretting hand comfortably.
• Complete the position following the posture and hand positioning tips we gave you above.

This position is all about removing the strain from your ukulele, your back, neck, and shoulders.

We only recommend it if you can’t adopt a straight sitting position.

Left hand Players

Left-handed people have three options:

• Learn how to play a regular ukulele – which is by far the best choice. If you’re left-handed, you must then replicate the tips above as they are.
• Learn how to play a uke for lefties. This choice has the disadvantage of the left hand ukulele: they’re more expensive than regular ones.
• Or reorganize the strings of a regular ukulele to play it from a left-handed position. Straight-up; this doesn’t work just as well, and it doesn’t work at all if you have an electric ukulele because the plug will be in an awkward position.

Pick the style that suits your needs! Any of them will be helpful for lefties ukulele music players.

Frequently Asked Questions – How to hold a ukulele

Conclusion

Take this guide with a pinch of salt – we can guide you however we think it’s right, but if you feel comfortable holding your ukulele behind your back, then that’s it!

However, do take into account that holding your ukulele the right way can save you from a lot of trouble in the long term.

Those issues include hurting yourself from a bad position, damaging your uke because you strain the body by holding it unproperly, and even hampering playability, thus taking power from your actual skill.

Our main concern is about how standing and holding your ukulele in the wrong position can give you an injury from bad posture, especially around the neck and the back.

You can buy a new uke if you break it – buying another neck is kinda hard.

Also, keep in mind that there are different holding styles.

We highly recommend that you check out each one, give them a test ride, and stick to the ones you like the most.

Don’t feel bad if you can’t play in certain positions, because there are things that are not so much under your control, like the length of your arms!

Instead, try to realize that there is no spoon – all you want to do is play the uke, and the position you do it in shouldn’t be that important if it gets the job done efficiently.

Are you holding your ukulele comfortably and efficiently?