Exercises — build real technique
Technique path: Drills (short wake-ups) · Exercises (this gym) · Folk · Island · Fingerpicking · Classical · Break rut when stale
Once your hands are awake (the Drills), these longer exercises build even fretting, a locked right hand, and the coordination that turns a four-minute drill into real playing. They are the daily gym for ukuleleists — the same role Piano · Exercises plays next door.
Each card below has written pedagogy, TAB (A string on top — see Foundations · TAB), and Play buttons. One model sounds at a time; Play becomes Stop on the same button. Tempo follows the metronome in the practice bar.
Suggested order
Work through one family at a time. The lab at the bottom is for quick replay once you know what you are practising.
- Chromatic 1-2-3-4 and across all strings.
- Spider · Stretch 1–4 · Hammer-on / pull-off cell.
- Down-up pulse · String cross · Mute / ghost eighths.
- Hands together — eighths plus changing fretted note, then boom-chick through a change.
- Pick one style gym: Folk · Classical · Island · Fingerpicking.
- Scale and mode maps live on Scales and Modes — not on this hub.
- Pair one card with a short study from Method books.
- Only when the gym is honest but stale: Break rut — one uke loop cell (uneven island, mute/ghost, campanella, thumb, chord-melody).
Beginner
Chromatic · boom-chick on G · open-string names. Capo off. Stay near 60.
Intermediate
Spider · i–m or palm mute · island C–Am–F–G or Travis seed. Click at 70–80 when even.
Advanced
Independence or fingerstyle · first-position scale with a rest · one first-piece map. Silence counts.
Left hand
One finger per fret: 1 index, 2 middle, 3 ring, 4 pinky. Unused fingers hover over their home fret. Even volume beats speed — same primer as Drills · Hands.
Chromatic 1-2-3-4
On one string: frets 1–2–3–4, then the next string. Reverse walks 4–3–2–1. This is the standard Hal Leonard / Berklee left-hand warmup.
A|----------------- E|----------------- C|----------------- G|-1-2-3-4--------- then C, E, A
Even volume on every note. If one finger is louder, slow down until they match.
Chromatic across strings
Continue the 1-2-3-4 pattern across all four strings without stopping. G through A, then reverse all the way back. The job is a smooth hand shift at each string change.
A|-1-2-3-4- E|-1-2-3-4- C|-1-2-3-4- G|-1-2-3-4- then reverse
Do not rebuild the hand at each string — slide the whole shape as a unit.
Spider
Finger 1 on A string fret 1, 2 on E fret 2, 3 on C fret 3, 4 on G fret 4 — then reverse back up. Adjacent strings, one finger per fret. Classical coordination primer.
A|-1--------------- E|---2------------- C|-----3----------- G|-------4---------
Keep the wrist quiet; the fingers do the travelling.
Stretch 1–4 ladder
Index on fret 1, pinky on fret 4 of the same string. Walk the pair across all four strings. No buzz, no collapsed wrist. Move to frets 5–8 when 1–4 feels honest.
A|-1-----4--------- E|-1-----4--------- C|-1-----4--------- G|-1-----4--------- 1 and 4 together
Thumb stays behind the neck — reach comes from the wrist, not from collapsing the palm.
Hammer-on / pull-off cell
Pick G string fret 5, hammer 7, pull back to 5. Only the first note is picked. This is the legato seed before melody phrasing — unpicked notes must match the picked one in volume.
A|--------| E|--------| C|--------| G|-5h7p5-| pick, hammer, pull
Deeper: Classical drills · slurs.
Left-hand variants
Same finger discipline, many shapes. Pick a pattern, string, and starting fret — then Play.
Right hand
The click owns the right hand. Most ukulele paths live in strum and fingers — lock a simple down-up or thumb pulse to the metronome before you chase speed. Island stamina and mute contrast: Island · Folk. Classical right hand: Classical exercises.
Down-up pulse
Open C string (lowest pitch on high-G uke), down-up-down-up locked to the click. Finger or soft pick — same pitch every time; the drill is the right hand.
A|----------------- E|----------------- C|-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0- ↓ ↑ G|-----------------
Keep the stroke small (finger or soft pick). If the forearm tenses, loosen the grip. Finger paths: Fingerpicking · Classical.
String cross
G → C → E → A and back. Crossing without catching the wrong string. The gap between strings is the drill.
A|-----------0----- E|-------0-------0- C|---0-----------0- G|-0---------------
Same motion as Drills · string cross, at exercise length.
Mute / ghost eighths
Soft edge of the hand or left-hand mute on open C, two hits per click. Pitch stays; ring dies. Same contrast as chucks on Strumming and Break rut · ghost &s.
A|----------------- E|----------------- C|-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0- P.M. G|-----------------
Deeper: Folk drills · palm mute on the pick card above.
Pick variants
Change the subdivision and the string. The left hand stays out of the way — open string only.
Prefer island and folk pulse on Folk exercises · Island. Mute / ghost cells: Break rut.
Hands together
The ukulele twin of piano “syncing”: each hand keeps its job while the other does something different. Master each side alone first, then combine at half tempo. See Piano · hand syncing for the keyboard version.
Eighths plus changing fretted note
Right hand keeps alternate eighths on open C (lowest pitch). Left hand holds a fretted note on the A string that changes every two beats: frets 0, 2, 3, 5. Count “1-and 2-and” — the fretted note lands on the numbers, eighths fill every subdivision.
RH C|-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-| ↓ ↑ LH A|-0-------2-------3-------5---|
If the fretted note flams the open string, slow down until they lock.
Boom-chick through G→C→D
Keep boom-chick running while the left hand moves G→C→D. The right hand must not pause for the change. Arrive on beat 1 with at least the bass note fretted.
G C D (right hand boom-chick never stops)
Same loop as Folk exercises · G–C–D — practise here when hands-together is the goal.
Thumb bass + i–m treble
Thumb keeps a steady bass pulse on open C while i and m alternate on E and A. Two rhythms, two registers — the classical independence seed applied hands-together.
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & A|----0-------0--- i / m E|--------0------- C|-0---0---0---0- p G|----------------
Deeper: Classical exercises · Classical drills · independence.
Method books — ukulele’s daily gym
Piano has Hanon. Ukulele has public-domain studies you open on IMSLP — we name the doors; we do not print the notes. Pair a card from this hub or from Classical exercises with one short study.
- Sor Op. 60 nos. 1–3 — progressive lessons; melody above a simple bass. First-piece door on Classical · first pieces.
- Carcassi Op. 60 nos. 1–3 — melodious etudes; No. 1 in C is the usual door for planted arpeggios.
- Giuliani Op. 51 nos. 1–3 — progressive studies; same right-hand family as the classical pattern library.
- Giuliani’s 120 (1812) — the pattern family for pima, not a study to copy numbered here.
Hal Leonard Book 1 and Berklee lab practice cover the pick / chromatic spine. Resources: method checklist.
Quick replay lab
Secondary convenience — pick a family and exercise to hear the model again, or jump to the full lesson card. Tempo follows the metronome.
A 10-minute daily routine
- 2 min — wake-up: chromatic or spider (or Drills · Hands).
- 2 min — right hand: down-up pulse or mute / ghost at 60. Stay loose.
- 3 min — one skill: pick one style gym (Folk · Classical · Island · Fingerpicking), or one Break rut cell if the gym feels stale.
- 2 min — deepen: the matching drills page (Folk · Classical · Hands · Scales).
- 1 min — music: one loop on Play along so technique turns into a song.
Beginner
Chromatic · boom-chick on G · open-string names. Capo off. Stay near 60.
Intermediate
Spider · i–m or palm mute · island C–Am–F–G or Travis seed. Click at 70–80 when even.
Advanced
Independence or fingerstyle · first-position scale with a rest · one first-piece map. Silence counts.
By style
Each style has its own page with a suggested order and matching gym cards. Pick one per session. Short wake-ups stay on the Drills hub. Break rut is optional — only when these feel stale.
Folk
Boom-chick through Travis seed, G–C–D under the pulse, and folk variants on G C D Em Am.
Island strum
Down–down-up–up-down-up and friends over C–Am–F–G. Core uke right hand.
Fingerpicking
Thumb + fingers, Travis-ish patterns, and classical pima on four strings.
Classical
pima depth: i–m, plant, walking thumb, independence seed. Not the default beginner path.
Melody & scales
First-position scales and short melody walks — fills and intros, not shred boxes.
Break rut (optional)
Demoted on purpose: use Folk / Island / Fingerpicking / Classical first. When those are honest but stale, loop one uke cell until the motion is a twitch. Full lab: Break rut.
- Uneven island — D–DU–D–DU on C.
- Ghost &s — ring downs, mute offs.
- Mute chick — boom rings, dead chick.
- Campanella roll — cascading open strings.
- Thumb independence — p steady, i/m offs.
- Thumb vs fingers — two layers.
- Chord-melody cell — C / Am fills.
- Chord-melody fill — G–C–G under the chord.