With high hopes, you have bought a ukulele some time ago and maybe you started looking up some videos on youtube on how to play the ukulele.
But, you’ve come to realize that it’s kind of hard to learn the ukulele by yourself and it’s even harder to motivate yourself to practice every day.
Now you’re wondering, are ukulele lessons worth it? That’s what we’re going to find out in this article. so…
Are Ukulele Lessons Worth It?
First of all, if you have never really played the ukulele and are wondering if taking some lessons is worth it. I advise you to first just buy an affordable ukulele and dabble a little bit in some beginner tutorials on Youtube.
To find out if you eventually want to take your skills to the next level or if you will lose interest over time.
In my opinion, it is not worth spending money on lessons for something that may not be your thing.
But if you already got some experience in playing the ukulele, there are a few things to consider before deciding on whether to take lessons or not. Let’s look at some pros and cons of taking ukulele lessons
Pro’s of Taking Ukulele Lessons
You Get Personalized Guidance In Learning The Ukulele
One of the biggest advantages of taking ukulele lessons is that you will get personalized feedback on how to get better at playing the uke.
A teacher can help you improve your skills where you are struggling and also come up with exercises that might be new for you, but will improve your abilities right away.
Especially early on, it can be very helpful to have someone who already knows their stuff to give you advice on what things are most important for your uke skills.
You Get A More Structured Approach To The Ukulele
When you take ukulele lessons, they will (or should) teach you the basics of playing music first. Things like reading sheet music, scales, and chords.
This is not something you want to learn by yourself because it’s kind of hard to make sure you learn all the basics correctly without guidance.
And learning the uke is very much about mastering those basics first before you can start getting creative with your playing style.
You Get Better Faster Than If You Hadn’t Taken Lessons
Having a teacher that helps you identify your weaknesses and correct them in a way that is optimized for your learning capabilities will certainly help you improve much faster than trying to learn the ukulele by yourself.
Especially when it comes to mastering specific techniques like barre chords, fingerpicking, etc after you’ve got your basic strumming patterns down.
You Get A Teacher To Ask When You’re Stuck
Another benefit of taking ukulele lessons is that if you are stuck on something, the teacher can give you advice on how to solve your problems.
This can be very helpful because if you are trying to do this by yourself and keep coming up with the same dead ends, it’s very discouraging.
You Get Accountability To Practice On A Regular Basis
Nothing comes for free, and this is no different when taking ukulele lessons. You will be more inclined to practice on a regular basis by yourself if you know that you have your teacher expecting you to come in for the next lesson with the skills learned in the previous lesson.
Of course, this is not a bulletproof method to make sure you practice yourself, but it can be a very good motivator for most people.
You Might Make Some New Friends
From my experience, most in-person lessons are usually done with a small group of around three people. So these lessons can be a great place to make new friends.
It might be a bit awkward at first, but you can always start off by just observing the others taking their lesson. That way you get more comfortable in this environment.
Con’s of Taking Ukulele Lessons
It Takes Up A Part Of Your Free Time For Improvement
In terms of getting better, you have to realize that taking ukulele lessons does not only mean more practice on the instrument itself.
You also have to add up all the time you spend traveling from your home to the teacher’s location and then back again. So if you add up all of these little bits of time, it really does take up more than you might think.
Ukulele Lessons Don’t Come Cheap
Ukulele lessons are not exactly the cheapest things in the world since they usually cost around $40 to $60 an hour on average.
This can be a bit pricey for some people, which is why many will try to learn the uke by themselves first before investing in ukulele lessons. Or like I said before, another option can be to take a small group lesson with two or three other people which will make it much more affordable!
Are Online Ukulele lessons worth it?
So now that you know the pros and cons of taking in-person lessons. You’re left wondering, what about online ukulele lessons? Although almost all the points above also apply to online lessons, there are a few differences.
You can take online ukulele lessons in two ways, one is via in-person zoom or skype meetings and the other is taking a pre-recorded course. Both have their advantages and disadvantages.
With in-person online meetings. You can get personal guidance and the teacher can help you with the exact things that you struggle with while learning the uke. Kind of like following physical in-person lessons, which can be very helpful at times.
As for pre-recorded courses, the advantage is that you have a very clear and structured path to learning the ukulele laid out for you. But when you get stuck on something you have no one to teach you how to overcome it. However, this option is in most cases also a bit cheaper than in-person lessons.
You can also decide to do a combination of the two: Follow a course and only call in a tutor if you run into a problem.
How Long Does it Take To Learn The Ukulele?
Now that we’ve gone over the advantages and disadvantages of taking ukulele lessons. We’ve come to the question of how long does it take to learn the ukulele?
The truth is there is no definite answer to this question. A part of learning any instrument or skill is based on how dedicated you are to practicing and putting in the necessary time.
This means that there is no specific amount of hours or years it will take to get to a certain level with your uke playing. It all depends on you and how dedicated you want to be.
Though for most people, from what I’ve seen if you practice every day for a month you will get the basics down and if you stay dedicated you can be really good after a year or so. But of course, this is always different for everyone.
Good Luck With Learning The Ukulele!
If you’ve read this article so far, I hope it has prepared you on some of the different points to consider if you want to take ukulele lessons.
And remember that no matter which method or teacher you will be taking your lessons from, the most important thing should always be practicing and working hard on improving yourself as a player.
Whether you decide to take in-person lessons, online lessons, or to just learn it by yourself through Youtube videos, I wish you good luck on your journey to becoming a master at the ukulele!