Noob stuff and resource

Before getting onto the songs I've learnt I'm going to list the sites I've found my information from, but before even that you need to get yourself an ukulele.

I picked up a cheap coloured Mahalo, a nice bright purple one with gig bag, the cost about £15 (yes I'm from the UK :) ) which included postage. You will be tuning it GCEA, as you hold it to play , the top string is G. When mine turned up as soon as it was tuned it would go out of tune within seconds, a closer look revealed that the tuning pegs were not tight and would turn by themselves, this is easily fixed by tightening the little screw on each peg ( a quarter turn until it holds). Even with the pegs tight the ukulele will go out of tune alot until the strings are fully stretched, this could take a week or so.

I added some new strings to my Mahalo thanks to the recommendations of some very nice people at Ukulele Cosmos. The strings recommended to add are Aquila Nylgut uke strings, I put soprano size on mine but the suggestions are to use concert size. These string gave my uke a nicer tone, increased the volume and improved the intonation (the ability to stay in tune up and down the fret board).

Onto the links :-

Tuning - You will be doing this alot, especially at first, I've since bought myself a small clip on tuner, but here are some useful sites to get your uke in tune until you buy one.
MiniTuner - If you have a microphone I recommend this, its a small free program that will tell you if you're in tune.
Doctor Uke - There are loads of sites that play the sound for each string all doing pretty much the same, so I'm listing one here, just go to the song section, find the string you want to tune and match it by ear.

Forums : Great places for advice
Ukulele Cosmos - Very friendly and active community, lots of good advice here.
The 4th Peg - Looks good but not posted.
UkeTalk
ezFolk - Also contains tutorials and other info.
Flea Market Music - not keen on the forum layout but I'm sure there is plenty of good info there.

Tunes and Chords
Doctor Uke - one word, brilliant.
Alligator Boogaloo - another excellent site.
Chordie - you will find everything here (probably)
Sheep Entertainment's Chord finder - Pick your tuning and then your song.

Thats all for now, if you know of any other good resources then please let me know :)

A short introduction

"There's so much beginner stuff out there, why a blog about learning to play the ukulele ?", you may ask and you'd be right, a tonne of stuff. Sometimes if you have so much information it can seem a little daunting and for a newcomer like myself make it a little tricky in deciding where to begin. With this blog I'm going to write about the tunes I've learnt as and when I learn them, problems I come across and little pearls of wisdom (if I come across any ;) ) and if this helps anyone else to learn the ukulele then I'll be a happy man.

I'm also hoping that you share with me and anyone that might be reading, let us know if you have found something that has helped you or tunes that have been particularly noob friendly, please no "row row row your boat" type recommendations :D