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I'm making my first steps with the ukulele and I have trouble with controlling the vertical movement of the neck during some chord changes.

I'm holding the ukulele by using my right forearm to press it against my chest. According to the book I'm using, I shouldn't need my left hand for holding at all.

However, without having my left hand on the fingerboard, the neck of my ukulele turns downwards quickly. This isn't a problem when playing a chord (because then my left hand easily stabilizes the neck), but I often run into issues when changing chords.

Most of the time, the problem can be solved one way or the other. Depending on the chords, I may be able, for example, to rest the neck at the top of my left hand's palm or to change fingers one-by-one so that I never have to completely let go of the fingerboard.

However, that requires quite a bit of practice and usually depends on the actual chord sequence -- which might be just the way things work, but since my book doesn't mention this issue at all I'm wondering:

Should the neck of my ukulele stay where it is when I let go with my left hand?

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Well, yes, it probably should stay pretty still during chord changes, though I bet some movement is okay. You probably shouldn't lose contact with the neck very much during chord changes; it's mostly moving the fingers. I suspect this may be a matter of simply practicing the chord changes?

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  • Thanks! Just to make sure that I understand you correctly: you're saying that my left hand is responsible for the vertical control of the neck and that maintaining this control during chord changes is a matter of technique (e.g. changing fingers one by one to not lose contact with the neck) and practice.
    – Florian Brucker
    Feb 15, 2019 at 13:08
  • I acrually wouldn't recommend learning to move the fingers one by one. Perhaps simply changing chords at a faster rate will allow you to keep better control of the neck.
    – user45266
    Feb 19, 2019 at 18:28

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