Learn to play, one game or instrument at a time.
Chess, the ukulele, dominoes and the guitar: plain-English guides for beginners, families and classrooms, with games and printables. Every fact here links to its source. Warm up with the game: can you tell which one a clue is about?
Which one is it?
8 clues. Pick the game or instrument each one describes.
Press start for your first clue.
Four to learn
- Chess
- Ukulele
- Dominoes
- Guitar
Each clue in the game is one of the facts in the fact file. After you pick, the full fact and its source appear. The drawing is our own.
What is learntoplay.im?
learntoplay.im is a small hub for learning to play games and instruments. Each one gets its own site with sourced facts, games and printables. Chess and the ukulele are open now. Some true things to start with:
An old game
Chess first appeared in India in about the 6th century CE, and by the 10th century it had spread from Asia to the Middle East and Europe. [source]
A small guitar
The ukulele comes from the machete, a four-stringed guitar brought to Hawaii by the Portuguese in the 1870s. [source]
Twenty-eight tiles
The usual set has 28 dominoes. One of them is the double blank. [source]
Six strings
Over time the guitar gained six strings, which is now the standard. [source]
Open now
Two learn-to-play sites are open: chess and the ukulele.
- Chess
chess.learntoplay.imOpen now: setting up the board, how each chess piece moves, castling, en passant and promotion, check, checkmate and stalemate, writing moves down and the history of the game, with three games and printables.
Open nowThe Complete Chess Printables Bundle, $12.99 - Ukulele
ukulele.learntoplay.imOpen now: the parts of the ukulele and how to tune it, how to read chord diagrams, your first six chords, tab and strumming, six traditional tunes and where the instrument came from, with three games and printables.
Open nowThe Complete Ukulele Printables Bundle, $12.99
Coming soon
Two more learn-to-play sites are planned.
- Dominoes
dominoes.learntoplay.imPlanned: how to play the block and draw games, how to score, and where dominoes came from.
Coming soon - Guitar
guitar.learntoplay.imPlanned: first chords and practice on the six-string guitar, building on our beginner site Help Me Learn Guitar.
Coming soon
Learning the guitar now? Our beginner site Help Me Learn Guitar has chord diagrams, practice plans and a metronome.
Sister hubs
learntoplay.im is part of the same REALLYBYTE family as these hubs:
Enjoyed playing?
learntoplay.im has no adverts and sets no cookies. A little support helps the next learn-to-play site get built.