Customer Reviews

Exploring the 'Ukulele

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First let me mention that this book assumes that you are playing an 'uke with a low G string. I certainly wish I had known that before buying! A large portion of the book will simply not sound right with standard reentrant ("my dog has fleas") tuning. Everything in the book is presented in both standard notation and TAB. There is very little written instruction.

The book begins with pentatonic scales, presented in bare-bones fashion as ascending quarter notes. The purpose of the pentatonic scale is briefly explained, but no examples of its use are provided. This is followed by a similarly unadorned presentation of double-stop 3rds and 6ths in all major keys. These can be used to harmonize melodies, but again no musical examples are provided, just a kind of reference chart. Next, picking and fingering exercises, which are runs straight up and down each major scale, followed by scales in broken thirds. These are good exercises for any instrument. A handful of strumming and picking patterns (arpeggios)are given, followed by second position chords, which can be found on any of the more complete chord charts out there.

In the last and best section of the book, 20 Hawaiian Turnarounds are given, four in each of 5 keys, followed by a collection of a half-dozen Hawaiian tunes which incorporate some of the turnarounds.

This book certainly has some useful content, but could have been improved by more examples and more detailed instruction. Players without low-G strings are likely to be disappointed, as many of the scale exercises and turnarounds won't work on their instruments.

Very disappointed at the content.
The book is just a collection of sheets without any instruction.

Example: It explains lightly in one paragraph what 3rds and 6ths are.
Then proceed to show 12 pages of those notes in every key.
But does not explain how you play this, whats the usage, how you improvise with it.

The only part that is good is the hawaian turnarounds. It makes you play it with songs.