Fretboard Roadmaps - Ukulele: The Essential Patterns That All the Pros Know and Use [Paperback]

Jim Beloff (Author), Fred Sokolow (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2006

Take your uke playing to the next level with this great package that will teach you how to: strum backup chords all over the fretboard, in any key; play chord solos up and down the fretboard; solo in any key using first-position major scales, chord-based licks, and moveable major and blues scales; understand chord progressions; increase your chord vocabulary; and more. Tunes and exercises that illustrate each technique are written in standard notation and tablature and played on the accompanying CD. An absolute beginner can follow the diagrams and instruction from the beginning. Intermediate and advanced players can use the chapters non-sequentially to increase their understanding of the ukulele.

Product Details

• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation (August 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1423400410
• ISBN-13: 978-1423400417
• Product Dimensions: 11.9 x 8.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #48,900 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

56 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This one's a keeper, March 24, 2008

By 

JS22 (Colorado) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Fretboard Roadmaps - Ukulele: The Essential Patterns That All the Pros Know and Use (Paperback)

My experience with beginning ukulele books has been pretty uniformly
disappointing. They all promise to include everything you could
possibly need to know, when in in my experience they have all been
thin, padded with useless filler, and lacking a coherent path to get
from "here" to "there".

This book is a __VERY__ welcome change, and at a sweet price to boot.
To be sure, it is not a beginner's book. The very first song (Sloop
John B.) has a tricky rhythm (e.g., three quarter notes in two beats)
and a shuffle strum with some down strokes missing; as a result,
only about half of the words actually coincide with a strum. This is
not a criticism of the book, just pointing out the level of difficulty
you'll hit in the first few pages. Fortunately for me (an arhythmic
klutz) the focus of the book is on learning the fretboard !

I must say that the CD is a huge help. My beginner's books either had
no CD at all, or the recordings were so dorky that I felt impatient to
move ahead and get to some "real" music. The teacher on this CD,
however, has a very inviting style, and you get the feeling that he
would be a fun person to jam with or watch in performance. A big plus
if your skills require you to listen to the same track over and over
and over...

This book is not about music theory per se, but but rather a practical
framework for learning how to physically hit the right notes; i.e.,
it doesn't attempt to describe *why* you would use a D7b5 chord, but
it helps you develop the skill so that when you have to play one you
know what your various options are and you can get your fingers in the
right place without thinking too much.

I have only completed about half of the book so far. I've learned the
basic movable chord patterns (3 each of major, minor, 7th), and am
starting to practice with them. The songs in this part of the book
take one chord (G major, say) and move it up and down the fretboard
for several measures before changing to a new chord. This kind of
practice is necessary to internalize what you've learned, but the
authors do a nice job of making the practice interesting and fun,
pointing out how to spice up your music rather than just saying
"memorize this" and jumping to a new, disconnected topic.


I look forward to working my way through this book, and I definitely
intend to revisit it again and again. As my title says, it's a
keeper !

49 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Concise and helpful, December 5, 2006

By 

Anthroterra - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fretboard Roadmaps - Ukulele: The Essential Patterns That All the Pros Know and Use (Paperback)

Each lesson provides a why, what, how, and do it! (practice portion). This breakdown is very helpful, and knowing the why and what adds that extra motivation for taking the time to learn the more difficult concepts. There are plenty of diagrams and ideas are presented in short paragraphs that make the book easy to navigate. As a patient beginner, I've been impressed by the "tricks" provided here. I would recommend this book more for intermediate players, however, unless you're a beginner accustomed to book learning.

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ukulelel fretboard, challenging but useful, November 25, 2007

By 

Steven D. Shelton "Ukeman" (NC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Fretboard Roadmaps - Ukulele: The Essential Patterns That All the Pros Know and Use (Paperback)

I've not had a lot of time to delve into this book, but it teaches moveable bar chords that can be utilized in a variety of ways. There is a lot of material in each chapter, and it assumes a lot, as in , that you'll practice A LOT, that you have A LOT of musical background, that you have A LOT of musical ability, etc. etc. etc. Not for the novice. I've been playing uke for several years and it's going to take a serious study of the book to get A LOT out of it, BUT, it could really "turn on the light bulb" for some people! If you're looking for beginning material, look elsewhere.