Learn to Play the Ukulele : A Simple and Fun Guide for Complete Beginners (CD Included)

With the help of this book and companion CD, anyone can learn to play the ukulele overnight! Inside Learn to Play the Ukulele:

• Learn how to hold and tune a ukulele correctly
• Learn how to keep time and strum
• Scales and chords including C major, G major, reading tablature, and bar chords
• Ukulele history, parts, types, & buying advice
• Practice exercises with accompanying CD tracks to build your playing skills
• 19-track CD with songs for practice and playing, including Midnight Special and Hey, Good Lookin'

Learn to Play the Ukulele will teach you basic playing techniques for the ukulele. No prior musical experience is assumed, so this book is perfect for absolute beginners!

This enjoyable, stress-free program will teach you how to hold the instrument, position your hands and fingers, strumming techniques, picking, basic chords and beyond, with clear color photos and easy-to-read chord charts. You'll be introduced to all the basics of tuning, simple rhythms, reading tablature, chords, the 12-bar blues, and more. Even if you already know how to play the ukulele, you will find ways to improve your style and technique.

The enclosed CD guides you through a series of exercises, which are organized in a progressive fashion (practicing one strum and slowly building to more complicated rhythmic patterns). The CD also includes a variety of charming songs that you will be able to strum along with, starting with one or two chords and progressing on to more complex music. You'll quickly learn to develop your own unique style and embark on a lifetime of musical enjoyment.

Practical advice and encouraging tips are included, as well as fun and interesting trivia and sidebars about the ukulele. Music theory is included, but the emphasis is on getting up to speed and on with the fun of playing quickly!

Bill Plant is a woodworker from Australia where he has taught furniture design, joinery and general woodworking at a local college (Goulburn Ovens TAFE). He also teaches private classes. He has been published in Australian Wood Review, Australian Woodworker, Practical Woodworking (UK), Good Woodworking (UK), and IO magazine. He has written brochures for Mitre 10 (an Australian hardware chain). He has a degree in fine arts including photography and has studied writing. He has taught over 300 people how to play the ukulele and has started several ukulele groups. When he is not surfing in South Australia or touring the desert, tropical rain forests, beaches and reefs, you'll find him in his shop playing or making ukuleles