Learn Ukulele Music Theory: Unlock the Secrets of the Fretboard

D. Granoff: I am two months into my ukulele journey although I've taken a couple of years of piano as well as a college level Music Theory course. I am in my mid-70s.

I ordered the Kindle version and am about 1/2 way through it. The book, so far, has helped me understand the practical aspects of playing ukulele much better.

It's been a good review, for me, about notes and scales are and has been especially helpful to me to learn how the notes change as I move up the fret board. I also appreciated learning how the fingering for different chords are developed. Finally, I liked the Chord/Key Chart for Major Keys in the Appendix. The chart has already been helpful when I transcribed a song from the Key of F, which is still new to me, to the Key of C, which I'm more comfortable with.

Yes, I would recommend this book to beginning ukulele players. I suspect it would also be helpful to intermediate level players, although I can't say for sure as I'm not there yet.

United States on Mar 04, 2024

Jasper: A must for ukulele players.

United States on Jan 20, 2024

Amy Lesniak: In a nutshell: I suspect this book won't be for everyone (although I believe it could be *understood* by anyone). It delves more deeply into concepts that are not technically *necessary* to pick up a ukulele and start playing using chord diagrams. However, if you are like me, and you like to learn by asking probing questions, this book presents music theory in a way that will teach you the ins and outs of things like chord progressions, not by having you simply memorize them or follow along a cheat sheet, but by helping you to build a chord progression from scratch--even if you are like me and have never even heard of a chord progression before now.

I am just about 50 years old and I started playing the ukulele a month or so ago. I've been able to read sheet music since I was a kid from playing the flute and dabbling with the piano, and I had a very basic understanding of piano chords, but I have never played a stringed instrument before and I have no background at all in music theory. I started out with a beginner's book that was great for showing how to hold the uke, the basics of reading a chord diagram and strum pattern, and some very easy songs--within the first few...

United States on Dec 01, 2023

DSP: After more then 30 years of playing the drums, I really wanted to be able to play something that you could get a tune out of. I'd previously dabbled with the bass guitar and the harmonica, but to no avail. Then a few years ago, my sister bought me a Ukulele for Christmas. It was a modest soprano and two things quickly became apparent. One, I really liked (trying) to play the Uke, and two, a soprano fretboard was too small for my chunky and untutored fingers. A visit to the late, lamented Duke of Uke shop and I now have a very nice Tenor, which is a couple of sizes up and much more comfortable for me to play.

Having had a few lessons (highly recommended if you're starting out - learning as a group helps enormously), I started to wonder about some of the theory behind the music I was trying to play.

I'd already got a few books that contained chord diagrams and scales, but while they showed *what* the notes were, they didn't explain *how* they'd been arrived at. I was now curious about things like...

Why are scales made up of certain notes, and how do you figure out what they are?

How do you work out which notes are in a chord?

What's all that I V...

United Kingdom on Oct 28, 2023

Peter Schmitz: Ich spiele nun seit knapp 10 Jahren Ukulele und wollte anfangs eigentlich nur in der Lage sein ein paar Lieder zu spielen. Dazu habe ich die Musiktheorie komplett vernachlässigt, was auch nicht so schlimm war, da man durchaus auch ohne Theorie Lieder spielen kann.

Schraubt man seinen Anspruch aber höher und möchte vielleicht doch wissen, was es mit C Stimmung / G Stimmung auf sich hat und wie man leicht von einer Stimmung in die andere wechseln kann, oder wo welche Noten auf dem Brett zu finden sind (z.B. zum Fingerpicking) etc. dann kann ich das Buch nur wärmstens empfehlen.

Der Autor schafft es das Wesentliche einer Lektion auf nur wenige Seiten zusammenzufassen. Die Kapitel bauen aufeinander auf und das Buch ist mit 90 Seiten auch nicht zu dick. Habe es in 2 Wochen durchgearbeitet und mir direkt den nächsten Band geholt.

Germany on Oct 24, 2023

MME Boireau Michele: très utile pour les débutants

France on Jul 29, 2023

Colonist ancestor: I received a book that was not usable, pages were printed and cut wrong yet bound anyway. I ordered a replacement and emailed co. who apparently puts these together. I truly hope the next one is usable. It may only be 15.00 but the quality was a shocker.
UPDATE
Seller apologized after I sent an email, and quickly sent a GOOD copy. The content so far seems good, I only read first chapter. That first copy should have been thrown out but at least they fixed the mistake. I checked the replacement, looks good.

United States on Jul 16, 2023

Happy: it’s a great confidence builder, this book. I didn’t know there was a musical alphabet to the frets, never mind musical scales! Now I know the construction of chords, triads and even how to transpose a scale to match a singer’s voice. And I’m only halfway through the book. I’m grateful to David Shipway.

Canada on Jul 05, 2023

Lola: Excellent! This incredibly well written tutorial on music theory is so engaging and easy to understand, it blew open the doors to my enjoying and advancing in music performance! I’ve been playing the ukulele for 8 years with the help of a few wonderful online teachers [UkuleleTricks.com, Cynthia Lin (YT) and Dylan Lane (YT)], but hit a ceiling early on because of my ignorance of music theory. I can copy what the teachers showed me, but haven’t had the confidence to play with other musicians because I didn’t understand the instrument or how to change keys. Not playing with other musicians stunted my ability to attain higher levels of performance. Within the first hour of reading this tutorial, I understood so much and hungered to learn more. But I did not hurry. He makes it very clear that you have to understand every piece of information before moving on. Every point he makes is a building block that must be understood, practiced, and remembered in order to confidently move on to the next chapter. He makes this easy through the use of teaching techniques like plenteous illustrations, repetition, humor, and quizzes.
The author obviously took a tremendous amount of time and...

United States on Jun 29, 2023

Kindle Customer: Concepts explained simply

Tables with chords divided by keys are very useful.

I have bought a ukulele and started playing it without knowing the music theory. After this book I am enjoying even more.

Italy on Jun 24, 2023