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Ukulele In A Day For Dummies
by Alistair Wood
Ukulele In A Day For Dummies
Published by
John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
The Atrium
Southern Gate
Chichester
West Sussex
PO19 8SQ
England
www.wiley.com
Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, West Sussex, England
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, West Sussex
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except under the terms of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS, UK, without the permission in writing of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, England, or emailed to permreq@wiley.co.uk, or faxed to (44) 1243 770620.
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data: A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-118-38036-9 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-38037-6 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-38035-2 (ebk)
Introduction
G uitars were invented for people who wanted to strut around on stage and show off. And ukuleles were invented for people who just want to play music and enjoy it.
In that spirit, Ukulele In A Day For Dummies is a no-nonsense guide to getting started with the ukulele so you get confident enough in your playing to start making music and performing. This book doesnt delve deep into musical theory or discuss standard musical notation. Everything in the book is aimed squarely at getting you playing, enjoying the ukulele and sounding great.
You can take full advantage of the book by using these methods:
Read the charts: Songs in this book are presented in chord charts. These charts are a simplified way of presenting music that is much more immediate than standard notation. They indicate how to play the chords in the song and the strumming rhythm.
Print the photos: The position of your hands is really important for getting a good sound from your ukulele. The photos will give you a better idea of what your fingers should look like than the chord charts alone.
Download and listen to the audio tracks: Its hard to grasp what something should sound like from the written word, so Ive posted a few pieces of audio at www.dummies.com/go/inaday/ukulele
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What You Can Do in a Day
As part of the In A Day For Dummies series, I designed this book to contain about a days reading and practice. Im a generous sort, so Ive included a bit more in the way of instruction than youll likely cover in a day. But, at the end of said day, the goal is that youll be able to play your first song on the uke Lil Liza Jane.
Foolish Assumptions
The only large assumption I make is that youre using a standard tuned ukulele (soprano, concert or tenor) rather than a baritone ukulele. The baritone ukulele is a different instrument entirely. Other than that, I dont assume anything else about you, including whether youve any knowledge of ukuleles or music theory in general. I dont assume that youre a (take a deep breath) heavy-rock grebo, pierced punk fan or grizzled bluesman with no soul left to trade; a Hawaiian surfer with only vowels in your name, a cool jazz hepcat, a dreadlocked reggae follower or a tuxedoed concert-going classical aficionado (gasp!). Thats more than enough stereotypes to be going on with...
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