Rebecca Bogart - The Ukulele Beginners Handbook

The Ukulele Beginners Handbook

For Soprano, Concert and Tenor Ukuleles

with C Tuning (G, C, E, A)

Rebecca Bogart and Jenny Peters

This book includes free online video lessons.

Copyright 2019 by Rebecca Bogart and Jenny Peters.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, contact the authors at ukulele.io/contact-us.

Welcome to the Ukulele Beginners Handbook

A re you new to music ? Do you want to have fun learning to play the ukulele? In this short guide, Rebecca and I are going to give you the basics you need to start playing ukulele today.

What's Special About the Ukulele Beginners Handbook?

Many so-called beginning ukulele books are written by guitarists who decide to learn ukulele. These folks may have great intentions, but their idea of what is easy is a far cry from what might be easy for you.

While Rebecca and I have decades of music experience, both teaching and playing, we both came to fretted instruments rather late in life.

So, well teach you one truly easy skill at a time. Then you can practice it in a song before moving on.

In this brief guide, we'll teach you to strum chords while you sing songs. Beginning this way will get you off to a fast start. Later on if you are interested you can learn how to play melodies on your ukulele.

Heres what youll learn:

3 basic strums that are the building blocks of all ukulele strumming patterns.

How to play the 4 easiest ukulele chords and read their chord symbols.

How to change chords smoothly with your left hand while keeping your right hand strum going.

Youll also get detailed instructions on how and what to practice. Well break each new skill down into small pieces that are easy to master, and youll get lots of troubleshooting tips.

As one customer said, "I have had a couple of strokes so I find it hard to retain information, but the way you are both teaching me to play the ukulele is simple and easy for me to understand. And the added bonus...it is good therapy for my hands, thank you so much for opening the wonderful sounds of the ukulele to me!"

A ll Songs in Musical Notation

All the songs and lyrics are presented in traditional music notation with the strumming pattern underneath.

Dont read music? Most of the songs youll learn are so familiar that you can simply read the lyrics to track when to change chords.

Here are the songs youll learn in this brief handbook:

Are You Sleeping?

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

Have You Seen the Ghost of John?

Frre Jacques

Hush Little Baby

Includes Free Online 16 Video Course

Included with purchase of the book is a free members account at our website, ukulele.io. Here's what you'll find online:

Lesson Video for Each Song and Skill

You'll get a lesson video for each song in the book, complete with onscreen lyrics and chord symbols.

Y ou'll also get videos introducing every new skill. For example, there are videos on how to hold your ukulele, how to tune it, how to make each chord, how to strum, and how to change chords.

Color Coded Song Sheets

If youre a visual learner or dont read music, youll appreciate the color coding to help you know when to change chords.

Audio Recordings

You'll also find mp3 recordings of performances of the songs and of accompaniment tracks to play along with. There are even videos to help you learn to play with the accompaniments!

Start learning ukulele the easy way today with The Ukulele Beginners Handbook.

Grab your copy now.

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Introduction

G ood to Know....Two Glossaries: Words and Chords

If you see a term in bold italics , that means its defined in the Glossary at the back of the book. Weve also included a Chord Glossary with photographs of the left hand shape plus the chord stamp for the most common ukulele chords.

H ow to Access Your Free Video Lessons at ukulele.io

Please turn to the section in the back of the book for step by step instructions and screenshots to show you how to set up your member account at ukulele.io .

Once youve set up your account, youll be able to access the video lessons for each song. They will add a lot to your ukulele learning experience.

How to Buy a Ukulele, How to Tune, Pro Practice Pointers

Learn about these topics in dedicated sections at the end of the book.

Theres More Where This One Came From...

This book is an introduction to the Beginning Ukulele Songs series. Once youve mastered the four chords and strums in this book, youll be ready to tackle our free PDF download called 10 Free Two Chord Songs, or to move on to any of the other volumes in the series.

In our other books, youll learn more new chords, how to read tab and fingerpick melodies, how to combine the three basic strums into fancier patterns, how to improvise and play the blues, and lots of great theory concepts. Turn to the section at the back of the book called What Should I Learn Next? for full details.

Heres what one of our readers had to say about our books:

Thanks to your learning programme, I felt confident enough to take up an invitation to join a local ukulele group. I took a sort of interview by playing a couple of pieces to one of their tutors, and I was delighted when she said Thats fine Roy, more than enough ability to join the rest of the group members (about 45 people), down in the main hall. Which I did. They made me very welcome, and it did wonders for my confidence.