Estudiante
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"Like" This Post If You Agree: Method Books Don't Have To Be Based on Folk Music !
Yeah, I know you can't "Like" a forum post, but anyway...
There's nothing wrong with North American folk music of course, I just don't love it. But nearly all ukulele method books are based on that genre, using the same small pool of at-least-sort-of-familiar folk tunes, with maybe Ode To Joy or In The Hall Of The Mountain King thrown in to round things out.
I started out with Hal Leonard Ukulele Method 1, like thousands of other people. Pretty much all American Folk music. The other readily available Methods are mostly the same. Nothing wrong with that, but why not offer these same methods, but with editions based on repertoire from other genres - like Classical, Hawaiian (that's probably a more limited market), Celtic, Gospel & Hymns or etc. This repertoire is old enough to avoid copywrite issues. And based on the genres of ukulele songbooks available on Amazon, and the variety of tunes and tabs posted on leading uke websites there is plenty of interest in these other genres.
I like hymns, classical and Hawaiian. Thankfully, I discovered a two-volume Hawaiian music-based method book, so I can learn with music I actually enjoy. However, my first choice would be a classical-based repertoire method, something like a Christopher Parkening classical guitar method retrofitted for ukulele. But somehow I don't think Christopher P would go for that.
Yeah, I know you can't "Like" a forum post, but anyway...
There's nothing wrong with North American folk music of course, I just don't love it. But nearly all ukulele method books are based on that genre, using the same small pool of at-least-sort-of-familiar folk tunes, with maybe Ode To Joy or In The Hall Of The Mountain King thrown in to round things out.
I started out with Hal Leonard Ukulele Method 1, like thousands of other people. Pretty much all American Folk music. The other readily available Methods are mostly the same. Nothing wrong with that, but why not offer these same methods, but with editions based on repertoire from other genres - like Classical, Hawaiian (that's probably a more limited market), Celtic, Gospel & Hymns or etc. This repertoire is old enough to avoid copywrite issues. And based on the genres of ukulele songbooks available on Amazon, and the variety of tunes and tabs posted on leading uke websites there is plenty of interest in these other genres.
I like hymns, classical and Hawaiian. Thankfully, I discovered a two-volume Hawaiian music-based method book, so I can learn with music I actually enjoy. However, my first choice would be a classical-based repertoire method, something like a Christopher Parkening classical guitar method retrofitted for ukulele. But somehow I don't think Christopher P would go for that.
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