Recommend 1 book, with these requirements

Hi all,

Short background: as my name suggests, I am a bass player. Love it, it's my main instrument. My friends bought me a soprano ukulele years ago, and last year I started actually using it. And I like it! I now also have a concert uke, although I seem to prefer the soprano size.

Anyway, I do not practice a lot. It has been months since I last touched my uke's, other than put them out of the way for cleaning purposes

When I do practice, I use following course material:

- Uncle Rod's bootcamp (it's brilliant);
- The Irish campanella book someone from this forum has written and made available (it's equally brilliant);
- the Ukulele Aerobics book.

I have come to realize that what I am missing, is a goal. Something to work on (and towards). But most of the method books offer songs I have zero interest in. No "twinkle twinkle little star" or "on top of old smokey" for me, please.

I understand people enjoy this sort of material immensely, but it's not for me. If you feel like replying with "learn it anyway, because it's the way to go" please accept that I won't

What I am more interested in, is (old swing) jazz style type songs. Could be the classics like "Take The A Train" or "Autumn Leaves" or something which does focus on that particular playing style but does not necessarily contain those songs.

So the question I am asking to day is, with that in mind, which ukulele book would you recommend? I plan to add just the one book to my library, and work with that one.

Have you looked on Amazon to see if any of them interest you? I just had a look and seen these (I have no direct experience with them, just from browsing):

https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Ukulele...8&qid=1534432462&sr=1-1&keywords=jazz+ukulele

https://www.amazon.com/Just-Fun-Swi...8&qid=1534432462&sr=1-3&keywords=jazz+ukulele

https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Chord-S...8&qid=1534432462&sr=1-5&keywords=jazz+ukulele

Have a look through them and see if you might be interested.

Just pick a song/tune or two, & learn to play them, that's basically what I did.

I wasn't interested in 'strum & sing', (still not really), but I did give it a go a few times for the Seasons challenges, which are great fun with friendly people, might get you inspired.

Plenty of sites on the internet with music notation, just have to get to know where the notes are on the fretboard, get yourself a fret board map.

Why don’t you just learn to play by ear?

First learn some scales by sight and ear, (you can get pics of fretboards with all the notes), then learn an easy tune that you like. Perhaps “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” and, then, when you’ve learned to play it without music or tabs, you can go on to a more difficult one like “On Top of Old Smokey”. It’s called “taking baby steps”, and it works!

When one can play by ear, he/she can play whatever he/she wishes to.

By the way, if you are using The Ukulele Aerobics book, you should soon be able to play whatever in heck you wanna anyway.

Well, Ol’ Croaky Keith beat me to it. Good post, Croaky! ld:

Yes, part of the reason I am asking is because I found several books on Amazon, and they all look interesting. I know from experience that it can soon escalate - I have way too many bass instruction books. So am looking for someone who has (a positive) experience with one of those books, or a similar one

Learning from the internet is not my preferred method. I like a good instruction book, that goes from A to B. It gives me something to work with. Like I mentioned, I dig the Aerobics book but it feels like a suppelement, not a course onto itself.

Rob MacKillop may have something of interest https://robmackillop.net/ukulele/ at least worth a browse and a listen!
:music:

Most of the books that I have come across are beginners books and easy-peasy to get through —OR— they are mind bendingly difficult and contain a lotta stuff to learn that one will never use like Ukulele Aerobics.

Does one play melodies on a bass guitar? Can he/she improvise on it? Do you play it by ear? Just curious . . . ld:

I really like this series: https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Uku...preST=_SX258_BO1,204,203,200_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

It used to be 3 books with DVD, there is now one volume with all 3 books and sound files.
Many different types of songs in there, but it leans towards the bluesy & jazzy side - and not a twinkling little star in sight!

Another option, like someone suggested, would be to just pick a song you like, maybe find a good tutorial for it (if you join UU university, there are loads) and learn that.

I'll bet that book doesn't exist. But I think that a goal is the most important thing. There are so many directions out there that one can go, not knowing which way to turn is called being lost.

You'll find lots of that sort of music and some vintage ukulele instruction books in Ian Chadwick's collection of old sheet music.

http://vintageukemusic.com/index.htm

Learning from the internet is not my preferred method.

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Then I'd suggest Ukulele for Dummies - starts at the beginning & takes you to intermediate.

Down Up Dick said:

Why don’t you just learn to play by ear?

[snip]

By the way, if you are using The Ukulele Aerobics book, you should soon be able to play whatever in heck you wanna anyway.

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I play bass by ear. Also use books and tabs when needed. As for the Uke Aerobics book, like I mentioned I feel it is a "supplementary book" and not a method onto itself.

Down Up Dick said:

Does one play melodies on a bass guitar? Can he/she improvise on it? Do you play it by ear? Just curious . . . ld:

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Yes to all these questions Mind you, been doing it for almost 20 years now, whereas uke ... I really am nowhere. The only reason I can fairly easily switch chords is because I used to strum a bit of guitar, aeons ago. But I never liked the guitar. I love the uke, though. Must be something about 4 strings being just right

Booksniffer said:

I really like this series: https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Uku...preST=_SX258_BO1,204,203,200_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

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Interesting! I have looked at this book on several occasions. If you would have time to elaborate on why you like it, I would be most grateful.

I have looked at some of the other books posted (via the Amazon links) and the problem is: they ALL look interesting I should just bite the bullet and get one of them, hope it's any good and gather the self-discipline to actually work with it.

Like I said, I have a veritable library of bass books. Most contain a few pages which are super useful and as such, they are worth their money. But I want to avoid getting 20 uke books, too.

Thanks for everyone's replies so far! I appreciate everyone's input very much.

Just in case you haven't seen this.

https://forum.ukuleleunderground.com/showthread.php?120993-Uke-Syllabus-for-Beginners-by-a-Beginner

http://www.lakesidepress.com/UkeSyllabus.pdf

Thanks, Croaky Keith! I am reading the syllabus now - very enjoyable material, and clearly laid out. If it was you who wrote it, kudos! If it was someone else, kudos to them!

Croaky Keith said:

Then I'd suggest Ukulele for Dummies - starts at the beginning & takes you to intermediate.

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I really like the Dummies books. Ha! Maybe that says somethin’ about me! Ha! Anyway, I have ones for Banjo, Mandolin, Ukulele and Ukulele Exercises, flute, Singing Exercises, and Music Theory. I also have The Complete Idiots Guide to Playing the Ukulele (very good). As you can see, I’m a Dummies believer.

However, I’m also a BIG believer in playing by ear. It’s just more handy and easy going. My eyes are gittin’ old too. ld:

EddiePlaysBass said:

Thanks, Croaky Keith! I am reading the syllabus now - very enjoyable material, and clearly laid out. If it was you who wrote it, kudos! If it was someone else, kudos to them!

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Not me, I'm not that clever!

Unfortunately, I can't remember off hand who wrote it, but I think they are in the thread I linked to.

I'm a bit late to this thread, but I would like to share the book I bought when I bought my first ukulele and the only book I had for quite some time. It was Chad Johnson's Ukulele Scale Finder. I don't like playing songs. I am more into a general sense of musicanship as a goal. So this book provided me with scales and modes. Once you practice all these scales, you start to see finger patterns emerge which can then be used as building blocks for your own articulation. For example, I have been lately obsessed with threading together pieces of E ionian, D# Lokrian, and G# Phyrgian. Thanks Chad Johnson! Anyway...just offering a more elemental book in case that's your thing.

I very much admire those that can play by ear. Most folk need to use their hands.

Once again, I want to thank everyone for replying. I decided I will just bite the proverbial bullet and order a book. Based on an earlier mention and reading some reviews, I settled on this one:

https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Ukulele...8&qid=1534432462&sr=1-1&keywords=jazz+ukulele

Will report back at a later date, when I have the book and have worked with it a bit. Bye for now!

_Ukeless_ said:

I very much admire those that can play by ear. Most folk need to use their hands.

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It takes years to learn to play by ear, and even longer to play by nose. ld: