No not guitar no thank you not piano Ukulele please

This evening I was feeling ok so I decided to go out in search instructional material so I can start earning how to play
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Here is the results of my search
barns & noble Guitar & keyboards harmonica and banjo
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Borders Guitar & keyboard
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Music cd store --- Guitars
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A store in the mall that's soul purpose was to give music lessons --- sorry only guitar and keyboards
I guess ukulele's arnt very popular here in south Florida
so I sat down and punched in the search " instructional ukulele " on my iPhone and sure enough there is lots to choose from I amagine that I will need to order everything on line
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Sigh

You are kidding, you do know how to play?!! You're a senior member and you have a Pineapple Sundae as your avatar. If you really are a beginner, I don't feel so bad. LOL

Yes, it's sad that B&M music stores seem to be declining. Last time I went shopping at the Glendale Galleria and Americana (the contiguous outdoors shopping area) there wasn't a single music store. You can buy CDs at Borders or Barnes & Noble, but their selections are somewhat limited unless all you wanted was Madonna or Bruce Springsteen.

I remember the good old days when I could go to Tower Records in Pasadena and spend a couple hours just browsing the classical room. It was sectioned off in a closed room and they played only classical music so you weren't subjected to the pop and stuff they played in the rest of the store.

As much as I would like to support a local music store, there just aren't any here that offer anything I want or need.

My husband has a local hardware store he makes a point of patronizing. It's not only closer than Lowe's/HomeDepot, and they often have better prices as well. It's probably only a matter of time for them, too.

mangorockfish said:

You are kidding, you do know how to play?!! You're a senior member and you have a Pineapple Sundae as your avatar. If you really are a beginner, I don't feel so bad. LOL

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Ok I guess this requires that I explain my self. I lived in Hawaii back in the 80's but the company I worked for went bankrupt ( mid pacific airlines ) so I've been working on the mainland ever since but when I retire in 7 to ten years I would like to move back to the islands and live happy the rest of my life and I was thinking that it doesent get much happyer than playing a uke OK with that said I wanted to make sure I followed through with the plan so I bought a KoAloha Sceptre Tenor as my first uke ... Because I won't have to upgrade ever but more important than that it would force me to find a way to learn or feel like an idiot for wasting so much money on something I can't play
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Now about me being a senior member well that just means I post a lot Lol and most of that is me posting a lot about a ukulele made out of an engine part. I'm really into it but I think I'm the only one Lol
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But yes it is true I can't play a single song yet

Is there a Guitar Center near you? I was in there recently buying a new strap for my husband's bass (birthday gift), and while I didn't see any actual ukes, they had some decent instructional books.

Uke books are out there, just not very common in book and music stores unless they specialize in ukes. Flea Market Music offers quite a good collection of books. Plus there are many for sale on eBay. Ralph Shaw has a couple of good teaching DVDs, too.

I've seen more instructional books than songbooks, in general music stores. But overall the quantity is small compared to the thousands of books for guitar, piano and other instruments.

Amazon and SheetMusicPlus are your friends.

JJ

Ukulele JJ said:

Amazon and SheetMusicPlus are your friends.

JJ

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Ditto that. I think it has been at least 30 years since I was able to find much of anything in depth on my various hobbies at the Borders or other big book stores (the one exception being computers when I was really in to that). If you want something like that you usually have to order it online. On the other hand, as someone mentioned Guitar Center has some books and I know my local Sam Ash has a section of ukulele books.

I remember quite a few threads suggesting some good beginner books. Don't wait till you retire to start learning. My neighbor retired and dropped dead about a month later.

There's some great learning materials like books and DVDs at www.ukulele.de
And not just the cheesy beginners stuff, they have some more advanced stuff too, like learning to solo n stuff

Mid Pacific Airlines... was that the same as Pacific East Airlines. My wife and I flew Pacific East to Hawaii in 1983 on a DC-8. The stewardesses, in 1983 jargon, led us in singing camp songs and tossed out candy and bags of peanuts. I think we each paid $93 roundtrip... and lived to tell about it.

John

it's sad that your music stores don't have any books. i found an ukulele beginners book 12 years ago in a tiny music store in my podunk home town. all the music stores up here have many books now and are getting more all the time. one store i was in last week, the shop owner was telling me how he can't believe how many ukes and books they sell now. he said they sell on average in one day what they used to sell in one month.

just find a good guitar or instrument shop and they should have books or have access to get books for you!

If you're looking for song books and can't find uke books, with a modicum of effort, you can usually translate most guitar-chorded songs to uke versions by simply not playing the last two strings. A lot of guitar instruction books can be used, too, if you equally ignore the excess strings (and playing low g helps).