Method books? Li'l Rev?

Looking to get a method book soon to start learning the tenor uke. So far I'm looking at the li'l rev series although when I looked at some of the page previews on amazon, book #1 seemed pretty simple. I'll be a beginner at tenor uke but not a beginner at playing music. I play trombone, bass guitar, a bit of acoustic guitar and some baritone uke (strumming).

I guess what I'm saying is I won't need help picking simple melodies and simple chord progressions right off the bat but will need some time learning strumming technique and hopefully learn some fingerpicking and chord/note solos.

All that said, I don't want to miss out on any of the basics. Also I know about all the available videos online and plan on taking advantage of those.

So any method books recommended over the Li'l Rev ones or should I just dive in to those? Also is the Li'l rev songbook any good to go along wioth the method books?
Thanks
cb

I havent seem the Revs book,,, but I do have the Del Ray Blues dvd/tab. Its pretty good. Its not easy , at least for me. I have learned a couple of tunes, but still havent yt, them. But she does make yo get a solid groove to play it close to what she does.
if you want to check it out. If you go to Hom,espun tapes ,,, they have little tidbits of her lessons. To see if your into it or not.
If you get the Revs book, Id love to see a review, I need to learn more fingerpicking
Steve

Given your background, I wouldn't recommend the Lil Rev method book. It is, as you noticed, very basic and better suited to individuals with no musical background or no background with a stringed instrument.

There is a book on fingerpicking for the ukulele. You might want to check that out.

Have you looked at the Jumpin' Jim's songbooks?

Fred Sokolow's ukulele books might be the right level for you. I can recommend Fretboard Roadmaps from experience, and have heard nothing but good things about Blues Ukulele and the new Bluegrass Ukulele books.

Lot's of good suggestions here. Thanks!

I love Lil' Rev's music but haven't seen the Hal Leonard songbooks so I can't comment. Like janeray I can't recommend the Fretboard Roadmaps book highly enough. The Bluegrass Ukulele book is brilliant (if you're into that kind of old-timey stringband stuff), especially for fingerpicking technique. All the best with it cb

Yeah actually I am into older stuff cause I'm... well...old!
The fretboard map looks interesting as does the blues and bluegrass book. Also the fingerpicking one mentioned above.
I also saw a youtube video by Del Rey that looks cool so really all the above suggestions are good thanks!
I've heard the fretboard map before but the title kind of put me off. sounds like alot of dots and lines, you know scale pattern memorization. I'm more into playing songs than memorizing patterns. But maybe I'll check that out. I just want to jump right in and get playing. Of course I'm still a week away from buying my tenor so first things first.

It's funny - I initially bought both the Lil Rev beginner book AND the Fretboard Roadmap. I have a lot of music background, and given that you do too, I suspect you could find yourself skipping through at least 50% of the Lil Rev book, as it's covering basic music theory concepts.

On the other hand, the Roadmap book is incredible - it makes my head hurt, but for the right reasons. It's intense, but I can already see it being the sole uke reference/theory book I'll need. I can only work on it for 30 mins or so, then I need to go play "Five Foot Two" in a different room to remind myself that I'm making progress, and it's OK if I can't figure out a 3rd inversion suspended augmented E minor chord with added 13th chord today.

I also have Fretboard Roadmaps and think it's a good book. The point of it is to understand shapes and scales on the fretboard, and how they relate to each other.

It's good, but there are a few things about it that bug me a little. For example, the Circle of Fifths is backward from what I'm used to seeing. It still works, just backwards. Also, even though it seems to be trying to teach learning shapes to form chords, it still has a slew of chord shapes at the end of each section (or chapter), like you would see in a chord book for memorization.

Personally, I think I've learned more from this book:

Understanding Ukulele Chords

Since it's really about chords, it doesn't have the scales in it like Fretboard Roadmaps does, but I think it's a more helpful book. It also teaches shapes, but it focuses on learning the role of each note in the shape, and how you can make changes to alter chords. It also has a bit on chord substitutions, chord runs, chord progressions, etc.

It's a pretty short book at around 48 pages I think, but it's very clearly written. Basically there's a lesson on each page.

As for the fingerpicking book, I'm betting they're talking about this one:

Learn to Play Fingerstyle Solos

I have that one too. It's a good book as well. It has a good amount of music in it, a professionally-recorded CD, and a fair amount of instruction.

Jason