Just got my John King books!

The Nalu Music thread motivated me to buy a couple of his books. I am now anticipating much fun learning to pick out classical music on my Mainland Tenor.

The CD is going in the background now. Chopsticks never sounded so good.

Did you get the Famous solos and duets too? Loke Lani is difficult but fascinating. It's my favourite uke piece! Hope you enjoy at least half as much as I do with John King's books!

I just downloaded and bought many instructional books. Its good to have them when you need them.

I must now review these books.

Please - anybody - provide more data about your experience with the book.

I am using Learn to play FingerStyle Solos on Ukulele from Mark Nelson when I'm not practicing Raindrops keep falling on my Head and some kids songs. Mark Nelson's book is making me less afraid of trying songs.

The John King "The Classical Ukulele" is a lot of fun, but a little difficult. He arrandeg the songs in a way that subsequent notes of a melody are played on different strings, making the ukulele sound like a harp. It is a bit difficult to play at first, until you get used to jumping back and forth from the A to the G string, but after a little while, it makes the re-entrant My Dog Has Fleas seem to be a wonderful peculiarity of the ukulele. I highly recommend it.

The "Famous Solos and Duets" book is not quite as hard, but just as rewarding. It contains lots of Hawaiian music, and is just very pleasant to play through on a summer afternoon.

Both books contain CDs with John King playing the arrangements in the book, which is worth the price.

I always recommend this song book for beginners. It's a nice collection of classical and traditional songs, and the arrangements are easy to play without being just melody tabs. It's free, too.
http://ukulelehunt.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/solobuch.pdf
–Lori

Thanks Lori for the link to "solobuch" I remember looking at it once before but not being where I could download it. I agree the books I pull out most are both of John Kings, Mark Nelsons, and the Hawaiian Style Ukulele series (1,2 & 3), the cd's really help get the timing right and are great to play along with as well as just listen to.