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Ukulele In A Day For Dummies^®

by Alistair Wood

Ukulele In A Day For Dummies^®

Published by
John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
The Atrium
Southern Gate
Chichester
West Sussex
PO19 8SQ
England

Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, West Sussex, England

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, West Sussex

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data: A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-1-118-38036-9 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-38037-6 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-38035-2 (ebk)

Introduction

Guitars were invented for people who wanted to strut around on stage and show off. And ukuleles were invented for people who just want to play music and enjoy it.

In that spirit, Ukulele In A Day For Dummies is a no-nonsense guide to getting started with the ukulele so you get confident enough in your playing to start making music and performing. This book doesn’t delve deep into musical theory or discuss standard musical notation. Everything in the book is aimed squarely at getting you playing, enjoying the ukulele and sounding great.

You can take full advantage of the book by using these methods:

Read the charts: Songs in this book are presented in chord charts. These charts are a simplified way of presenting music that is much more immediate than standard notation. They indicate how to play the chords in the song and the strumming rhythm.

Print the photos: The position of your hands is really important for getting a good sound from your ukulele. The photos will give you a better idea of what your fingers should look like than the chord charts alone.

Download and listen to the audio tracks: It’s hard to grasp what something should sound like from the written word, so I’ve posted a few pieces of audio at .

What You Can Do in a Day

As part of the In A Day For Dummies series, I designed this book to contain about a day’s reading and practice. I’m a generous sort, so I’ve included a bit more in the way of instruction than you’ll likely cover in a day. But, at the end of said day, the goal is that you’ll be able to play your first song on the uke – ‘Lil Liza Jane’.

Foolish Assumptions

The only large assumption I make is that you’re using a standard tuned ukulele (soprano, concert or tenor) rather than a baritone ukulele. The baritone ukulele is a different instrument entirely. Other than that, I don’t assume anything else about you, including whether you’ve any knowledge of ukuleles or music theory in general. I don’t assume that you’re a (take a deep breath) heavy-rock ‘grebo’, pierced punk fan or grizzled bluesman with no soul left to trade; a Hawaiian surfer with only vowels in your name, a cool jazz ‘hepcat’, a dreadlocked reggae follower or a tuxedoed concert-going classical aficionado (gasp!). That’s more than enough stereotypes to be going on with . . .

Icons Used in This Book

The Tip icon indicates extra-helpful information.

This icon marks places where technical matters are discussed.

Paragraphs marked with the Warning icon call attention to common pitfalls that you may encounter.

This icon indicates that a bonus chapter and audio files accompanying the text are available on the book’s companion website at .

Quick exercises you can do in no more than five minutes are indicated by this icon.