What Ukulele Players Really Want To Know : The Owners Manual For Ukulele Beginners [Kindle Edition]

The bestselling beginners guide and handbook for the ukulele aimed specifically at new players or those thinking of taking up the uke. Many ukulele guides available are far too prescriptive and quite simply don't provide the answers to the common questions a beginner has. Whilst they concentrate on useful technique and provide sample songs to play, in my experience they leave the new player with a lot of questions unanswered. This book aims to fill in those gaps. It's not a tutor book, it's a book to answer all the other stuff!

Barry Maz, ukulele player and author of the Got A Ukulele website has collated and expanded on his popular beginners guides to provide new players with a comprehensive resource of advice, tips and tricks for the ukulele.

With 29 detailed sections dealing with everything from the shape and size of the instrument, to strings and even how to grow your fingernails and toughen fingers, the book provides no-nonsense advice from a seasoned ukulele player, written in a friendly style. The book draws on Barry's own experiences in starting out with the ukulele, and the mistakes he made so you don't have to!

Also included is a handy reference section and ukulele glossary to help with those terms that may not be so familiar to the beginner.

Barry advises that his book is best read in conjunction with other tuition methods or in advance of purchasing your first instrument, to bring a spot of welcome light relief to your practice and development with the uke. Think of it as a uke owners guide!

Includes an interactive Table Of Contents. Happy strumming!

ALSO NOW AVAILABLE - CHECK OUT 'More Of What Ukulele Players Really Want To Know' Barry's follow up book!

NOW AVAILABLE - Chords That Ukulele Players Really Want To Know.

** number one ranked music book on Kindle UK store in December 2011**

** In the book review, Gary said

"While the book is indeed aimed at absolute beginners, it is in fact pretty comprehensive, covering all the issues likely to nip a the heels of someone starting out: everything from how to pick out your first uke to advice on humidifying your instrument and fingernail care. It is not an instructional guide; there are plenty of how-to-play books out there. It's more of a user's guide, filled with the kind of info you'd eventually pick up from hanging out with a bunch of veteran players for several months but which is all a mystery to someone starting out by themselves."

I'm a thirty something guy based in the UK, who for the past 25 years has dabbled with acoustic and electric guitar. Don't consider myself a great player of either, but have a large repetoire of songs, and have busked, jammed and gigged with friends many times. About 2 years ago I decided on trying the ukulele, mainly because a couple of artists I really like (Loudon Wainwright and George Harrison) play or played ukulele. I had previously tried to pick up the Mandolin, but struggled learning a whole new set of chords due to the differing tuning. It struck me that the beauty of the uke for me was that the chord shapes were pretty much the same as those for guitar (albeit playing chords a few steps higher) As with most uninformed beginners, I bought myself a bottom of the line Mahalo - and boy did I regret it! It was really only good for firewood, hard to keep in tune, frets out of place and sounded horrible. Even so, I stuck at it and found that I could indeed master the chords quickly. I put together a repetoire of uke songs to learn and found myself hooked. The quality of the uke was the problem, and after much debate (and saving!) I bought myself a Flea ukulele from the Magic Fluke co - and from that point on, everything changed! This instrument was an absolute joy and since that time I have bought several more ukes, and gigged with them. I'm not a technical player, just a strummer and singer, but its great fun. Anyway, in thinking back to my initial foray into uke, and the shocking instrument I ended up with, I thought I'd start a blog about the uke in general, but with a slant aimed at providing beginners, or those interested in getting a uke a solid set of advice on the pitfalls. The blog proved hugely popular, and I extracted and expanded on a lot of my guidance and published an ebook aimed at absolute beginners. The ukulele really is an instrument for everyone - its quick to pick up the basics (I could get anyone playing a song in 30 minutes) and really gets people talking.