Fretboard Roadmaps - Ukulele (Book/Online Audio)

I'm a big fan of the Fretboard Roadmaps books (I have a few different ones for guitar). In my experience they explain some general theory, chord formation, moveable chord forms, circle of fifths, and bring you from beginner to more intermediate or advanced concepts with a clear, concise layout.However, absolute beginners will probably not find this to be ideal as a starting point, unless you have a more experienced player to answer your questions. Once you have some experience under your belt, then I think the advanced beginner to intermediate player - or even beyond - can get a lot from this book.I have a good number of other books by Fred Sokolow beyond the Fretboard Roadmaps series. I think he's very good at simplifying things and explaining it clearly. However, there are many things with music that just have to "click" on their own, through experience with playing them. Fred's books are generally packed with information, not all of which clicks immediately. But you'll get there eventually.I would say that this book would be of primary benefit to anyone who wants to dig deep on uke chords and expand that part of their playing. Plenty of books have chord charts, but Fred gives you different arrangements of the same song that get more advanced as you go. That kind of teaching, to me, is invaluable, because it lets you see for yourself when, where and how things can be made more complex - or simplified.If you are an absolute beginner, I think a book like Camp Ukulele is a great place to start. It has simple arrangements of well known songs so you can jump right in and start playing without too much fuss. Once you learn some chords and feel comfortable with changing between the, then a book like Fretboard Roadmaps can fill in the blanks regarding how chords are formed, different chord extensions and inversions, single note scales, chord melodies, etc.As a guitar teacher of absolute beginners, the best way (IMO) to get people interested in their instrument so that they keep playing is to teach them songs, then build from there. If this book seems overwhelming to you, put it away for few months, play your uke a lot, learn as many songs and chords as you can, then come back to it when you have more experience. You'll find that with more experience it makes more sense, and is filled with useful information.

My experience with beginning ukulele books has been pretty uniformlydisappointing. They all promise to include everything you couldpossibly need to know, when in in my experience they have all beenthin, padded with useless filler, and lacking a coherent path to getfrom "here" to "there".This book is a __VERY__ welcome change, and at a sweet price to boot.To be sure, it is not a beginner's book. The very first song (SloopJohn B.) has a tricky rhythm (e.g., three quarter notes in two beats)and a shuffle strum with some down strokes missing; as a result,only about half of the words actually coincide with a strum. This isnot a criticism of the book, just pointing out the level of difficultyyou'll hit in the first few pages. Fortunately for me (an arhythmicklutz) the focus of the book is on learning the fretboard !I must say that the CD is a huge help. My beginner's books either hadno CD at all, or the recordings were so dorky that I felt impatient tomove ahead and get to some "real" music. The teacher on this CD,however, has a very inviting style, and you get the feeling that hewould be a fun person to jam with or watch in performance. A big plusif your skills require you to listen to the same track over and overand over...This book is not about music theory per se, but but rather a practicalframework for learning how to physically hit the right notes; i.e.,it doesn't attempt to describe *why* you would use a D7b5 chord, butit helps you develop the skill so that when you have to play one youknow what your various options are and you can get your fingers in theright place without thinking too much.I have only completed about half of the book so far. I've learned thebasic movable chord patterns (3 each of major, minor, 7th), and amstarting to practice with them. The songs in this part of the booktake one chord (G major, say) and move it up and down the fretboardfor several measures before changing to a new chord. This kind ofpractice is necessary to internalize what you've learned, but theauthors do a nice job of making the practice interesting and fun,pointing out how to spice up your music rather than just saying"memorize this" and jumping to a new, disconnected topic.I look forward to working my way through this book, and I definitelyintend to revisit it again and again. As my title says, it's akeeper !

This is a very good book of ukulele instruction that is not effectively presented in the current Kindle edition as it appears on an iPad. A major drawback is that no audio is provided. Though the product description indicates the Kindle edition does not include the CD that comes with the print edition, it is not clear there is no audio integrated in the Kindle edition. As the Kindle edition of Ukulele for Dummies by Alistair Wood  Ukulele For Dummies  demonstrates, it is possible to integrate audio and video in a Kindle edition most effectively. In fact, having audio in a Kindle edition is a real advantage over having to manage a CD of audio segments that complement a print edition, but is not provided here. The audio is an important instructional element and this book is not complete without it.In addition, the format of certain pages, such as those with chord diagrams, that are intended to be viewed side by side for comparison is lost due the the piecemeal presentation of segments of the print version pages in this electronic version. This is another important limitation of instructional value.Another substantial limitation is that reproductions of pages with musical notation and chord diagrams sometimes include details that are too faint or indistinct to read easily.I highly recommend this book but I was very unsatisfied with the current Kindle edition. I therefore also purchased the print version and I am very happy with that, though the convenience of having a well-presented Kindle edition would be even better.

I love this book as it has revolutionised how I think about the fretboard. “ Thinking “ is where the growth needs to take place not the fingers. I had heard of the “caged “ system for years but only with this book has the penny dropped . When you learn a chord (that has no open strings ) just ask yourself “how can I use this movable shape to play every chord ? “ .Warning do not buy second hand as you will most likely end up with a CD and not the online code . I much prefer the Hal Leonard online player to clunky CDs from the dinosaur era .

Very happy with this purchase and excellent service.

Maybe I'm not at this level yet but I found this book quite complicated for someone with minimal music knowledge and is trying to teach themselves.

You can learn music theory on the fretboard.Scales, chords, circle of fifths and how to use them. For players who want to know why and how not only to read tabs.

no flow, no logic, no sense, no use to anyone.