Monday, January 23, 2012

Ukulele Starter Books
I am often asked to give people advice. So I figured it would be easier to write the advice once, here, and just send people links.

If you're just starting out, you definitely need a ukulele chord book. If found this one by Hal Leonard to be the most comprehensive.
Beyond that, if you want some tutorial books, these two look good to me (although, admittedly, I never used either closely), and I see that Amazon offers the three of them as a bundle for a discount (look at the product page for such a bundle deal on the sales page for the chord book, above):
Another chord book I recommend, particularly, for intermediate players is this one, though it may be a bit hard to interpret for a beginner:
Beyond that, I highly recommend most of the books from Jim Beloff's FleaMarketMusic.com site, a compendium of all things ukulele, especially song books:

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Beatles Complete on Ukulele, Jan 14, Brooklyn Bowl

Join the fun for this annual tradition, the Roger Greenawalt's Beatles Complete on Ukulele, all day at the excellent venue, Brooklyn Bowl, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Come with your uke from 2-3pm and get in free! (Otherwise, it's a $10 cover.) Join the Uke Mob at 3pm (being filmed for broadcast on that evening's TV news) to sing "All Together Now" and "Why Don't We Do It in the Road."

Dozens of great indie regional bands are joining Roger to perform most or all of the Beatles's amazing canon of songs, all featuring at least one uke. It's an annual tradition and lots of fun at a great venue.

Brooklyn Bowl
61 Wythe Street (at N. 10th)
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Subway: Take the L train from Manhattan's 14th Street to the first Brooklyn stop, Bedford, and it's a short walk.
3pm to Midnight

Yours truly, Rick Bruner, will be performing with The Suaverinos at 5pm, doing "Dear Prudence" and "You're Gonna Lost That Girl."