Ukulele Primer Book for Beginners: with Online Video Access

We purchased this for our twelve-year-old grandson as a Christmas present. The book is easy for him to understand, and he has already learned several of the pieces.

Learning the ukulele because Kermit the Frog is my hero... I know, he plays the banjo I got it wrong. My bad. Book is super helpful for beginners. Gets you learning and playing right away.

This Book and DVD combo is a good way to start! I find when watching the DVD I really don't have time to look at the book, which is OK since I don't really need the book then. The DVD pretty much covers everything in the same order as the book. So you can refer to the book later to review parts you are having issues learning or mark your review points in the book. The DVD moves pretty quickly and before you know it you'll be playing some simple songs just fine and then suddenly, WHAM! You hit "Amazing Grace" or something else and find you are getting lost. No problem, back up a bit and review all you need to. So far as I've been able to tell there is not another product package quite like this with a book/DVD combo. There are books with audio CD's but this DVD works better, especially if you are a visual learner like me. The instructor, Bert Casey uses very gentle and effective teaching. He is clearly experienced and the course is fairly well organized. Even though I'm not a rank beginner having plowed through lots of the free online tutorials, I have picked up a couple of tips from Mr. Casey that were worth the cost of the course to me already. Very good stuff here and it is a pleasant enough experience. Skilled players aren't going to benefit from it much, but if you are a skilled player you aren't looking at a Uke Primer anyway. What you wind up with at the end of this course is enough basic skill to buy a song book of modern popular music and chord your way through most of the songbook easily. I don't think you could really expect more. This video course and book won't turn you into a virtuoso overnight, but you'll get better faster with it than without it. Like most uke introductory tutorials chords and rhythm patterns are the meat of it and yes again the "C" chord comes first. Mr. Casey does a good job explaining the rhythm patterns. You would need 4 to 6 uke lessons from a professional instructor to get as much content as there is in this course. Go do the math on that and you'll buy this course. (4 lessons here would be about $300.) The songs are all public domain folk songs. This is because most grownups know them and because of copyright laws. A few though are sort of obscure, especially to younger students not familiar with the American folk music songbook repertoire of the previous 150 years. Likewise it might not work as good in the UK or Germany where "Pay Me My Money Down" isn't exactly a classic. Many of these same folk songs are used in various basic guitar self-study tutorials I've seen over the past 45 years that I've been looking at guitar tutorials. A bunch of video time is wasted showing different size ukes at the beginning. Most people buying a DVD uke course will already have a uke. 99 out of 100 viewers are not going to buy this course, watch the first part and then rush out to buy a uke. They more likely are sitting there holding a uke waiting to be taught something and then Mr. Casey starts showing all the different uke sizes! What they might take from it is that they should have gotten something other than what they have to work with and maybe even doubt they are equipped properly. I wish the DVD had been broken up with a menu of various sections instead of one long VHS VIDEO type start to finish course. It makes stopping and resuming later a bigger chore and waste of practice time than it should be. DVD chapters or at least sections that coordinated somewhat with the book would have been nice and I honestly was expecting that there would be some sort of index on the DVD, but there isn't. When you put the video in and it plays from beginning to end. The video is well lit, in focus, professionally shot, well edited and the on screen graphics are clear and easy to understand. It just needed an index or menu. Guess indexing a DVD costs more. My only other criticism is that Mr. Casey uses a tenor uke and most of the people watching this are rank beginners and they won't be using a tenor. They are using the cheapest soprano they could find or a hand-me-down. This is a very minor criticism but this could intimidate some players and make them feel slightly inferior with their little soprano. If he had used a concert or soprano it would put him more on the same plane as his students and they would feel more comfortable with their uke as it relates to his uke. Ukulele envy? I don't know but it sort of bothered me a little at first. After a while I forgot his was bigger than mine. I've yet to find a better home uke beginner course. This DVD is so much better than the free online stuff! It is almost like having a live instructor. Any first grader can read this book and follow along with the video, but they might not know all the old folk songs. No problem, Mr. Casey will teach them! I give it 4 Stars and to me it seems suitable for all ages! If it had an index/menu on the DVD tied to the sections of the book I'd give it 5 stars. It really is a good deal.

I give this book an enthusiastic A+. After examining several other beginner ukulele books it was refreshing to find this book which combines the benefits of several, all in one. Ideal for brand new beginners or for others (like me) who have more musical training, the information and instructions in this book can benefit all. I am currently teaching a class of 15 beginning ukulele players and am using the Table of Contents from Bert Casey's Ukulele Primer as the curriculum for my class. All the written instructions can be reinforced with viewing and following along with Bert Casey on the DVD. Some highlights that distinguish Bert Casey's book, DVD and instructional approach are: Strumming instructions concurrent with the melody line and learning the chords for each song 15 songs are included, fun to play & sing, starting with "He's Got the Whole World" using only 2 chords Instructions for Calypso and Reggae strums are included and there is a strum library in the appendix Includes information on understanding and reading ukulele tablature The illustrations and diagrams of how to hold the uke and finger the chords are clear and easily understood There are substantially more chords presented than other beginner books, including bar chords Has an excellent 2 full page chord chart in the appendix Appendix includes basic music theory detailing how chords are formed within each key signature The DVD follows track by track the instructions printed in the book DVD can be put in repeat mode to play particular pieces of music continuously so you can play along Bert Casey's manner on the DVD will put all players at ease, no matter what skill level As I've been listing these details, I've been thinking how far superior this book is to any of the others I've tried. If you are interested in learning to play the ukulele or progressing further than other beginner books have taken you, I would highly encourage you to purchase and enjoy this book and DVD. May you (and or anyone for whom you might be buying this book) have many happy years of ukulele playing!

I am new to the ukulele and I believe with this book and DVD I will be well on my way to becoming a musician. I have a cheap ukulele ($24.99 from a beginners kit) and swapped out the strings and tuned it. The book that came with my ukulele was really good and informative but I was thankful to find one that came with a DVD. I have watched part of the DVD and it is amazing - just what the beginner needs. I saw reviews that had said there was no menu and you just had to forward to the spot you wanted. The book does have a location number for each section that you can forward to on your DVD player but I do agree a menu would have been nice. As a beginner, I will need to watch the DVD and practice along in order so the jumping to different sections really is not an issue for me. I have learned some things here about music in general that I had not seen before in some of my beginner acoustic guitar books/DVD's. He covers a lot of strumming techniques and teaches about counting them out. Very informative, excellent resource for the beginner ukulele player. I am very thankful, very thankful to have found this! The instructor is amazing and knows how to connect with the non-musically inclined and teach about music. He has a sense of belief that comes across that absolutely anyone can pick up a ukulele, tune it, and play by watching his DVD. I believe him! A special thanks to the instructor for putting this together...I feel that this was meant just for me. Best Wishes!

Pros: The book is for the absolute beginner...someone who has never played any instrument. The chord chart in the back is excellent, and it allows you to make up your own song. Different strumming patterns and exercises are easy to follow. The video is very helpful. Things I would like to see added: A finger chart showing you which notes are on which frets. A more advanced section on picking or picking patterns. More songs...15 songs is not a wide selection, and the first songs are very simple. It would be nice to have MORE "Island" songs rather than the typical folk songs. When I think of the ukulele, I think of "Aloha 'Oe", not "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot". In general, this book is written for the absolute beginner; not someone who has ever played any other musical instrument. It does not progress far and is only meant as a starter. It would be nice to see some more advanced material added. After one day, I've gone through more than half of the book, and I don't think that it will take much time to get through the second half. Finished the book now. I've upgraded the rating to 3 because the end of the book was more challenging. It could still use a more substance, though. Even a bit of music theory would help.

I used to play but had gotten away from it a few years ago. So I bought a new Ukulele. And I needed a good reference for chords and notes. This is my choice as a reference. I highly recommend this vendor.

The supplemental video is invaluable to the book. The video is basically an audio to the book, but you see how the author breaks down the strum patterns for easy playing. The video serves as a visual and audio metronome for the songs in the book. Going along with the video prevents you from going too fast with the book and developing bad habits with approaching new music. The book serves as a great sing-along or playing the melody while playing the video, creating a band effect. This book is a primer for learning other more complex strums. It was easy to follow along and eventually move to strums with different rhythms. It was previewing the supplemental material in youtube that got me buying the book.