Ukulele Breakthrough: Helping you go from lonely strummer to life-of-the-party! by Calvin Chin Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $12.91 You Save: $0.04 (0%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $4.98 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Ukulele Breakthrough: Helping you go from lonely strummer to life-of-the-party!
Book Review: This isn't a book about music theory
Summary: 4 Stars
The title is a quote from the book and it is a shame because without a bit of theory I don't think it will make much sense. If you write down the chromatic scale for each of the GCEA strings and work out what the different chords are, then this book will be like a blinding flash of light. It is a pity that a little discussion of what a major chord is, why the strings are tuned to GCEA, etc. was not included. But a couple of hours on wikipedia is all you need. Apart from that, the description of the chords is very clear - even if those bar chords are anatomically impossible! The examples are all good songs and young ignorant people who don't know them will have a treat in store.
Book Review: Tuning
Summary: 4 Stars
This book is written for the soprano and concert ukulele in the GCEA tuning.Book Review: Ukulele Breakthrough -- making it simple
Summary: 4 Stars
As someone fairly new to the ukulele, a mere 11 months, and I've come across about 300 ukulele players and searched over the internet and purchased books. I also have a small e-mail list of about 25 ukulele friends. I devoted one of my e-mails to the praise and recommendation of this book for presenting the different chord shapes as they are determined by the string where the root note is located.
Calvin Chin has a simple clear style. He presents the chord shapes for the A string in chapter 1 and has songs that practice the chords. The instructions and diagrams are very clear an are just two pages long. Then he uses the same format for the E string, C string and G string in the next three chapters. These first 4 lessons are worth the price of the book. He moves into diminished, augmented, minor 7th's, 6th's, minor 6th's, etc. It is not complex. But does require one to work on muscle memory. This book is full of wonderful stuff. A definite buy for a person that wants to become a better ukulele player. I highly recommend this book.
Book Review: great book
Summary: 4 Stars
This is really a great book. It's definitely not for beginners. You should have been playing for at least 6 months before you pick up this book. This was the very first ukulele book I bought and I didn't get past the first couple chapters because I couldn't move all over the fretboard. I read all of the instruction without being able to do the excercises and thought the author was nuts if he thoguth I would ever be able to do any of the excercises. I forgot all about the book for about 9 months. Then, I picked it up again and I could actually do the excercises. I'm really starting to learn the ukulele fretboard. The reason I don't give 5 stars is the songs are all so old I don't know any of them and since I can't read music I don't know the melodies, but you can really use any song in the same key to perform the excercises with. If you are serious about your uke, definitely pick up this book.Book Review: not exactly what I thought it would be
Summary: 1 Stars
From the write up on the web site I had a different impression of what this book would be. I've been playing ukulele for a while and was hoping to learn some neat transitions and additions to the regular chords. NOT HERE IN THIS BOOK. Despite what the write up might say, there is nothing here that you won't find on a chord chart. Chords and chord variations I can play. That's all that is in this book. Save yourself the money and just use a chord finder on the internet.