Some Favorite Learning Materials

• Ukulele in the Classroom
• Complete Ukulele Method
• Kevin Rones‘s ukulele books
• Fretboard Roadmaps
• Absolute Beginners – Ukulele
• Ukulele Primer Book with DVD (Watch & Learn)

Suggested Ukulele Solo Books

• 20 Celtic Fingerstyle Uke Tunes by Rob MacKillop.
• 20 Old-Time American Tunes Arranged for Ukulele by Rob MacKillop. Well-reviewed collection.
• 20 Pieces From Briggs Banjo Instructor Arranged for Uke by Rob MacKillop.
• 20 Spanish Baroque Pieces by Gaspar Sanz Arranged for Uke by Rob MacKillop gives a look at what was going on down south during this era.
• American Roots Music for Ukulele : Over 50 selections. Contains single line melodies and solo arrangements.
• The Bach Uke Book is another well-reviewed offering from Rob MacKillop.
• The Baroque Ukulele is another great book from Tony Mizen.
• The Beatles for Fingerstyle Ukulele by Fred Sokolow. Check out the ‘Look inside’ previews to get an idea of how cool this book is.
• Christmas Carols for Ukulele: Easy Songs in Standard Notation & Tablature by Javier Marco.
• Christmas Ukulele Solos: 20 Holiday Favorites Arranged in Chord-Melody Style for Tenor Ukulele. Low-G tuning.
• Classical Themes for Fingerstyle Ukulele: 15 Solo Arrangements in Standard Notation & Tab is a very nice collection with quite a few selections from the Romantic era as well.
• The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Rock Hits for Ukulele : This is a really interesting book that approaches the songs in an accompanimental way (singing is involved). The accompaniments are notated out in tab, which is nice as it allows you to see what is going on in a lot of these songs beyond strumming.
• Easy Classical Ukulele Solos by Javier Marco has baroque, classical and romantic pieces.
• English Folk Tunes for Ukulele: 37 Traditional Pieces by Colin Tribe : A wonderful collection of arrangements that can be played melody only, as solo duets, or duets.
• Favorite Fingerstyle Solos for Ukulele, a follow up collection by Mark Kailana Nelson, also well-reviewed.
• Fiddle Tunes for Ukulele by Lil’ Rev and John Nicholson. Well-reviewed collection.
• Folk Songs for Solo Ukulele by Joe Carr : Contains mostly American Folk Tunes
• From Lute to Uke by Tony Mizen : an excellent book of lute transcriptions that range in skill level from easy to difficult.
• Grand Ukulele by Jake Shimabukuro.
• Holiday Favorites for Solo Ukulele by Joe Carr
• Irish Folk Tunes for Ukulele by Collin Tribe, an amazing ukulele arranger.
• Irish Tunes for All Ukulele (sic) : One of the strengths of Ondrej Sarek’s book is that it contains seperate tabs for C, D and Baritone tuning as well as linear and campanella arrangements of each tune.
• Jazz Chord Solos by Craig Brandau : a highly rated and reviewed collection of standards in this style. Written for low-G tuning. Here is a playlist of most of the solos in the book.
• Jazzing Up the Ukulele: How to Do Jazz Chord Substitution for Accompaniment and Soloing by Fred Sokolow : This book is much more than a collection of chord solos, though it does have them. This book is all about teaching you how to substitute chords into any song to make is sound more jazzy. Excellent book.
• John King : The Classical Ukulele : The late John King is one of the most famous classical ukulele players, however there are only a few truly classical era pieces in this book.
• Jumpin’ Jim’s Ukulele Masters: Lyle Ritz Solos: 15 Chord Solos Arranged by the Ukulele Jazz Master : Lyle Ritz is one of the early adopters of a jazz style on the ukulele, releasing his first ukulele jazz album in 1957, How about Uke?
• Lyle Lite: 16 Easy Chord Solos Arranged by Ukulele Jazz Master Lyle Ritz : An easier, but not easy, set of jazz chord solos from Lyle Ritz.
• Mel Bay Learn To Play Fingerstyle Solos for Ukulele, an awesome collection by Mark Kailana Nelson.
• Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach and Ukulele arranged by Ondrej Sarek. This notebook was a gift from J.S. Bach to his wife.
• Peace Love Ukulele by Jake Shimabukuro.

155 Episodes of Uke Minutes