Jake Shimabukuro Teaches Ukulele Lessons Book/Online Media Paperback – February 1, 2017

Love this book. I just started learning 2 months ago. When I got his book I was amazed at how much I was learning. At first I thought I was in over my head but quickly realized that Jake was an excellent teacher. I am learning so much and having so much fun. Would recommend this book to anyone learning ukulele.

Enjoy using this with my beginning ukulele students. Jake is very good at teaching beginning skills. The videos are very helpful.

I can't say enough good about Jake, OR this book! I will say I wouldn't necessarily suggest that a total beginner get this, as the major share of it will be quite beyond them. But it does start out with some simple stuff. But you also need to be aware that this book teaches you, not how to play chords & sing, but to do like Jake does, & play instrumentals on the uke. So it's a totally different animal than most uke books. I feel the "Ukulele for dummies" book would be a great starter book, & after, this may be a great addition, to basically further your skills & vary your style & technique. The videos {16 total} that you can stream or download via the publisher's site, are wonderfully done also. I saw a review of this book, where the person basically said that it starts ok, but then turns into "Look what Jake can do". I think the reviewer missed the point. I think Jake was trying to show how versatile the uke is. This tiny instrument that so many folks look on as a toy of sorts. I think he was more likely saying "Look what YOU can do, if you apply yourself", & "Look how amazing this little sucker can be!" I'll be honest. The main stuff in here is wayyyy beyond me at this time. I'm getting into the dummies one, & this will honestly be sitting waiting mainly till I get done with that one. But so what?! It'll still be there waiting for me when I'm ready. & by buying it now, I don't have to worry about something happening to where I can't get a copy when I'm ready. I've bought it, & downloaded the 16 vids, so I can just relax & look forward to having it at my disposal when I feel ready. Happy ukein' to you all. :)

I like the book. There were a couple of things that took me a little while to figure out. It would have been helpful to have an explanation of which string was which in the tab, for instance. Also, I wish the online videos would indicate which one I've already done.

This book is a great way to start, but it certainly won't get you to where you want to go if you only use this book. I have a strong musical background (majored in piano, also played woodwind instruments and dabbled in the guitar), so I picked up the ukulele pretty quickly. The first few chapters start out perfectly with 1-finger chords, 2-finger chords, then 3-finger chords. That makes sense. He does makes some "substitutions" like doing a 1 finger F chord that is really an F chord with an added G. It doesn't quite make sense to me to teach it that way since the "normal" F chord isn't that hard in the first place. Might as well learn it correctly. He also teaches an A7b9, A9, and D13, but never gets around to teaching the basic D chord.He then goes on to teach some basic chord progressions. I have two issues with these. One is that some of them required jumping from the 2nd fret to the 7th fret. That's a really big jump for a beginner. Secondly, he plays them very quickly for beginners. He could have played a slow version and a fast version. He doesn't give any tips for making those big jumps at that high speed. If you were already a seasoned guitar player, then maybe it would seem easy to you, but then again, you would have been bored by the first half of the book.In chapter 10, he started with very basic picking. Turn the page, and suddenly you've got a highly advanced version of Ave Maria! Of course he plays it absolutely beautifully on the video, but there's no way that a beginner could possibly master it. It's a bit discouraging because there's no steps for getting from that beginner stage to the advanced stage. Just one giant leap. He finishes with chapters on strumming techniques and tremolo picking, but never goes over muted strumming or hammer on/pull offs. I would have loved a few songs that a beginner or intermediate could play.The book ends with the music for some of his great songs, like the Celtic Tune and Dragon, but you would have to be highly advanced to play them.Overall, I still like the book and the accompanying videos because Jake is just a cool guy. He's humble and funny. He's much more fun to watch on a video than the vast majority of amateurs that you see on YouTube. I just think that this book needs to be supplemented with a lot of other material and perhaps he needs a series for beginners, intermediates, and advanced players. On its own, it falls short for beginners and it falls short for advanced players. Other reviewers compliment it for having something for everyone, but really what you get is only a few chapters which can apply to you, whatever stage you're at.

The best players are often not the best teachers, especially when it comes to teaching absolute beginners. With that in mind, I bought this with some apprehension about its usefulness for me and my 9 year old daughter. But it was Jake's online videos that sparked my interest in learning the Uke in the first place, so at least I felt good about supporting him as a musician.But it is a fantastic book, and appropriate for anyone just starting out. I've purchased some others, and checked out everything my public library has to offer. But this is the one my daughter has latched onto, and she's progressing really well with it. It does progress fairly rapidly into intermediate level techniques, and as a guitar player I'm comfortable breezing right through it, whereas my daughter will probably benefit from more songs/techniques at a very basic level. But that's fine.Unlike most music instruction books I've bought, this one does not come with any discs. There are accompanying video tutorials which must be accessed online using an included code. I've downloaded all of them to my tablet so we can take them with us when travelling. But they are a really important component since Jake's infectious, positive spirit shine through, making even very simple examples motivating.Highly recommended to anyone just getting started.