To keep the project going and expanding, they need funding to provide ukuleles, kazoos and other accoutrements and that’s why the net’s best ukulele tabbers have got together to create an ebook with all the proceeds going directly to Ukuleles for Peace.

When you buy the ebook, you’ll get arrangements and tabs of 16 pieces from James Hill, Mark Kailana Nelson (writer of Fingerstyle Solos for Ukulele), Dominator, Brian Hefferan, Ken Middleton, Wilfried Welti and Woodshed. All tabs come with an MP3 including an exclusive MP3 from James Hill.

Quick warning: if you’re using iPad/iPhone/Android you can’t download directly to your gadget read this for more info.

What do I get?

As well as a sense of pride at making a contribution to world peace, you’ll get a PDF file of each tab, 16 MP3s and a PDF file with notes on playing each tune. To find out more about these file types and download a test file, visit our FAQ page.

Here’s a selection of the pieces in the ebook:

Dominator/Brian Hefferan – Cotton Eyed Joe

James Hill – Era Una Vez

Ken Middleton – Flow Gently, Sweet Afton

Ken Middleton – Minstrel Boy

Mark Kailana Nelson – Kanaka Waiwai

Mark Kailana Nelson – Ukulele Slack Key

Wilfried Welti – Etude

Wilfried Welti – The Ash Grove

Woodshed – Misirlou/Hava Nagila

Woodshed – Ukulele Malaguena

Full contents:

Dominator/Brian Hefferan
- Cotton Eyed Joe

James Hill
- Era Una Vez

Ken Middleton
- Flow Gently, Sweet Afton
- Minstrel Boy
- Soldier’s Joy
- The Colosseum Hornpipe

Mark Kailana Nelson
- Kanaka Waiwai
- Ukulele Slack Key

Wilfried Welti
- Etude Aguado
- Lagrima
- Morning Has Broken
- The Ash Grove

Woodshed
- I’ll Fly Away
- Misirlou/Hava Nagila
- Ukulele Malaguena
- Ukulele Solea

If you haven’t downloaded one of my ebooks before, please do check out FAQ for more info.

Cover photo by Charles Collier. Used under Creative Commons license.

- Packed with ideas and techniques for blues soloing.

- Play riffs and licks in the style of blues musicians from Robert Johnson to Muddy Waters to Stevie Ray Vaughan.

- Blues chord patterns and strum patterns in a variety of styles.

- 80 examples with mp3s and 4 backing tracks to jam along with.

- Contains chord charts and tab for re-entrant, C-tuned ukulele.

What you get: A 78 page PDF file, 84 mp3 files, a printer-friendly pdf file, 7 pdf files containing scale and chord patterns. Download size: 27.3MB. To learn more about these file types and download a test file, visit our FAQ page. If you have any questions not answered there, please contact me here.

Quick warning: if you’re using iPad/iPhone/Android you can’t download directly to your gadget read this for more info.

To give you some idea of what you’ll be able to play, this is the final piece tabbed in the book which combines a number of the ideas contained in the ebook.

If you haven’t downloaded one of my ebooks before, please do check out FAQ for more info.

Here’s what people are saying about the How to Play Blues Ukulele ebook:

This is a wonderful little tome. I’m not the kind of guy who learns how to play things or do things from books or manuals, I’ve always hated it. Yet I found the experience different when playing with this ebook. I learned to pick out just about everything you had in the ebook quickly and it was fun.

- Todd Mauldin of The Hellbusters

I’ve been teaching myself to play uke, and have to say that it was the music theory that got me stumped when it came to understanding such things as pentatonic blues scales and chord progressions for jamming. Despite the fact that i know some really great musicians, none of them have been able to explain it as clearly as simply as you lay it out in the book. Knowing the basic pattern relative to the root note (and how that works in second and third position too) has opened up a whole new uke world for me, just as i was getting stuck in tried and tested patterns, jigs and reels! It’s like i’ve been playing in black and white till now and suddenly i’m seeing in colour! It couldn’t have been explained better.

- Saul Jaffe

The book is amazing!!! so professional and, even more importantly, so USEFUL! I love the lessons, they’re broken down into manageable chunks, and the MP3s demonstrate everything so clearly! Really, you have done a stellar job.

I play blues (among other things) on uke all the time, but honestly, i have been stuck in a rut with my playing… I sat down and played with your book for just 20 minutes and it opened up all kinds of new ideas for me..such as using the C5 instead of the straight C. now I want to sit down and write some new songs using what i picked up. I can’t wait to get even more into the lessons! very exciting!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I am really going to enjoy playing with this!

- Pam Moore AKA Madame Pamita

Of all the written ukulele instruction I have poured through, this stands out above all the others. Every example is worth learning! I can’t bring myself to skim through the pages for fear that I will miss one small tidbit of great information. The mp3 examples are great, especially for picking up a particular rhythm in a selection.

Anyone who plays the ukulele should have a copy of this book.

- Lonna Brockway

Table of Contents

1 Blues Chord Progressions

1.1 Shuffle Rhythm
1.2 12 Bar Blues
1.3 Variations on the 12 Bar Blues
1.4 The Blues Shuffle
1.5 Other Blues Chord Patterns

2 Blues Riffs

2.1 Muddy Waters Style Riff
2.2 John Lee Hooker Style Riff
2.3 Bo Diddley Style Riff
2.4 Stevie Ray Vaughan Style Riff

3 Intros, Outros and Turnarounds

3.1 Stevie Ray Vaughan Style
3.2 Robert Johnson Style
3.3 Descending Turnarounds
3.4 Turnaround To Outro

4 Blues Soloing Techniques

4.1 Blues Bends
4.2 Vibrato
4.3 Hammer-Ons & Pull-Offs
4.4 Slides

5 Blues Soloing

5.1 Minor Pentatonic Scale
5.2 Transposing the Pentatonic Scale
5.3 Improvising Tips
5.4 Self Accompanied Blues
5.5 Minor Pentatonic Second Position
5.6 Minor Pentatonic Third Position
5.7 Minor Pentatonic Fourth Position
5.8 Minor Pentatonic Fifth Position
5.9 Using the Re-Entrant String
5.10 The Blues Scale
5.11 Major Pentatonic Scale

6 Putting It All Together

If you have any questions or problems please email me at help@howtoplayukulele.com or use the contact page.

- Australia, Canada, France, Germany, New Zealand, Russia, the UK, the USA.

- Ideal for people starting out with fingerpicking ukulele.

- What you get: A zip file containing a pdf file with all the tabs and notes for each anthem, individual pdfs of the tab for each tune, mp3s of all the anthems.

If you haven’t downloaded one of my ebooks before, please do check out FAQ for more info.

Quick warning: if you’re using iPad/iPhone/Android you can’t download directly to your gadget read this for more info.

What people are saying:

There was the nice blend of humor along with the little nuggets of ukulele knowledge that I have come to expect from your books. The bits of history thrown in were great. We’ve been very underexposed over here to the history/National Anthems/idea that we’re not the only people on the planet. As a homeschooling mom, who fights against this very kind of ignorance and who teaches her kids to play the uke, this collection is something I will make use of.

I was able to play through 5 of the anthems last night without much difficulty, and felt quite confident I would be able to get to where I needed to be with these songs with just a little effort.
Lonna B

The ebook has been mentioned in the New York Times. You can read the article here.

To give you an idea of the difficulty level, here’s my arrangement of Scotland the Brave:

Scotland the Brave (Tab)
MP3

If you have any other questions check out our FAQ or get in touch with me.

Here’s how the arrangements sound:

Advance Australia Fair (mp3)

O Canada (mp3)

La Marseillaise (mp3)

Deutschlandlied (mp3)

God Defend New Zealand (mp3)

Hymn of the Russian Federation (mp3)

God Save the Queen (mp3)

Star Spangled Banner (mp3)

Please read our Frequently Asked Questions for full information on file formats and downloading.

So, while everyone else is sat around nursing swollen bellies, you have to get up and perform. What are you going to play?

In this ebook you get eleven traditional Christmas tunes. I’ve kept the arrangements as simple as I could (with fancy fingerpicking kept to a minimum) in the hope that it will still be possible to knock them out in that woozy, slightly tipsy Christmas afternoon state. I’ve also included arrangements of the

The tunes included are:

Auld Lang Syne
Deck the Halls
God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
Good King Wenceslas: Two versions one rocky and one more traditional
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
Here We Come A-Wassailing
In the Bleak Midwinter
Silent Night
Sussex Carol
The Holly and the Ivy
Twelve Days of Christmas

Click the links to see me playing the full arrangements.

Quick warning: if you’re using iPad/iPhone/Android you can’t download directly to your gadget read this for more info.

What People Are Saying

An excellent selection of tabs and playing tips… I highly recommend picking it up.
Chris of The UkeCast.

Just have to say again that your “How to Play Christmas Ukulele” is really terrific. There is a fair amount of ukulele Christmas music out there but very little as good as your arrangements. All of your music is very easy to play as well a lot of fun to play.
Art Crocker

The selection of songs is great. There are popular favorites, along with some that I’d never heard of before. All are arranged for beginner to intermediate. I’m definitely in the beginner camp, but have been able to play a few bars of each… this eBook is a bargain.
Ukulele Review

What You Get

Once you’ve paid (payments handled by PayPal) you’ll be taken to the download page and receive an email with a link to the page where you can download a zip file containing:

- Tab for full arrangements 11 Christmas tunes for standard tuning (gCEA re-entrant). You can watch videos of all of them being played on YouTube.
- Tab and standard notation for the melodies only with accompanying chord boxes.
- A pdf file containing performance notes for all the tunes and descriptions of some of the techniques used.
- MP3s of all the melody arrangements. You can hear the melody being played and – after a bit fiddling with your balance knob – use them as a backing track.

If you haven’t bought an ebook from me before you might want to read the FAQ page for more information.