The Hal Leonard Baritone Ukulele Method Book #1

Announcing a new book from Lil Rev! The Hal Leonard Baritone Ukulele Method Book!

This summer saw the release of my 6th publication thru Hal Leonard Publishing Corporation titled: The Hal Leonard Baritone Ukulele Method Book #1. This book is geared towards the beginning baritone ukulele player who wants to learn the basics including: tab & note reading, right hand strokes, basic chords, licks, tricks, and a solid repertoire of blues, bluegrass, folk and rock oriented songs. This book fills a much needed void in the ukulele world by providing a well thought out methodology for the intro level student. It also makes a good starting point for kids or adults who aren't quite ready for the guitar, but whom, are looking for a place to begin with an instrument.

While i do push the beginner with certain chord forms (a little bit of hard work on chords goes a long ways for the intro level player who really longs to jam with others), this book provides a wealth of exercises for the student who wants to learn melody playing and some basic right hand techniques. 
Once a student has practiced and feels confident, he or she can then join a uke club, play with others, go to a song circle, figure out other tunes off You Tube or  go to a bluegrass jam...another words, the sky is the limit and this is empowering!

I tell you this, because it underlies my approach to writing this book.

Again, this book is for the intro level player who wants to learn some basic chord work as well as intro level melody playing. 

I am hoping Hal Leonard will want to do an Intermediate Baritone Book #2 in the years ahead, but only time will tell.

In the meantime, hope you all enjoy this new publication from yours truly!

The book sells online for $10.99 and comes with an audio CD


Here is a link to Hal Leonard's Online Catalog: 

http://www.halleonard.com/product/viewproduct.do?itemid=696564&lid=0&keywords=baritone ukulele&subsiteid=1&

-Lil Rev
www.lilrev.com

The 4th Annual Milwaukee Ukulele Festival

The 4th annual Milwaukee Ukulele Festival will take place on Saturday October 20th in Elm Grove, WI from 9am to 10:30pm. Now in its 4th year, we are excited to play host to a fine array of both regional and national acts including: The Uke Crazy Kids Club of Longfellow Middle School, The Fabulous Heftones, Ukulele Bartt, Del Rey, Pops Bayless, Lil Rev, Jon Prown, The Cheez Land Uke Band (Joe Sexton and Mike B.), Dave Thornton, Will Branch, Peter Roller, Barry Sholder and many more!

Doors open at 9am and classes begin in earnest at 10am and continue off an on throughout most of the day. Then there is a dinner time Blues concert from 5pm to 6pm with Lil Rev and The Brew City Two (w/special guests The Milwaukee Ukulele Club) followed by our big evening concert with all of our featured acts.

The Ukulele Festival environment offers a ton of opportunity to learn, network, purchase, have fun and enjoy all things ukulele. No where, will you get more ukulele in one day than by attending a ukulele festival like ours. This is what we call bang for the buck!

Why Milwaukee? What makes our festival heads and tails above the rest? Well for starters, Milwaukee is a really great place to visit in the fall, there are tons of great tourist stops including Brewery tours, The Milwaukee Art Museum, The Harley Davidson Museum, 100's of stellar restaurants, and so much more to do and see while you are here. Not only that, our venue...The Sunset Community Playhouse is a really sweet little find, offering us a well maintained space in which to convene, learn, and celebrate the uke. Once you are here, you can also consider making a trek to our state capitol of Madison, WI or 90 miles to the southeast is Chicago, IL!

Is it well run?
Our volunteers are all top notch and we run a really well oiled machine. So if you appreciate a great agenda, a strong team, and a really classy space, then perhaps you should be booking your flight or making plans to come to Milwaukee, WI on October 20th.

This year our theme is: Performance and Repertoire Building. So many of the classes will be focused on this. Also, we offer a wide array of class levels for both the beginning student as well as the more advanced player.

In addition to the wide array of ukulele based classes...

We will also be running a class open to anyone who wants to try out a UBASS (Ukulele size Bass) made by Kala Brand Ukulele Company. http://www.kalabrand.com/instrumentsU-bass.html 
Even if you aren't a bass player, these little basses can be a heck of alot of fun to hold plunk around on. However, if one is an experienced bass player, you will appreciate its compact size and the ramifications of such a wonderful new addition to the Kala line. 

Looking for a Uke? The Uke Fest is the place to try out a new ukulele with almost a dozen different vendors including: Brass Bell Music, Hatfield Guitars, Micheal Gregory, Kyle B., Mainland Ukuleles, Mason Guitars, Boat-Paddle Ukuleles, Lil Rev, and many more.

Oh! Let's not forget, that none of this would be possible without the truly profession team of volunteers from The Milwaukee Ukulele Club, who always pull together to create a world class event each year. As the director, i am always humbled by their grace, presence and Midwestern work ethic.

Here are the pertinent websites for the festival and online ticket purchases:

http://www.sunsetplayhouse.com/events/
http://mufest.com
www.milwaukeeukuleleclub.com

We hope to see you there!

Ukefully, 

Lil Rev- Festival Director
www.lilrev.com