Educational Book Review By: Lil Rev
Ukulele For All - Beginning Method For Group of Individual Study
Ukulele for All, is a 57 page method book written by Jenny Peters and her sister Rebecca Bogart.
The book was published by Kjos Music Company {KJOS} in 2017, to meet the growing demand for curriculum, that is classroom friendly for kids of all ages.
What makes this book so special is that author Jenny Peters has been a general music and orchestra teacher in the public schools for many years and her sister Rebecca is a classically trained pianist with a wealth of music theory and performance in her background.
Jenny leads local ukulele classes for groups and kids in the Chicago area and their many song books like: 21 Songs in 6 Days, Easy Songs, and 21 Easy Songs For Christmas are all Amazon favorites.
Because there are so many ukulele books on the market, its important to note that these kind of credentials serve to remind us that the authors have a real connection to the ukulele and are intimately involved in community music education.
The book teaches, tuning, instrument identification, practice tips, basic strumming, and melody playing in both tab and standard music notation.
I particularly like that the authors included finger number positions so that the student knows what finger he or she should use to fret a given note.
Especially important in this age of visuals, is an interactive video supplement to the book, so you can follow with video to firm up the songs.
As an author of many ukulele books and as someone who teaches ukulele to private students for over 30 years, I have learned that its always best to have both tab and standard notation.
If you really want to encourage music reading, you can always cover up the tab line, but the reality is, most kids today are going online to learn the songs they want to learn via chords and lead sheets. This book supplements that inevitable process by teaching ukulele pedagogy so that student can then use this as a springboard into whatever most interests them musically. I say this because there are a number of method books on the market that do not include tab and unsuspecting online purchasers need to be aware of this when looking for a good book.
Another great feature of this book is the wealth of world music, i.e. songs that are derived from a wide variety of cultural traditions including Germany, Israel, America, Mexico, Korea, Scotland, France, and Morocco.
The book is nicely rounded out with blues studies, holiday songs and fingerpicking.
As a former grade school music teacher myself and former college music history lecturer, I give this book an A grade. It's a nice starting point for teaching ukulele privately or in the classroom.
This book could then be supplemented with any of the authors easy strum books like: 21 Songs in 6 Days
Check out author Jenny Peters in acton playing this cool tune from the book called: Lonely Blues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGm65Dy72GE
The Book can be purchased at www.kjos.com or Amazon:
Reviewed by-Lil Rev 1/4/21
