Music Theory for Ukulele: Master the Essential Knowledge with this Easy, Step-by-Step Method for Beginner to Intermediate Players
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Learn all you'll ever really need to know as a ukulele player in this step-by- step, easy-to-understand, entry level introduction to music theory (includes free online video demos).No music reading necessary, just confusion-free language with diagrams and hands on examples to put theory into practice.This step-by-step guide is for you if:You've just picked up a ukulele and have learned to play a few chordsYou’ve been playing for a while and now want to develop your playing through a greater understanding of the art of making musicYou find yourself confused by the words and language other musicians use at jams, ukulele club, campfire song sessions, etcYou've learned to play from chord sheets, song sheets, books or online videos and now want to understand more about what makes music workYou want to learn the basic nuts and bolts of music so that you can learn and remember songs more easily, work out other people's songs and maybe even write some of your own (!)You're looking for a step-by-step method for learning 95% of the music theory you'll ever need to know, without the confusion and explained in simple terms that everyone can understand This book will help you:Break free from songsheet slaveryNail the theory behind keys, chord families, and useful chord progressionsLearn to understand the music you play and listen toUse your own knowledge and ability to learn songs more easilyBuild your knowledge step-by-step, chapter-by- chapterTest your knowledge with quizzes each step of the way I’ll see you inside! Read more
Publisher : Headstock Books
Publication date : July 6, 2020
Language : English
Print length : 116 pages
ISBN-10 : 1914453506
ISBN-13 : 02
Item Weight : 11.3 ounces
Dimensions : 8.5 x 0.27 x 11 inches
Best Sellers Rank: #101,795 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #21 in Ukulele Songbooks #24 in Ukuleles (Books) #114 in Music Theory (Books)
#21 in Ukulele Songbooks:
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Top Amazon Reviews
Format: Paperback
This is the one! If you are a maturing beginner on the Uke and to music like me, and truly looking to get a deeper understanding on the buliding blocks of music, music therory, and the secrets to how music comes to be, this is the one! Take fair notice, it is more-or-less a workbook, I was careful to take it one chapter at a time, made sure to understand, practiced, and recited what I learned along the way. The author takes great care to keep it simple, focus on the topics, and to provide a cadence for learning. My Tenor Uke and I are getting along much better now. Music Theory for the Ukulele will no-doubt serve as a reference to me for many years to come.
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Reviewed in the United States on June 4, 2026 by Topozsolto
Format: Paperback
In a nutshell: I suspect this book won't be for everyone (although I believe it could be *understood* by anyone). It delves more deeply into concepts that are not technically *necessary* to pick up a ukulele and start playing using chord diagrams. However, if you are like me, and you like to learn by asking probing questions, this book presents music theory in a way that will teach you the ins and outs of things like chord progressions, not by having you simply memorize them or follow along a cheat sheet, but by helping you to build a chord progression from scratch--even if you are like me and have never even heard of a chord progression before now. I am just about 50 years old and I started playing the ukulele a month or so ago. I've been able to read sheet music since I was a kid from playing the flute and dabbling with the piano, and I had a very basic understanding of piano chords, but I have never played a stringed instrument before and I have no background at all in music theory. I started out with a beginner's book that was great for showing how to hold the uke, the basics of reading a chord diagram and strum pattern, and some very easy songs--within the first few days I could play Happy Birthday and Take Me Out to the Ballgame. However, I was pretty overwhelmed by the sheer number of chords, and I had no idea what the difference was between C major, C7, Cmajor7, etc. I have never learned well from rote memorization. Some people may be able to be told that 4x6=24 and just accept that it is, but I need to know *why* 4x6=24. I can't just be told, ok this is the fingering for a C major and this is a C7 because it just is. That was the downfall for most of the starter uke books I was seeing. I tried googling those things, but was mostly coming up with websites full of music theory that were over my head. I was beginning to despair that I was too old for this stuff to start making sense. Enter this book... I was hesitant at first because I was concerned it would be as over my head as the websites I tried, but it absolutely is *not*. Mr. Shipway does an excellent job of making basic music theory accessible even to someone starting out from scratch. With each chapter he builds on the lessons before, with simple quizzes at the end to help you gauge your understanding. I found myself flipping back and forth as I went forward, reinforcing what I had learned. I felt like a world of music was opening up to me--for example, I've done woodwind and piano scales before but always had the worst time remembering where the sharps and flats fit in for different keys; now I actually understand how a major or minor scale is built, making it so much easier to recall them. If I forget, I can reason it out myself instead of relying on rote memorization. It is important to note, this is not a songbook. The hands-on lessons are brief, and are used to give context to the overall chapter topic. It's also not a long book, so it is pretty much a jumping-off point to get you going. I got through it all in about 4 days--though I have since gone back to go over several chapters multiple times. However, I consider it an invaluable asset that gave me a vocabulary and a new way of looking at music that I know will serve as a strong basis for advancing. I truly do not think I'd be enjoying my uke nearly as much as I am now without it. I already have the sequel on the way. If you are the sort of person that considers yourself a life-long learner and you want a level of comprehension that goes beyond just looking at a chord diagram or a tab, you will not go wrong with this book. It was worth every penny.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 1, 2023 by Amy Lesniak
Format: Kindle
Excellent! This incredibly well written tutorial on music theory is so engaging and easy to understand, it blew open the doors to my enjoying and advancing in music performance! I’ve been playing the ukulele for 8 years with the help of a few wonderful online teachers [UkuleleTricks.com, Cynthia Lin (YT) and Dylan Lane (YT)], but hit a ceiling early on because of my ignorance of music theory. I can copy what the teachers showed me, but haven’t had the confidence to play with other musicians because I didn’t understand the instrument or how to change keys. Not playing with other musicians stunted my ability to attain higher levels of performance. Within the first hour of reading this tutorial, I understood so much and hungered to learn more. But I did not hurry. He makes it very clear that you have to understand every piece of information before moving on. Every point he makes is a building block that must be understood, practiced, and remembered in order to confidently move on to the next chapter. He makes this easy through the use of teaching techniques like plenteous illustrations, repetition, humor, and quizzes. The author obviously took a tremendous amount of time and care into compiling this book so that beginners could not only understand music theory, but enjoy learning it and be able to retain the knowledge. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to continue playing the ukulele for long because arthritis contorts my fingers, but this tutorial has given me the confidence to start playing another instrument so I can continue to advance and enjoy playing music. Don’t dawdle, just get it!
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Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2023 by Lola
Format: Paperback
Shipway writes in a slow progression for those who have no music background, or have forgotten what they learned 40 years ago, like me. I am half way through the book and relearning. Positives: The theory is exemplified in diagrams of a ukulele fingerboard. Other theory books will be for piano or guitar. The ukulele deserves its own book! Each chapter has a quiz of 5-10 questions. This has me paying attention as I read. Negatives: The content is unnaturally and unnecessarily spaced on each page to give the book more pages. Many pages have one sentence paragraphs with a full line break between paragraphs. Lots of white space. You could read through this book cover to cover in under 30 minutes. No Circle of Fifths. This is the first Music Theory book I've picked up that does not include CoF. My uke group leader refers to CoF often, so I'll have to relearn that from elsewhere. A minor (pun) annoyance, Shipway writes in first person. "In the next chapter I'll tell more you about that." Maybe this is to make the student feel like he is in the room? Not my style for reading and it's "filler". Net: At the price it's a good value. But make it your second book not your first. Learn a few chords and songs on your ukulele, then learn Music Theory for the Ukulele from Shipway.
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Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2026 by RDT
Format: Paperback
I have tried to learn music theory before without success. Shipway walks through chapter by chapter and makes music theory clear and comprehensible. The book was the top of my reading pile. Thank you David. I now can grasp music theory!!
Reviewed in the United States on May 17, 2026 by Big Fan
Format: Paperback
Basic music theory and how to apply information to playing a ukulele.
Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2026 by Ken
Format: Paperback
I enjoyed going through this book and found the explanations easy to process and understand. I believe it quite useful to learn some basic music theory for the ukulele. I bought this book to help me formulate a plan to teach my almost 8 year-old grandson some theory, as he is learning to play ukulele. The book should serve me well for that purpose. I would definitely recommend this book as a way to casually learn the basics. Added: another reviewer correctly pointed out the nomenclature for the six and seven chords in a chord family are in upper-case Roman numerals in the book, rather than lower-case Roman numerals. That criticism is quite valid, but in a basic book I can overlook it. If this was designed as a text leading to more advanced theory work, as opposed to a very casual introduction to theory, it could, as that reviewer indicated be somewhat misleading.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 14, 2024 by Richard
Format: Paperback
As a beginning uke player, I'd had fun with some of Mel Bay's "Fun With..." series, so I knew some chords, and could play a bunch of songs. In the interest of understanding music better, though, I tried Music Theory for Ukulele, and now I know why some chords seem to sound better together. It isn't Julliard-level music theory, of course, but it is very well explained, and concepts are introduced in a logical order. The book has lots of examples to play to demonstrate the lessons. A lot of it is in listening closely to the differences that the author points out. With that comes the understanding. I highly recommend this book. Once through this book, I'd recommend Shipway's other book, Next Level Ukulele. I'd say that book should follow the Music Theory book. In early chapters, it fleshes out ideas from the Music Theory book, but as you work through it, you are starting to achieve some real musicianship. It's hard to guess about books, you know, and you can blow a lot of money on them, but these two books by Shipway have been money very well spent, in my opinion. Another book worth looking at is Ukulele Aerobics, by Chad Johnson. It's a whole program of exercises, but your playing will benefit immensely from the discipline. If you really want to become more than just a casual strummer, these three books can take you there. Casual strummer or advanced, any uke player should also have Jim Beloff's The Daily Ukulele. Lots if songs in there that might come in handy. I've spent a small fortune on a library full of ukulele books. Had I known that these four would serve me this well, I'd have gotten them first.....
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Reviewed in the United States on September 15, 2022 by pop weed