The Complete Ukulele Course taught by Ralph Shaw

ASIN: B0006HHIDY

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Product Description

This DVD is perfect for anyone who wants to improve their ukulele playing technique. Even if you have never played a ukulele before you will discover that Ralph Shaw (the King of the Ukulele!) will lead you through the basics and beyond so that you will learn tips, tricks and techniques that will have you sounding like a ukulele maestro! Just some of the things you will learn in this 1 hour lesson include:

Beginners uke – including tuning, strumming & basic chords

How to use ‘ornament’; notes

Play chords up the neck

How to play 4/4, 3/4 and jig time and develop right-hand techniques such as the syncopated ‘split stroke’ as used by George Formby

How to play Rolls and Triplets

The basics of melody chording In short this one DVD will set you up for a lifetime of fun and music with the world’s greatest little instrument… The Ukulele!

Product Details and specs

• Amazon Sales Rank: #28637 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-02-01
• Format: NTSC
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 60 minutes

Customer Reviews

Don’t Be Put Off By The Exaggerated Title
The title of this DVD tutorial is pure hyperbole (dreamt up most likely by a marketing wonk working for the publisher) but don’t let that put you off. Ralph Shaw is an excellent ukulele player and an outstanding teacher. He is incredibly pleasant and is adept at breaking down the process of playing the ukulele into easily learned chunks. He has clearly taught others and thought through the order he uses to teach techniques. Best of all, he has a way of making learning to play fun. A friend of mine that has seen me play for years and never expressed an interest in playing uke did so after seeing part of this DVD while I was watching. Yes, Ralph Shaw is that charming and that alone is worth the price.

I have been playing ukulele casually for 20+ years (I am mainly a guitar player) so the parts of this DVD that are meant for beginners were a bit rudimentary for me. But Shaw teaches the right way of playing and I was able to correct a few mistakes I had been making. I bought this DVD (and the other in his “Complete Ukulele Course” series, “Essential Strums for Ukulele”) mainly to learn the syncopated style of George Formby. That I learned and I was delighted with the rest of the DVD as well. Shaw’s endearing style of teaching (and the fast forward button) make his DVDs worth the money even if you have been playing for a while.

If you are a highly experienced player hoping to reach Bob Brozman’s level, this DVD is not for you. (I love Brozman’s ukulele DVD but recommend it for advanced players.) But if you are just getting started or have been playing a little while and want to take your ukulele skills above the average player you couldn’t do better than this DVD.

Caution: There is some overlap with the second DVD in the series. If you are beginner and care to work towards professional level, buy both and Brozman’s as well. If you just want to learn the basics or progress beyond simple chords and strums start with this one. If you have been playing for a while and are thoroughly comfortable with chords up the neck consider buying Essential Strums instead.

Not much content
Judging from prior reviews, some people really like this disk, so I’ll try to explain the low score I have given it. By no stretch of the imagination is this a complete course. It is an introductory course for people who have never played a stringed instrument. In fact, with just three songs you can hardly call it a course. My main interest is Hawaiian music and so this DVD was not a good choice on my part since I should have known from the description that Mr. Shaw is more into 1920′s style uke. Mr. Shaw is so darn pleasant that I hate to say anything negative so I will just try to be objective and tell you what you get on the disk. There’s a very brief introduction about the uke followed by instructions on how to hold and tune it. He shows you how to play a few basic chords, demonstrates how to strum in 4/4, 3/4 and 6/8 times and demonstrates a few ornaments. He plays three songs, “Froggie Went a Courting”, “Hello Ma Baby” and “Country Garden”. The first two pieces are extremely simple (two and three chords, respectively) and the third piece is only slightly challenging for anyone with experience playing uke, guitar or similar instrument. The booklet is four pages long and has the lyrics and chords (but no chord diagrams) for the first two songs and detailed fingering diagrams for “Country Garden”. At about the same time I bought this DVD, I also bought Hawaiian Style Ukulele (Vol.1) and Learn to Play Fingerstyle Solos for Ukulele both of which fit my needs much better. The Hawaiian Style Uke is a lot of fun because you can play along with a decent band on the accompanying CD and all twelve songs are Hawaiian classics. The book has chord diagrams for all the songs and suggested strumming patterns for most of the songs. Nelson’s Fingerstyle book also comes with a CD and contains a variety of genres including Hawaiian, folk and classical. The book has musical notation and tablature for all the songs as well as helpful supplemental material. This music is definitely more challenging to play and will keep me busy for many months.

Uke-tastic
I’ve been playing uke for the last 10 or more years. During that time I entered into a ukulele-rut where I was good, but really not getting better. Enter the self-proclaimed “King of the Ukulele” Ralph Shaw. Mr. Shaw is enthusiastic and clear in this DVD and overall does a very good job at showing ukulele possibilities. It was well balanced between fingering (the left hand stuff) and strumming patterns (the right hand stuff). He does a good job explaining how to add more ZING to your playing with “ornament” notes (notes that are not part of the traditional chord but add depth and interest to it). Also, the way he breaks down more complicated strum patters like the roll and the George-Formby-Syncopation strum is really helpful. This is not a DVD where you will go away with a load of different songs (you have to find those other places), but you will go away with more tools and techniques in playing your uke better and having more fun with it.