20 Easy Fingerstyle Studies for Ukulele

My ukulele teacher had me purchase this book he wanted me to learn from, and I've been enjoying it. It's well written, has good write ups about the pieces and the ability to stream audio samples of what the music should sound like. It's a lot of fun and that makes practicing a joy.

I love these little tones played by this Scottish Ukulele player. I especially like the music Tears for Amalia. I need to practice more to get the timing down, but I have read the music and follow his instruction. I really like the fact that the bottom score shows the strings on the Ukulele with the number of the fret and a letter for what finger to use. It is great fun playing these short pieces. I also like the fact the his website have some Youtube videos of him playing these places. The background is dark on those videos, but you can see his fingers and what he is doing. This book comes with a CD so you have hear how the music should sound like. Then when you practice the piece, you can refer back to this CD to hear the sound track and see how close you got to the good sound. I have to practice all of these 20 easy fingerstyle picking Ukulele music before moving on. He has other music like Old Time Classics and Celtic and Spanish style of playing on the Ukulele. For now, I am more then happy to just be able to learn the music pieces in this books. Great job Rob. Wonderful music and a great artist.

This is a book every beginning to intermediate uke player should have. The exercises aren't easy. In fact, if you could play them at full speed, you'd be well on your way to a professional ukulele career. However, they are accessible to all levels at the slower speed. On the CD, Rob plays both a slow version and a fast version. An advanced beginning/intermediate player will be able to play the exercises at the slow speed with a little practice, but will be quite challeged to get them up to the faster speed. A person who is new to the ukulele will be challenged to play at the slow speed. The exercises sound so nice at the faster speed that students will be motived to keep practicing in the hopes of getting up to that faster speed. The book focuses on both left hand and right hand techniques, but it also has excercises on musicality--dynamics, playing soft to loud; accents, 3/4 vs. 6/8, for example--which is another important part of playing well. I'm working my way through the exercises. So far there is only one I can play at the faster speed. I enjoy having exercises to practice and I know they will improve my playing.

The layout is good and all of the techniques (pull-offs, hammer-ons, etc.) are sprinkled throughout the pieces but with a single exception I found all of the compositions boring. I realize it’s a very subjective opinion but if you’re attempting to learn finger style the pieces you are practicing should be musically interesting – these were not. ‘Tears for Amalia’ was the only piece with any joy in it. There are plenty of good sources for short practice pieces for the ukulele. I had hoped this book would be inspiring but it isn’t...pass on this one, keep looking.

This book provides exercises with detailed notes that help a beginner to fingerpick. The exercises are very musical in that they are more like little songs themselves, and the author provides plenty of opportunity, even with the first one, to be creative and expressive. I started the 20 progressive studies by the same author, and then found this one which is a primer. I recommend this one first, as the CD has both slow and fast performances, which are really quite helpful. Also, he gives more specific notes for the right hand, using the 3-finger and 4-finger approaches. My playing has surely gotten better, and there are videos too of his playing of many of the studies on the author's site. He is also great about answering questions about his books. Doing these studies works really well with learning his Celtic Tunes book and Sanz baroque book. I couldn't be happier with it and have recommended to my ukulele orchestra colleagues, along with his other arrangements.

Relatively good at teaching riffs and techniques, but I found it to be too hard unless you are well between intermediate and advanced. One I will have to come back to when I am more matured

I have been spending a lot of time with this book over the last few months and finding the exercises challenging yet enjoyable. You have to work to master the pieces, but you'll want to put in the time because it's so satisfying. The music is good, even if each study is ultimately an exercise for beginners. No Twinkle Twinkle and other boring studies.

Lovely melodies with excellent notes on each piece. Written for gCEA tuning. Rob MacKillop also encourages improvisation and creativity and introduces this in stages. This is an excellent book for an absolute beginner. Pieces are arranged in order of difficulty so the student can gain confidence quickly and easily. The staff and tab are in large easy-to-read print, no awkward page turns plus space on the page to add any notes or comments. The cd also has both slow and fast versions of all pieces. I have used this book for a month and am making significant progress.

I've been strumming away for six months and felt that I was getting nowhere. As I cant sing I found that just strumming chords on a lot of songs just had no tune. I'm also not a fan of George Formby's style of fast strumming that does produce a tune though. I don't think I knew exactly what I was looking for. I then came across Tobias Elof a Danish Ukulele player and I discovered "Fingerstyle" once you know what your looking for it is a short road to Rob's wonderful world. If your considering this book Google "Ukule Tab Notation Legend" by Bertrand Le Nistour well worth printing out as a cheat sheet for all the symbols used in Tab & Staff. Not that it is necessary for this book as Rob leads you into them all page by pageGot the book next day, took it to bed and read it cover tae cover. Next morning I grab the book and go straight to page 40 and proceed to try Sea Blues. Not fast in fact very very slowly, I smile as I recall the event. I now know he is a good teacher. So the tunes may appear simple but I'm finding that they are clever exercises.That all being said, I could finally hear a tune, not with Sea Blues at first. I for the first time since I started playing felt potential. Daydreaming is the first tune in the book. I was going to be able to manage it, I felt confident. Yes first few times I was a lot slower than Robs slow clip and I'm not as yet as fast as him. I'm now confident that in time I will be able to. I'm working my way through the book, going back on them as well. I'm finding that I'm having fun now.I've also bought 20 Celtic Fingerstyle & a Guitar book by Rob both excelent

I have really enjoyed the pieces in this book and it was perfectly balanced for a beginner, easing you into the versatility and growing complexity possible with the great instrument that is the ukulele. Sure, its not full of familiar tunes and is repetitive at times, but the variety of music styles and even the brevity of the pieces I believe truly has helped me to incorporate the basics of fingerpicking. The first two pieces are especially easy to pick up and sound great for something so basic. I would highly recommend this to any other ukulele beginner. At the beginning of the book there is a section of short instructions and advice on each piece, which I do think could have been better placed closer to the pieces they are talking about, but still very handy.

I wouldn't recommend this book for players with a bit of experience looking to improve. It isn't challenging enough. You could easily play all the pieces in a session. I was going to give this a three-star rating, but to be totally fair, this book is clearly labelled as 'Easy'. It is indeed very easy. Some of Lyle Ritz's books are labelled 'Easy', but they are rocket science compared to this. That's not the author of this book's fault, but it makes it difficult to know where a book like this is pitched. I also think there's too much focus on right-hand technique, mainly arpeggios, and the compositions end up feeling like trancy textures -- they don't really go anywhere. Also, with the exception of a small amount of hammering-on and pulling-off technique, there's not much going on with the left hand. It's pretty much all in the key of C.Why rate it higher? Well, I really like the idea of original technical studies very much, so a big 'well done' to Rob Mackillop for doing this. There are also some good musical ideas in here, which I will use elsewhere, so I didn't find it a total waste of time. I think a total novice might find it useful, and there's much to be said in favour of getting away from just up-down strumming, a style many players get stuck in. If this makes people explore the ukulele more, great. But any prospective buyers should be aware, it's very easy.

I purchased 20 Finger style Studies for Ukulele by Rob Mackillop having purchased a previous book (Finger style solos for Ukulele By M Nelson) which seemed to advanced for me a beginner of 3 months. I wanted to take the time to recommend this book because it feels that it has genuinely been put together with the beginner in mind . If you are considering a book as a beginner to finger style playing and especially as someone fairly new to stringed instruments as am I, in my opinion this is an excellent starting place. It also came with a CD which helps inspire me as well as give me an understanding of how it should sound (before I've strangled it!!!). I am certainly looking to Rob Mackillop when it comes to future instruction books.

The audio download is very very useful as it gives a target to aim for and you can judge how far you are progressing. The tunes are well chosen so you feel you are taking on slightly harder tasks each different one. It is clear and well presented.