Left Hand Technique For ʻUkulele is a complete guide to fretting and fingering. It will teach you everything you need to know to confidently navigate the neck of your instrument.
Technique is the movements that make music come out of an instrument. They’re the physical interactions that facilitate notes.
Unfortunately, this vitally important aspect of playing isn’t taught very often (how many other books on technique have you seen?). Whether you’re a Youtube learner or in a prestigious music program, odds are the focus of your lessons are on notes and chords, NOT how to play them.
This is a terrible shame since these notes and chords are the bones of ANY music you play. If you haven’t learned proper left hand technique, you can bet that you’re not getting the most clarity, ease, and expression from your music.
In Left Hand Technique For ʻUkulele I will you show you the path to polishing your technique and truly being able to express your playing well.
I’m Brad Bordessa. As a longtime ʻukulele performer and educator, I graduated with honors from the Institute of Hawaiian Music in 2012 and have taught alongside James Hill, Herb Ohta Jr., Kevin Carroll, Gerald Ross, and others. I’ve written two other critically acclaimed books for ʻukulele and look forward to sharing this one with you.
Containing almost 60 pages, Left Hand Technique For ʻUkulele is full of almost every bit of knowledge I posses about the left hand. It’s a large subject, but vitally important to any uke player since it impacts every single note.
What’s in This Ebook?
Left Hand Technique is broken into two main pieces.
The first is what you can think of as fretboard navigation. This includes subjects like finger pressure and placement, barring, muting/dampening, position playing, and single-string playing.
The second is a toolbox of 10 fundamental articulation techniques and note decorations. These include basics like the hammer-on and pull-off up to advances concepts like artificial harmonics and the mono strum.
Aside from the core content, you’ll also find sections on proper body posture, general advice, and a skill-based learning track.
To back up the 50+ musical examples (included in TAB and standard notation), there are corresponding MP3 recordings. In these you can hear me play each example with correct timing and technique to model your study on.
Just a few of the how-to illustrations from the book.
Did I mention the photos? I hired my brother to take pictures of me playing each technique step-by-step so you can see exactly how to position your hand. There are over 60 of these illustrations and they look great!
With all this knowledge at your fingertips, you’ll have all your questions about left hand technique answered.
