New Zealand's top-selling ukulele book, 'Kiwi Ukulele, is
being launched in Australia later this year, with plans for an ipad and ebook
release to follow.
The first-ever ukulele book written expressly for Kiwis,
the book has now sold over 15,000 copies, and has just been reprinted for the
7th time.
And a 'Kiwi Ukulele' Teacher Resource kit is now
available, FREE OF CHARGE, with lesson plans and song suggestions for the
classroom, on http://www.kiwiukulele.co.nz/buy.html.
The ukulele is currently undergoing a new wave of
popularity, replacing recorders as the top instrument used in Kiwi classrooms.
Perhaps helped by author Mike Dickison's advice in 'Kiwi Ukulele' - 'do your
kids a favour and get their school to switch to the ukulele. Yes, it will teach
them chord theory. Yes, it will teach them singing. But, mostly, it doesn't
make an awful piping shriek.... It will also make everyone smile.'
It's also easy to learn, fun to play… and you don’t have
to sing Hawaiian songs.
Dickison had wanted to learn the ukulele for twenty
years, and in 2005 picked one up and taught himself.
He joined a ukulele group in Durham, North Carolina,
where he was studying for his PhD at a time when the ukulele renaissance was
sweeping America. Returning to New
Zealand, he found that kids were only learning from books written by
Australians and Americans, and resolved to set this right.
Dickison has been a teacher and writer for fifteen years
and maintains one of the most popular ukulele pages on the Internet, www.kiwiukulele.co.nz. His professional
interest is in improving the presentation of scientific data, and his academic
field is fossil bird bones from islands, including the ukulele islands of
Madeira and Hawaii.
He has recently moved to Auckland,from Christchurch.
“Clearly, this is the best beginner's ukulele book out
there right now.…Thought has been put into everything: the font choices, the
illustration style, the diagrams, the page layouts. Even the page numbers are
made up of fret fingering symbols.…"
Aaron Dai, Coo Coo Ukulele.
RRP $24.99 Publisher: AUT Media
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