Sunday, June 17, 2012

Kiwi Ukulele: The New Zealand Ukulele Companion


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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