Rainbow Ukulele
Of all the hundreds of ukulele tutor books, there are very few which teach the pupil to read music. This seems a pity, especially as so many pupils first pick up the ukulele at a young age when they could learn this invaluable skill easily, at the same time as learning the instrument. It’s a “teachable moment” which is often missed. I felt there was a place for a series of books which on the one hand use exclusively stave notation (yes this is a TAB-free zone!), but on the other hand make the stave a friendly place, and make it fun to learn.
The Rainbow Ukulele books are aimed at any ukulele pupil who would like to learn to read music at the same time as learning to play the instrument. The gentle learning pace, and the colour-string notation, make the books particularly suitable for young beginners. But they could be just as useful for an older player, who has perhaps learned from tablature and chord diagrams, and would now like to explore the basics of the stave.
The Rainbow books got their name because they are based on a colour-string system. Each guitar or ukulele string is given a colour, and the notes on that string appear in that same colour, all the way through the books.
- The colours immediately guide you to the right string.
- At the beginning, they do almost all the reading for you! (because you only know one note on each string)
- As you progress, you start to look at the stave more closely (because you will need to distinguish several notes on each string).
- At every stage, the colours divide the stave into zones which your eye can quickly focus on.
- The more notes you learn, the more closely you will have to look at the lines and spaces on the stave.
- Later, as you move on to reading without colours, you will find you have painlessly learned far more than you realised!
The Associated Board (ABRSM) now has now added Ukulele Music Medals to their exam offering – and you can choose pieces from the Rainbow Ukulele books for your Solo Piece at every level: Copper, Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum! Check out this video for demo performances.
Book 1
The first book starts with open-string tunes and songs, and the left hand is introduced gradually to give a range of one octave from middle C by the end of the book.
The book also features easy accompaniment parts and beginner chord symbols are included throughout. £8.99 + postage.
Book 2
Book 2 builds on Book 1, and is organised into two halves. The first half deals with the left hand, introducing sharps and flats, position shifting and a range of the most common ukulele keys. The second half deals with the right hand, introducing a large variety of plucking and strumming patterns. Pupils can choose their own path, and work on material from the first and second halves concurrently. £9.99 + postage.
Supplementary practice books (free downloads)
These booklets can be introduced as you work through the main books – they give extra tunes to practice using the same notes, and are cross-referenced to the main books at every stage. In the 2nd half of the Book 1 supplement, there is another set of tunes with the same notes printed black rather than in the Rainbow Ukulele colours. In the Book 2 supplement, all the notes are printed black.
Anyone is welcome to download and try out these booklets, but they will make a lot more sense if you have the main books to refer to.