Ukulele Exams

At last! Today saw the release of the first accredited ukulele exams in the UK. They are the work of the Registry of Guitar Tutors (RGT), an organisation that I have been a member of for many years.

Prior to the formation of the RGT, guitar exams were for classical musicians. I learned to love classical guitar in my teens, but I would have loved to have a choice in what genre of music I could study for graded exams. The RGT first introduced exams for the electric guitar, but over the years, more exams were added: classical, acoustic, bass, and rock guitar. Now we can also do exams for the ukulele.

I have been playing the ukulele almost as long as I have been playing the guitar. I think seeing Brian May of Queen playing a George Formby-style banjolele back in the '70s convinced me to take it up, as well as the ease by which my guitar skills could be transferred.

I carried on playing the uke through the wilderness years, when they were (unbelievably) considered unfashionable, and a relic of a bygone age. Eventually, artists like the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain and Julia Nunes helped bring about a ukulele renaissance, and they're now the coolest thing around.

As with guitar exams, entrants need exam handbooks to show them the chords, scales, techniques, songs and pieces they need to study. The handbooks are available now from the Books for Guitar website, and they come with CDs. I was honoured to be commissioned by the RGT to record the musical numbers (a total of 64). Here is a short video I've prepared, telling the story of the recordings.