Author Bios

Jenny Peters and her sister Rebecca Bogart are committed to helping music newbies have fun learning to play music. They believe playing and studying music will enrich your life and the lives of those around you.

Jenny Peters is a Grammy-nominated full-time music educator in the Chicago area. She has taught thousands of musical beginners throughout her many years of teaching.

Jenny developed her unique method of teaching ukulele to teach fourth-grade music classes. She has gone on to become a popular Youtube ukulele personality who owns seven different ukuleles!

Rebecca and Jenny have now written six books in the Beginning Ukulele Songs series: Volume 1, 21 Songs in 6 Days Learn Ukulele the Easy Way; Volume 2, Easy Ukulele Songs: Five with Five Chords; Volume 3, 21 Easy Ukulele Songs for Christmas; Volume 4, 21 MORE Songs in 6 Days: Learn Intermediate Ukulele the Easy Way; Volume 5, 21 Easy Ukulele Folk Songs and Volume 6: 21 Easy Ukulele Hymns.

Jenny and Rebecca are also co-authors of “Ukulele for All.” This book is for the classroom music teacher and is published by Kjos.

Jenny presented at the (ILMEA) Illinois Music Educators Association and the (AzMEA) Arizona Music Educators Association Conference on how to teach ukulele. She has taught students at the District 7 ILMEA Festival for several years. She taught classes to music education students at Lake Forest College (IL) and Trinity International University (IL.) She has also been a guest on several podcasts including: Ukulele is the New Black, Abe’s Ukulele Podcast, and Chris Russell’s Ukestuff Podcast. She has written articles on teaching ukulele for the Illinois American String Teachers Association. She is a member of the National Association for Music Education (NaFME), the American and the American String Teachers Association (ASTA.)

Jenny plays five other instruments besides ukulele: piano, violin, viola, cello, and bass. She currently heads a successful elementary and middle school orchestra program. Before that she taught Elementary General Music for ten years.

Jenny has served on the faculties of Lake Forest College and the College of Lake County. She also taught at the Music Institute of Chicago.

Jenny holds a Master of Music in Piano Performance from the University of Illinois and Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from the University of Washington. She earned her teacher’s certification from Trinity International University.

Rebecca Bogart has been introducing beginners of all ages to music for over 40 years. She believes that helping more people play music makes the world a better place.

She learned to play ukulele from her sister Jenny using the method taught in the Beginning Ukulele Songs series. While she has spent countless hours playing music with two hands at the piano, she found learning to play ukulele challenging. The left-hand fretting chords while the right-hand strums is quite different from playing piano! Rebecca brings a ukulele beginners perspective to the Ukulele Sisters’ writing team.

Rebecca has been passionate about the piano and music her entire life. She has played for audiences in Italy, taught master classes at Harvard and won more than a few piano competitions. She made her solo debut at Carnegie Hall in early 2014.

Several of Rebecca’s piano students have won national and international awards and been featured on NPR’s radio show “From the Top”. She has been a featured presenter at the California Music Teacher’s Association, and has recorded a CD of American solo piano music American Retrospective.

Rebecca Bogart
rebecca@ukulele.io

The pedagogy is suitable for today’s multicultural and wired classrooms. Ukulele for All uses Kjos’ proprietary Integrated Practice Studio software. There are multi-screen video lessons and play-along audio recordings. Students can access these recordings on many types of devices.

There is a strong emphasis on ensemble skills and reading melody tab. There are separate Student and Teacher Editions. The Teacher Edition gives suggestions for differentiation within a classroom. There are also suggestions for curricular alignment with the National Core Arts Standards.

Song List:
– Are You Sleeping? (Frère Jacques) (in C)
– Wake Up You Sleepyhead (Erwacht, ihr Schläfer)
– Row, Row, Row Your Boat
– Three Blind Mice
– Seasons
– Shalom Chaverim
– Ah, Poor Bird
– Hey, Ho Nobody Home
– Scotland’s Burning
– Sourwood Mountain
– A Ram Sam Sam
– Are You Sleeping? (Frère Jacques) (in F)
– Shoo! Fly! Don’t Bother Me (in F)
– I Have a Little Dreidel
– Hush Little Baby (in F)
– Oats, Peas, Beans, and Barley Grow (in F)
– Simple Gifts (in F)
– Shoo! Fly! Don’t Bother Me (in C)
– Oats, Peas, Beans, and Barley Grow (in C)
– Simple Gifts (in C)
– Polly Wolly Doodle
– Hush Little Baby (in C)
– Ukulele Blues
– Lonely Blues
– Beale Street Blues
– C Major Etude in 4/4
– Over the River and Through the Wood
– Jingle Bells
– When the Saints Go Marching In
– I’ve Been Working on the Railroad
– Aloha Oe
– Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
– For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow
– Home on the Range
– De Colores
– Cielito Lindo
– Arirang
– Amazing Grace

Our books are for the ukulele beginner with no previous musical background. All feature detailed and easy-to-follow instructions. Each of the books is available in both paper and eBook versions. Each book comes with its own companion video course at ukulele.io.

We pick songs and put them in order from easier to harder music. This progression helps novice musicians build up to more difficult skills. Our readers will improve their playing without getting frustrated or developing bad habits. We base our pedagogy on many years of teaching beginning music learners.

Book 1: 21 Songs in 6 Days: Learn Ukulele the Easy Way

Teaches how to play the five easiest ukulele chords (C, C7, A minor, F, and G7) beginning with one chord songs. Also teaches how to change chords while singing and strumming. Readers learn how to buy and tune a ukulele and how to practice like a pro. Perfect for beginning musicians of all ages. Simple and easy to understand.

Comes with 40+ lesson videos. The paperback edition features 10 bonus two-chord songs.

Book 2: Easy Ukulele Songs: Five with Five Chords

Hone your ability to change chords by playing five favorite five chord songs. Learn four more easy chords. Learn fancier strumming patterns that build on skills from Book 1. Get more practice with harder tab melodies. Get an introduction to the blues and blues improvisation in the key of C. Comes with 10 lesson videos to help you learn the songs.

Book 3: 21 Easy Ukulele Songs for Christmas

21 seasonal favorites arranged in order of difficulty. After learning one new chord (D minor), you’ll be able to play every song in the book with the chords you learned from Book 2 of the series. Get more practice reading tab melodies and using a variety of strumming patterns. The free course that comes with your book has a lesson video for every song in the book. Great for caroling or playing duets with fellow uke lovers.

Book 4: 21 MORE Easy Ukulele Songs: Learn Intermediate Ukulele the Easy Way

Learn the most important intermediate ukulele chords. There are five new chords, including B flat, D, E minor, G minor, and C major 7.

You’ll get more practice fingerpicking melodies and learn how to fingerpick accompaniments too. We’ll introduce new strumming patterns, songs in minor mode, and songs with three beats per measure. And get more practice with the blues by playing more difficult blues songs in a variety of keys. Finally, you’ll learn how to play great ukulele solo (chord melody) arrangements of several songs.

All songs include both a standard music staff and tab notation, and several strumming patterns. The accompanying free course includes 40+ lesson videos.

Book 5: 21 Easy Ukulele Folk Songs

Learn 21 classic folk songs arranged in order of difficulty. The book begins with easy 2 chord songs and progresses to 7 chord songs in the key of G major. There is lots of practice fingerpicking melodies and accompaniments. Finally, there are some great ukulele solo (chord melody) arrangements. As always, every song in the book has a lesson video, both standard music staff and tab notation and several strumming pattern suggestions. Includes favorites such as Happy Birthday, Take Me Out to the Ball Game, and Shenandoah.

Book 6: 21 Easy Ukulele Hymns

22 favorite hymns arranged in order of difficulty. The book begins with fourteen 2 and 3 chord hymns. It includes favorites such as “Amazing Grace”, “Be Thou My Vision”, “Nearer My God to Thee” and “Fairest Lord Jesus”. Many hymns are in 2 keys so you can choose a comfortable key for singing or playing. There’s melody tab and a suggested strumming pattern for every hymn.

Suggested Interview Topics

What Every Ukulele Beginner Needs to Know
Here’s what every ukulele beginner needs to know, and the order to learn it in:

1. Learn to tune your ukulele.
2. Learn to hold your ukulele.
3. Learn down and up strumming.
4. Learn 5 simple chords.
5. Learn to change these chords easily and quickly.
6. Learn to keep a steady beat with your hands while your voice is speaking something different.
7. Learn to play single-line melodies on your ukulele.

12 Great Practice Strategies for Beginners
Here are some practice strategies for mastering a song. Master each one before going on to the next.

1. Practice changing the left-hand chord shapes needed in any given song without strumming. Do this until you can make the changes with ease.
2. Practice speaking or singing the lyrics with a simple strumming pattern. All down strums on the beat works well.
3. Practice the more complicated strumming pattern without singing or speaking the lyrics. Do not change chords. Do the strumming pattern at tempo. You can mute the strings with your left hand or strum on the back of your ukulele. You can do this along with a YouTube lesson video of your chosen song.
4. Practice the way you did in Step 3 but add the chord changes.
5. Practice the way you did in Step 4 but add speaking the lyrics
6. Practice the way you did in Step 5 but add singing the lyrics
7. Practice fingerpicking the melody with our YouTube video. If the video is too fast, slow it down to 50% or 75% speed
8. Practice your performance of the song with a metronome. (You can download a free metronome app for your phone or tablet.) You can also try using an app such as “Strum Machine.”
9. Practice your song with a ukulele play-along video from one of the great YouTube sites.
10. Record your song with your phone and watch or listen to the audio or video you created. Listen for what you did well and what you need to work on. You can then become your own teacher.
11. Get together with others to sing and strum songs together. One way to do this is to join a ukulele club.
12. When you feel courageous, sign up for an open mic performance at your ukulele club. Then you have to learn your song from start to finish.
13. Enjoy the ride and don’t be afraid to be a beginner!

Why Learn Ukulele?

• The ukulele is relatively easy to play. With 4 strings instead of the 6 on guitar, it’s smaller and more comfortable. Its strings are softer, and the chord shapes are easier to learn and master. People can learn a one-chord song in a matter of minutes. Folks can graduate to two-chord songs pretty soon.
• The ukulele is relatively inexpensive.
• The ukulele is portable.
• The ukulele is sturdy, so you can take it everywhere. You can even get waterproof ukuleles if you want.
• The ukulele is fun.

Why Make Time for Music?

• Music is so good for our brains.
• Music gives us a chance to express ourselves and our creativity.
• Spending a few minutes in the evenings to de-stress with music can make your life much happier.
• If you love music, you’ll figure out a way to carve out some time for it. For me, I like to have time for exercise, healthy eating, reflection and music. With these four life elements, I am nourished and taken care of.

Suggested Interview Questions
Why is ukulele so popular these days?

The ukulele is so popular for a lot of reasons. Here are some of them:

• The ukulele is relatively easy to play. With 4 strings instead of the 6 on guitar, it’s smaller and more comfortable. Its strings are softer, and the chord shapes are easier to learn and master. People can learn a one-chord song in a matter of minutes. Folks can graduate to two-chord songs pretty soon.
• The ukulele is relatively inexpensive
• The ukulele is portable.
• The ukulele is sturdy, so you can take it everywhere. You can even get waterproof ukuleles if you want.
• The ukulele is featured in many recent popular songs and movies.

Where do you most see new learners struggling?

If someone has never played an instrument, they’ll struggle with singing and strumming at the same time. They want to strum exactly with the rhythm of the lyrics, not with the beat of the song. The coordination between these two different musical elements is the first step for all music learners. If you already have experience with rhythm and steady beat, you might not understand that “feeling” a beat can be difficult for some learners.

Learners often struggle with their left-hand fingertips being sore and learning how to strum. Generally, people have more trouble with the up strum than with the down strum. The up strum is off the beat. It’s easiest to learn the down strums on the beat before learning the up strums on the off-beats. Learners have trouble getting the up strum even with the down strum, and with getting their fingers caught in the strings while trying to go up.

Learners also have trouble with the rhythm of a ‘swung’ strum, what I call “strum 3”. The rhyme “Jack and Jill went up the hill” can help them learn this strumming rhythm.

People struggle with how to match the chords to the lyrics. It’s hard for them to know where to change chords, or how many chords to play with each word.

Many learners struggle with more complicated strumming patterns. How to understand left-hand finger numbers, how to read tab, and how to read chord shape symbols.

What practice tips can you give for ukulele beginners?

1. First make sure you can play all the chords in the song easily and quickly. Practice switching back and forth between chords until that is easy to do.
2. Practice singing or speaking the lyrics in time with the chord changes. Use a very simple strumming pattern, either strumming a down strum for each beat in the song, or playing the new chord at each chord change. You can also play one chord on the downbeat of each measure.

Why did you decide to create a book of hymns?
Our fans on social media asked us to create a book of hymns. They liked many of the YouTube videos about hymns.

How did you decide on the final list of songs to include in your Hymn Kit and book?
We found hymns we liked that were in the public domain. We sent the list to our fans and had them vote on it

How do you and Rebecca work together when you live 2000 miles apart?
Rebecca and I communicate all the time online with emails and text messages. We have weekly business meetings using Skype, Zoom and FaceTime apps. I live in Chicago and she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Has working together as a sister team helped or hurt your relationship?
Working as a sister team has helped our relationship because we are in constant contact with each other. We’ve learned that we’re working towards the same goals. We each bring different strengths to our business.

What have you learned in your 7 years of self publishing?
Self-publishing is a lot of work! And it’s also a wonderful opportunity to share your creative vision with the world. We’ve both learned a lot about technology, popular culture, using a computer, how to write music, and how to reach out to people.

Why did you decide to self publish ukulele books?
I had created a curriculum for my students at school that I wanted to share it. Self-publishing seemed like the best way to reach people with our vision of easy ukulele music that people could learn on their own.

Once we got going, we also got a traditional publishing contract with Kjos Publishing for Ukulele for All. Ukulele for All works well in a school setting.

What is the hardest part of being a Youtube personality?
It’s hard to get used to being on camera all the time. It’s hard to look at yourself and not be critical. Sometimes, viewers leave mean comments on a video, but over time you get used to it and learn to ignore them.

What is the hardest part of being a self published author?
There is constant work and it is not about writing good quality content. There is an entire online marketing side which is time-consuming and frustrating. You don’t always know if you’re making headway or not. You have to learn new platforms, skills and approaches. It can be hard to know if all your hard work is paying off.

Why do you think people like your books?
People like the human element. They like that the video lessons break things down in a way they can understand. Even if they don’t read music, they like the tab underneath the melodies, the suggested strumming patterns and the videos.

People also like the encouraging tone that we offer.

Why haven’t you done a book of more recent songs?
It’s very hard to get the rights to publish an arrangement of a song that is still in copyright. Copyright protection extends to all music published after 1924.

• 3 formats – ePub, .mobi, and .pdf
• Sheet music and historical info for 22 hymns
• 6 bonus hymns and 13 chord melodies
• Instruction on tags and turnarounds so you can connect your music together
• 15 hymns are in 2 keys
• 55 lesson video course, 185 minutes of instruction

Also included:

• 8 more chord melodies
• 6 more bonus hymns
• 6 more video lessons, 26 more minutes of instruction
• 3 more hymns in 2 keys

Learn more about the Hymn Kits on this page.

• 3 formats – ePub, .mobi, and .pdf
• Sheet music and historical info for 22 hymns
• 6 bonus hymns and 13 chord melodies
• Instruction on tags and turnarounds so you can connect your music together
• 15 hymns are in 2 keys
• 55 lesson video course, 185 minutes of instruction

Learn more about the Hymn Kits on this page.