Book excerpt: Ukulele Magic is the perfect tutor for children and for teachers. Rock to ragtime, bluegrass to swing, tango, calypso and the blues - they're all here in instantly accessible songs to play straight away ~ whether solo, with friends, or with the whole class. Fully supported by video tutorials and audio performances and backings. The teacher's edition, BOOK+CD-ROM, contains a whiteboard e-book with embedded audio and video tutorials for every song, making it ideal for classroom teaching. The 25 pieces carefully progress from playing open strings (eg Stringalong Rag) to songs with one chord (Shortnin bread, A minor miracle, F major march) to two chords (Baboushka, Tab tango, Calypso strum) and finally three chords (In South Africa, Playing the blues). Finger-picking and strumming styles are all introduced step by step in pieces which are fun and stylistic. This is a thoroughly musical introduction to an immensely popular instrument, opening the way to independent music-making for all. Website extras for teachers include lesson plans with teaching support and extra song suggestions to sing and play.