About Alex
Ukes with Alex (Alex Beds) was formed from my natural bond with the ukulele, sharing my knowledge as an industry insider of 13 years, performer of 22 years and the excited feeling I get from vlogging and filming content about the ukulele world for an audience that might not have the chance to discover it themselves.
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The idea of online based tuition came from the growing requests I have received in the last 4 years for one to one tuition. I simply cannot dedicate my free time to this in the way people would like but believe that producing dedicated courses about styles of ukulele is a worthy substitute.
Although Phil is a wonderful teacher, I have often felt one to one lessons don't work for me and a growing section of budding instrumentalists with limited free time and with the courses on offer on this site you can spend a lifetime going back and analysing the lesson for a fraction of the price of expensive one to one lessons.
It was important to me that the option for one to one lessons was there and I am delighted to welcome Phil (Adam Phillips), one of my oldest friends and arguably a better ukulele player than most to the UKESWITH family.
About Phil
I began studying and working in the music industry more than 15 years ago and have been teaching Ukulele (and Guitar) now for about 1/3 of my life.
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It is a great honour for me that Alex would invite me into his UKESWITH world which has previously kept the focus away from face to face learning and more on picking up your tutorials on the go, little and often when you can. For those who can't get enough and want a little more than that. I am here to be a dependable Ukulele teacher with conference call lessons on weekday evenings (check calendar for availability) challenging you and presenting things to you in a fresh way either formally or in a relaxed informal manner.
Background Information
Alex here; I began sketching out some ideas for this course in 2017. I had customers regularly emailing me asking me for tuition or for videos that explained how I did certain things in my Southern Ukulele Store demo videos, I remember filming a video one evening just to share with a customer and awaking to see he had sent it to his entire uke group who now all had their own set of questions and requests for tuition. Phil and I even wrote and rehearsed a one hour Blues Ukulele workshop in 2019 that sadly ended before it had a chance to shine with the pandemic stopping festivals and uke clubs for over a year.
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I had previously taught classical guitar and grew up with a detailed but informal education in this so many of my techniques end up naturally explained in a relaxed way. I remember thinking, 'wouldn't it be great to have an online course where the teacher felt more like your mate?'. I really feel that this method of teaching will help players come along in a way that traditional classroom style lessons don't. Phils journey as a Ukulele teacher has been quite different with a heavier emphasis on music theory and classroom learning and he feels like the perfect teacher I can put forward on this site to offer one to one, personal and professional classes. We always joke that we tick the boxes the other one can't and whilst I personally prefer to learn at my own pace in the style the video courses offer, Phil is there for people who want to be able to converse with their teacher in real time.