All About Learning Ukulele with Curt
About Learning Ukulele with Curt
LearningUkulele.com / Learning Ukulele with Curt is the product of Curt Sheller, Curt Sheller Publications, Funky Frets Music Store, and a few trusted advisers. Curt Sheller, your Ukulele Kumu, has been playing ukulele over 20 years and has over 30+ years of teaching experience, written over 50 books, almost 40 for ukulele. from teaching hundreds and hundreds of students of all levels over the years — It's pretty much ALL here. Picasso said it best The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.
20 April 2026
LearningUkulele.com IS Curt Sheller
A timeline (having fun with a stepper component) Curt's personal discovery and journey through music, guitar, ukulele, and life…
2026
Having been doing the ukulele for 20+ years, since 2003. Creating and developing LearningUkulele.com and Learning Ukulele with Curt since 2003.
The next big goal is, not only using AI to help with building the LearningUkulele.com site but to put it to use for use to navigate and use the site. There is always something to learn.
And, back racewalking and training after a long break from 2008 till now. I'll blame this comeback on Tim Chelius and the Shore AC (shoreac.org).
2004
Attended our first ukulele festival — the 2004 Pocono Ukulele Expo at Pocmont Resort, 17-19 September 2004 put on by the Ukulele Hall of Fame.
Ukulele Expos were held in 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 20001, 2002, 2003, and 2004. Since 2004, they have done their Hall of Fame inductions at festivals organized by others, including Uke Fest West, The ʻUkulele Guild of Hawaii, Roy Sakuma's Ukulele Festival Hawaiʻi, and the International ʻUkulele Festival of Hawaiʻi.
Caught the Ukulele bug and have never looked back.
Uke!
Having been self-taught programming with first Pascal, Object Pascal, then C++. I figured out how to create a websites using HTML and created guitarresources.com, which morphed into jazzguitarsources com for tracking ALL archtop jazz guitar builders while personally searching for a 7-string archtop to be built.
This just naturally morphed into LearningUkulele.com and Learning Ukulele with Curt and collecting information on Ukulele Builders, Festivals, Clubs, etc. And publishing Ukulele books. And just collecting a massive amount of information in the ukulele, it's resources, and just learning to be a better ukulele player. It's all out the and LearningUkulele.com has simply collected it and is passing it on.
2003
I discovered the ukulele right before a summer Campfire Boys and Girls trip to South Dakota with my wife Bernadette, daughters Amy and Kelly, a full van load of 15 kids, and one other adult. I was deep into playing jazz guitar and in a trio playing up to a dozen gigs a month and didn't want to be without a guitar for 10 days or 2 weeks. So I searched the Internet looking for a travel guitar and discovered, or should I say, got a renewed interest in the ukulele (failed attempt in the 80s with a soprano). And discover there was such a thing as other sizes, such as concert and tenor. So I didn't get anything for the trip but bought a tenor from Roy Cone out of Texas (his online site) and haven't looked back. There still was only one book for learning ukulele, Roy Smeck's, and that was in D tuning. I thought, I'll just convert my guitar books to ukulele, as it is the standard tuning. This time, I had published a dozen books for guitar and could easily adapt the material for ukulele.
Continued publishing several more guitar books until I discovered the ukulele in 2003.
1998
Published my book QuickStart Scale Fingering for Guitar. So I guess this is the start of being a Publisher.
1st Edition Published 1998
Continued publishing several more guitar books until I discovered the ukulele in 2003. And, then it's been pretty much full time Ukulele. Gotta love the power and flexibility of the `Ukulele.
1997
3rd overall — 2nd open medal. USATF National 2 hour Championship, Wochester, MA. One of my Nation Open division medals.
1996
Best year racewalking, 2nd USATF 40 Km National Racewalk Championship, Fort Monmouth, NJ. 6th overall and 5th men — 12,125m National Postal (how far can you go in one hour) Ft. Monmouth, NJ. 47:50 !)km en-route during the postal above. 20 km 1:43:11 (8:18p) Al Saner Days 20K (track), Pt Pleasant, NJ
New Jersey Racewalker of the Year — Shore AC.
1992
After computing home on weekends from a programming job in NJ (Eatontown, Asbury Park, NJ area) for 5 years. And yet another another layoff, a trend with fringe Mac programming jobs in big companies that need mac programs for the few customers using macs only.
Created my first website around this time 1993-1994. Hand coded using BBEdit on a Mac.
And, one more mac programming job in Media, PA for a couple of years. And yet another layoff. Seems there is a trend with mac projects in companies. Luckily, I had worked a deal with the company to come in really early and leave at 3PM to start teaching guitar and bass at two local music stores Monday through Friday and just finally went full time music, — cut my pay in half and have never looked back. Full time musician and all music business after that.
1987
Discovered racewalking and proceeded on a good 20 year stretch of competitive racking with several national open division medals, a Gold medals at the WAVA games in the 20km Buffalo, NY. And, a a lot of medals on the age-group division from 1 mile to 40km. One American Track Record for 20km. And, lifelong, great friendship and a member of ShoreAC.
Introduced to desktop publishing DTP and the first Apple Macintosh II computer to automate the art department at Nation Liberty and lead the small team that saved the company 1 million plus dollars (didn't get any of it), Taught myself programming (Pascal, Object Pascal, C++). experienced the first massive layoff in the USA early 1990s.
Taught myself how to program starting with HyperTalk and HyperCard around 1987 and then proceeded with a few independent contracting assignments using C++, MacApp, and Java.
1980
Graduated from the Studio School of Art & Design, Philadelphia, PA. Worked for National Liberty Insurance Company, Malvern, PA in the art department.
1978
Enrolled in the Studio School of Art & Design, Philadelphia, PA in their commercial art program and married (Bernadette M. Fox). Performed a few area bands four nights a week and then started studying music, guitar, and jazz with Chuck Anderson. Moved to Pottstown, PA, USA in 1978.
1976
Discharged from the Navy. Briefly worked again for Mr. Carpet, West Chester, PA delivering entrance mats to businesses in Southeastern Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware till 1978.
1970s
Graduated Henderson Senior High, West Chester, PA USA 1971 wikiwand
and in 1972 joined the US Navy (Orlando for boot camp: Former Naval Training Center Orlando
, Jacksonville Naval Air Station
for accelerated Aviation Ordnance training, then Oceania, VA VA85 — A-6 Intruder Squadron
, and USS Forestall (CVA-59)
the United States Navy's first completed supercarrier
. I credit the Navy with a re-renewed interest in the guitar after meeting many great musicians an fellow guitar players. Especially Michael Pittman( August 5, 1952 — February 3, 2025 )
1960s
Budding Musician (1st guitar and lessons started at age 10) and graphic artist. You can probably blame or credit it to the Beatles 1964 , Rock'n'Roll, and the British Invasion
1954
Introduced to this spinning rock hurling through space, called Earth on January 2, 1954 — let the journey begin.
Don't Get Around Much Anymore: the Muse and Magic of JAZZ UKULELE MAVEN CURT SHELLER by Lil' Rev
by Lil' Rev Published: Summer, 2019, UKulele Magazine (May 28, 2019)
If the ukulele world had its own trading cards, there would be no shortage of superheroes. We know their names and have heard many of them at festivals and on YouTube, except perhaps one, whose humble and unassuming manner might have caused you to overlook his cool jazz styling. Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce to you, Curt Sheller.
By day—and often into the night—Sheller plies his trade teaching an impressive load of private lessons (over 60 students a week) from Funky Frets, a music store he opened with his wife Bernadette and daughter Kelly Thompson in Boyertown, Pennsylvania.
Check out the complete article at: ukulelemag.com/stories/jazz-ukulele-curt-sheller
Don't Get Around Much Anymore: the Muse and Magic of JAZZ UKULELE MAVEN CURT SHELLER by Lil' Rev • Published: Summer, 2019, UKulele Magazine
More Than You Probably Wanted to Know About Curt
And, you thought the timeline above was TMI. Here is even more.
As an accidental Professional Musician, my primary focus since 2003 has been performing jazz and contemporary music using the ukulele as my principal instrument, as well as presenting workshops and performing at various ukulele festivals throughout the year.
Having been a serious student of music and jazz in particular, as well as having studied contemporary music and the music business with world renowned master musician Chuck Anderson for over thirty years. (Yes, Chuck is that good and one — if not the most knowledgeable musician I've ever run across). I bring a wealth of music knowledge and experience to the ukulele world and have guided, taught and coached many ukulele players with their journey exploring the ukulele and music in general.
In addition to writing, performing, recording and presenting workshops. I maintain a busy private teaching schedule of 50 to 60 students a week on various instruments, mainly the ukulele and guitar. In December 2015, I released my second CD, and first featuring the ukulele as the lead instrument, titled — How About More Uke?
. The CD features the Curt Sheller Jazz Trio. The trio is myself, Curt Sheller on ukulele and two fellow world-class musicians and friends: Eric Schreiber on bass and Ed Rick on drums. Using the classic guitar, ukulele, bass and drums trio format, we explore instrumental music with a focus on jazz, improvisation, and contemporary music using the ukulele as the primary lead instrument.
Musically, It All Started 1963/64
Most likely (foggy memory), it started with The Beatles
and the British Invasion — Still have the Framus electric guitar and the Al Caiola — Tuff Guitar LP
. I was probably around 10 years old at this time. Handsome fellow?
Back to the 'Ukulele
After a 20 plus year break from the 'ukulele — ( couldn't figure it out back then and no info around, let alone finding a qualified teacher for 'ukulele ). I came back to the uke.
It's 2003, and I began taking advantage of my jazz guitar skills, training, teaching, and performance experience and started pursuing and exploring the potential of the ukulele. Researching the field I saw very little material organized at a level that actually works for intermediate to advanced players—most of the beginner stuff is suspect as well. I have developed an international reputation as a ukulele expert, having written 50+ books for `Ukulele and Guitar . In my private teaching practice, I typically have between 50 and 60 students a week of all levels. (2026 Update: Cutting back to 20 students and putting more focus on LearningUkulele.com—Learning Ukulele with Curt)
Checkout my ukulele CD, “How About More Uke?” —I've been planning and talking about this CD for a few years and finally have gotten around to getting it done.
Musician
Stated guitar at age 9 (1963) and have been too stubborn to give up ever since. Stick with anything long enough, and you tend to get good at it. Hook up with the right teachers and mentors and tend to get better.
The key to success in any field is, to a large extent, is as simple as doing quality exploration over and over and over. And hooking up with the inspiring teachers and mentors.
I've been a serious student of jazz guitar since 1978. Researching and studying for over 30 years. Then — the ukulele took over and has been my 100% focus since 2003.
Graphic Artist
I started my professional working career as a commercial graphic artist. I started drawing from the Sunday comics at eight years old.
After my stint in the Navy, I went to The Studio School of Art and Design in Philadelphia, PA, a two-year art school for Commercial Art. Then spent 12 years in a corporate art department generating junk mail, working my way up to senior designer and running the computerization of the art department.
As a graphic designer and artist, I now mainly focus my efforts in the music industry for a select group of fellow musicians, artists and myself.
Author
I've written over 50 books for ukulele, guitar and music. The LearningUkulele.com site has over 900 lessons and growing.
Publisher
I currently publish and handle distribution for all my books and on-line lessons.
I do have a few select dealers that have carried my ukulele books. If insrested let me know and we can set you up.
Programmer / Web Developer
Teaching myself how to program starting with HyperTalk and Hypercard around 1987 and then proceeded with a few independent contracting assignments using C++, MacApp, and Java. Now I focus on PHP and JavaScript for my web development. My CurtSheller.com, LearningUkulele.com and the Funky Frets sites are all hand-coded using PHP, Ruby, HTML, CSS, Javascript, and MySQL.
Started my original web site by hand coding HTML a then PHP, CodeIgniter, with a little exploration of Ruby and Ruby on Rails, to finally…
2015 with LearningUkulele.com and all my public sites being developed using Laravel a MCV open source PHP framework. So that Smalltalk book I bought last century can finally pay off.
Racewalking
For a twenty year stretch starting in my 30s (started 1987). I was a very competitive racewalker. Even had a national master's 20km track record and was 1996 New Jersey Racewalker of the Year.
I have won national age group medals and a few open national medals. With my best finish of 2nd place overall in the USATF National 40km Walk ( 24.6 miles ). As well as a top 30 overall time (1996) of the year in the 20km walk. A long time member of the Shore AC — Thank you Elliot Denman
My Introduction (Re-introduction) to Ukulele
After a brief introduction to the ukulele in 1978 by two distant uncles at a family reunion. Couldn't figure it out back then and no resources to learn the ukulele, only the Roy Smeck or Mel Bay book. I rediscovered the ukulele in 2003. Still not a lot of resources but there was the Internet®.
Finding limited material for intermediate and advanced ukulele players, I have authored over 30 books for ukulele players. I have performed and presented workshops and clinics at various ukulele festival across the USA from New York to LA.
Here is what the Windy City Uke Festival Has Said About Me
Curt Sheller is probably the most published person on the planet for intermediate and advanced ukulele publications. His instruction manuals and training materials are the most extensive in advanced concepts of blues and improvisational jazz on the ukulele. His works includeAdvanced Guide to Chord Progressions for Ukulele,Exploring Jazz Chords on Ukulele,QuickStart Arpeggio Fingerings for Ukulelejust to name a few.
My Ukulele Books
Just browsing over both books, they look fantastic! I'm a guitarist and uke player for over 25 years and was thinking about writing a ukulele book but you've already written what I think are the best, most comprehensive and thorough books I've ever seen for the instrument. I just might end up buying every book you've written and I'll be giving my highest recommendation for your books to my friends and students. Thank you so much for taking the time to write such great books!- Peter Rhee
My Ukulele Performances
Curt, I really enjoyed your set at The Whiskey--your low key intros, mic persona provided a cool contrast with your complex uke technique and ingenious arrangements! - Best wishes, Jared Denhard