My mission is to empower students of all levels to achieve their musical goals and gain independence by creating accessible, structured, and proper educational material

I started playing the ukulele by accident! a wonderful video of a colleague playing a Chilean tune inspired me to create a simple arrangement of a lullaby for my son. This sparked another and then another. This chain of events lead me to experiment with Led Zeppelin's Stairway To Heaven while my car was getting its oil changed! the worker asked if he can see/listen to the full arrangement on YouTube or Spotify and that's when I knew I had to upload and share my work


It turns out he wasn't the only one interested!


After many requests for my arrangements' tabs and how-to tutorials, MK Fingerstyle Academy was born

What is MK Fingerstyle Academy and who is it for?

Before creating MK Fingerstyle Academy I spent the better part of 2 years talking with as many of you as possible to try to understand what challenges you face when learning the ukulele. The majority of students on social media posting on my channels or public forums face a combination of the following challenges:


  • Have been playing for a while (1 to 30+ years) and have developed bad habits and/or stuck in the same level
  • Tired of strumming or don't want to use the ukulele as a singing instrument. Instead, you want to play stand-alone arrangements of music where you play all layers in a single arrangement
  • Confused with the massive amounts of resources out there (YouTube, Facebook, Reddit, Patreon, etc) and the conflicting advice between these resources
  • Lack a structured approach to learning and practising the ukulele
  • Lack a structured approach to progressing through the levels of being a student (beginner, intermediate, advanced)
  • Lack a structured approach to self-evaluating your ability in a grading system
  • the inability to play legato and/or lack the ability to express the music due to lack of music theory knowledge or unhealthy obsession with fingerings
  • Cannot afford the cost of private lessons and/or life don't allow you to commit to a regular lesson schedule
  • Self conscious about many things: your level, your playing, health (injuries) and language barriers to name a few


Once I had a better idea of the common challenges faced by the international online ukulele community, I used my 10 + years experience of teaching privately, Bachelors and Masters degrees in classical music performance, research on pedagogical approaches to online education, and videography skills to create educational material that answer all the challenges listed above. The true power of MK Fingerstyle Academy is that it:

  • First and foremost, provides pre-recorded online courses that you can access wherever and whenever you like at a fraction of the cost of private online lessons. For example, Ukulele Fingerstyle Basics covers your first 2 years of private lessons ($3000+) at the price of just 4 private lessons
  • Focuses on fingerstyle content which allows you to play stand-alone arrangements and/or self accompany your singing in more unique ways than strumming chord progressions and patterns
  • Provides proper pedagogical approaches to posture, technique, and practising disciplines to stop, correct, and develop proper muscle memory and habits that you can confidentially trust in any genre/style you play
  • Provides a single resource for providing arrangements, tutorials, courses, lessons, and live events to help you focus your energy, time, finances and effort
  • Provides a universal grading system within the academy that you can use to measure your progress. This system uses grades 1-8 which roughly mirrors RCM's grading in North America as well as ABRSM in Europe
  • All my courses aim to provide you with tools necessary to self-evaluate your progress which is crucial for gaining independence
  • Covers wide range of skill levels as well as covering both technique based and music theory based courses
  • For those who thrive in making connections, the Academy provides multiple ways to connect with other like minded students: Private social media groups that are moderated by myself, live events, and the opportunity to book private lessons for me for the ultimate personalized learning experience

MK Fingerstyle Academy is my way to use music as a mean to support my family. Ultimately though, it was created to serve the online ukulele community and I wouldn't have been to able to create it without the amazing support of my followers and students who sent me messages, requests, emails, videos, and participated in live events and lessons. Your patience and passion are the driving force behind the academy and it wouldn't have been possible without you.


You have my sincere gratitude,

Mustafa

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