Looking for a different type of uke songbook

Hello, I'm really looking for a set of intermediate to advanced songs to play.

Most songbooks I have seen simply show the chord, the lyrics, and the notes of the vocal melody (with no tab, just chord charts). Nothing wrong with this "strum and sing" format, but I want to play a more advanced style.

What I want is a book of songs that that are fully tabbed out, intended for solo uke, where the music stands on its own (i.e. no singing required). Fingerstyle or a mix of individual melody and the occasional strum (is this chord melody?) is fine.

Does anyone know of a book that meets these requirements?

I was looking at the Lyle Ritz Jazz book but it seems to be more like the first example I mentioned, just strumming with challenging and frequent chord changes.

So, you're looking for uke tab, basically. There is a lot less of it out there than strum-and-sing material, but it does exist. Here's an Amazon search to get you started.

As for the Lyle Ritz books - there are several. The orange cover one is strum and sing; the Lyle Lite book referenced in the linked search is chord melody + notes. John King and Tony Mizen have classical books that are no singing required. Fred Sokolow's blues, bluegrass, and fingerstyle books are as well.

Also - you could use the chords from the strum and sing books to start learning to make your own arrangements. I do this - it's time consuming, but fun.

Hope that helps! Please let us know if you find anything really interesting out there; I'm always on the lookout for more.

janeray, thanks for the response. I appreciate the search results, but I am most interested in the particular suggestions you provided. It helps to be able to explain exactly what you want to someone who is in the know. I just wish there was a store somewhere that had all these books so I could just flip through real quick before buying.

THere are not very many books for sale that have ukulele music written out that way. The Ukulele Way method has a website that teaches reading musical notes so you could take arrangements for piano etc.. and play them on the ukulele. I have used "easy piano" arrangements with chords for guitar and added melody notes to the the chords.

But because there is a lack of published material there are many websites that offer the material free of charge that individuals have arranged for themselves and share it with other hobbyists. To find the songs you want you might want to search google for - Ukulele Tab for ~name of song you are looking for~ and if you like the Beatles you are probably going to have enough material to keep you busy for a long, long time. You can also search words like "ukulele solo" or Ukulele Melody for the songs you are looking for.

what type of music are you looking to play ? and what skill level are you comfortable with ?

A lot of Ukulele Mike Lynch's material is chord melody/ solos and some are free on his website so you can get an idea what they are like.

http://allthingsukulele.com/2015/01...ele-mike-from-the-52-song-chord-melody-ebook/

dskids said:

I just wish there was a store somewhere that had all these books so I could just flip through real quick before buying.

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Contact your school's music department and find out where they rent their instruments from. Chances are, that store will have a good selection of printed material.

I have half a dozen music stores in my area, but only one of them has a good selection of ukulele books (including all the Fred Sokolow titles that Jane mentioned). It's the store that deals with the schools. You may have to go to a bigger city to find them.

There are two books that have Jake's stuff and Craig Brandau has a book out too

unfortunately, Brian 1 is right. There is not much printed stuff for solo uke around.
that was one of the reasons I started making up my own stuff. check out my website.
maybe some tunes included you are looking for.... just to pass the time until the ukulele
is taken for serious by the publishers ...

Contact Colin Tribe. http://www.the-musical-ukulele.com/contact/

I bought 800 solo uke tabs from him. You can buy his full set or pick out the ones you want to buy. The easiest ones are about the same level as the most advanced ones from Mike Lynch. Many of the arrangements are excellent. There's a lot there to work with. They are all in pdf format - no book but you can print them if you want.

phrunk said:

unfortunately, Brian 1 is right. There is not much printed stuff for solo uke around.
that was one of the reasons I started making up my own stuff. check out my website.

Click to expand...

Really? One local music store stocks about 50 titles for ukulele - and not just lead sheet compilations, but full blown instrumental solo scores with sheet music and tabs. Perhaps it's regional, but a quick Amazon search brings up many as well. Certainly not the volume of material we have for guitar, but plenty to keep one busy for quite awhile...

OregonJim said:

Really? One local music store stocks about 50 titles for ukulele - and not just lead sheet compilations, but full blown instrumental solo scores with sheet music and tabs. Perhaps it's regional, but a quick Amazon search brings up many as well. Certainly not the volume of material we have for guitar, but plenty to keep one busy for quite awhile...

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Yes, there is some material available, if you don't mind paying money for songs in public domain and available elsewhere for free. As an example a few months ago I went to the local music shop to buy the music for AC/DC highway to hell and they had it listed on their website I got there to find it was simply chord sheets when they advertised tabs. I also would be paying for the entire "AC/DC for Ukulele book had I not stopped by and checked and would have gotten nothing I was looking for for my almost $20.

Looking at the list from Amazon: The Mel Bay book listed first in the Amazon link has the arrangement for "twinkle twinkle" and 26 other songs I have never heard of.

The following book was "clasical Muisc" which is also available for free on the internet, and in public domain. The following book "Jazz Stanards" does not list the songs that are included in the book. After that is another Mel Bay book full of public domain songs. Mostly Hawaiian that I have not heard of. Following that is a book that teaches you how to arrange your own solos. Followed by a book of songs that doesn't list the songs (which are public domain) a book of children's songs (also public domain) and some Holiday songs (public domain)

These books probably all have good arrangements but good arrangements of the same music are also available for less or free. You are correct there is material out there but it is very repetitive. If you want something contemporary you are very lucky to find it in a music store arranged for the ukulele, and if you do find it, the odds of it being an arrangement that is too difficult or too simple are very high.

dskids said:

I just wish there was a store somewhere that had all these books so I could just flip through real quick before buying.

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I agree, in-person is best, but when that's not an option, Amazon has a "look inside" option that lets you see at least an example of what many of the books contain, such as this John King book. And if it turns out to not be what you want, they are great with returns.

I'm actually amazed at how much fingerstyle uke stuff there is published now. When I first started playing, there were the John King books and not much else. Granted, those two books (here's the other one - no "look inside" option but it's the same format) probably contain enough material to last me the rest of my mortal days, but it's always good to have some variety.

I think you may really enjoy ukulelezaza's two TAB books. Also come with an accompanying DVD. Wonderful player, sweet and full sounding arrangements and simply great songs.

dskids wrote:

What I want is a book of songs that that are fully tabbed out, intended for solo uke, where the music stands on its own (i.e. no singing required). Fingerstyle or a mix of individual melody and the occasional strum (is this chord melody?) is fine.

Does anyone know of a book that meets these requirements?

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Almost ... but it'd involve learning to read conventional music notation rather than tab, then all you've got to do is look in a music book laid out for a descant recorder (ie. most of them). The recorder's lowest note is a C, just like a ukulele, and only the more advanced stuff goes above A in the second octave, which'll take you up to the 12th fret on the ukulele.

If you feel you really must have tab, there's a whole slew of tunes available in ABC format that can be imported to an appropriate app, utility or program and converted to tab for the ukulele. Tabledit http://www.tabledit.com/ is one I've had experience of, but I believe there are others.

Hippie Dribble said:

I think you may really enjoy ukulelezaza's two TAB books. Also come with an accompanying DVD. Wonderful player, sweet and full sounding arrangements and simply great songs.

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Yep, these are fantastic. Great songs that will have you working on a wide variety of picking/strumming techniques.

There is tons of stuff out there free and in print. In addition to Zaza, check out:
http://quietamericanmusic.com/ukuleletabsandvideos/ - has several books available
http://ukulelesecrets.org - some real gold in this one
http://www.daddystovepipe.com - amazing blues ebooks with vids

There are many other excellent books in just about any style that you want to play.

Hippie Dribble said:

I think you may really enjoy ukulelezaza's two TAB books. Also come with an accompanying DVD. Wonderful player, sweet and full sounding arrangements and simply great songs.

Click to expand...

Oh yeah, second those. I bought them here on his Etsy store and they shipped to me in California from Belgium in under a week.

I also love ukulelezaza's books. You can search ukulelezaza in youtube to see him performs his arrangements, to see if his style suits you. He plays old pop and jazz tunes from the 20‘s and 30s. You can 'look inside' Rob MacKillops uke books on the Mel Bay site, and he can be found on youtube also. I like Rob's Sanz and Celtic books best. For pop tunes, Colin Tribe is great. Tony Mizen's two books are nice, too -baroque and renaissance music. For low G, Craig Brandau has some challenging arrangements of jazz standards from the 40s and 50s. I also like Wilfried Welti's ebooks, at www.ukulelearts.com, with links to youtube vids of his arrangements. Finally, John King's book of Uke Solos and Duets, published by Mel Bay, is great. He offers suggested right and left hand fingerings, a useful bonus. The tunes in his book are turn of the century parlor music, very special music IMO.

The material I mentioned covers a wide range of genres, so your musical tastes will determine what you like. Good luck, and have fun!

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the plentiful resources Dominator has on his site. Super helpful.

http://dominator.ukeland.com/index2.shtml

phrunk said:

unfortunately, Brian 1 is right. There is not much printed stuff for solo uke around.
that was one of the reasons I started making up my own stuff. check out my website.
maybe some tunes included you are looking for.... just to pass the time until the ukulele
is taken for serious by the publishers ...

Click to expand...

I like phrunk's tabs. I use some in my daily practice.

Here are the free classical tabs on UkeFever.

And don't forget Corey Fujimoto's sheet music on the fabulous Ukulele Review.

Hippie Dribble said:

I think you may really enjoy ukulelezaza's two TAB books. Also come with an accompanying DVD. Wonderful player, sweet and full sounding arrangements and simply great songs.

Click to expand...

Yes, yes, yes! I have both of these and I think they for what you're looking for. Songs and instrumentals, lovely stuff. Available from Etsy.