Which chord book is best?

Preacher

Preacher

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Some of the sheet music that has been shared with me by other ukesters doesn't have the handy dandy pictures to tell me how to make the chords, so I have no idea how to form them. This has happened enough (both to me and to another new-to-ukes individual when we were the only two to show up to one of our club meetings) that I've decided to get a chord book that shows ALL the chords there are (not that I'll be playing most of them for a long while yet, but still...)

So, I've found 3 books that are supposed to be the best or most complete. They all seem to be arranged differently though. And be of different sizes and bindings so their usefulness is questioned by some reviewers. What are your recommendations? Here are the 3 I've found. (And if you've got a better recommendation, please share.) Thanks.

Treasury of Ukulele Chords by Roy Sakuma

Hal Leonard Ukulele Chord Finder

Ukulele Chord Dictionary (Mini Music Guide)
 
Before you buy anything check out some of the free charts. A few that come to mind are ukuchords.com and ukulele-chords.com. A Google search will turn up lots more. I downloaded a bunch of different ones and keep printouts along with my music sheets.
 
Familiar with Roy Sakuma's Treasury of Ukulele Chords because several people have them. I like the chord charts on Live 'Ukulele because it shows 2nd and 3rd positions. It's in PDF, printable, easily incorporated within a song book and "Free".
 
To me, Roy Sakuma's is hardest to find but is the best. Please see my review of it, with direct comparisons to Hal Leonard, on Amazon. But, I did not try the third book that you mention.
 
A good suggestion, photoshooter, and I have done a lot of that. The key word here, though, is ALL. And another goal is convenience. I've got lots of pages printed out, but certainly not all the chords are covered, and it's a pain to search for a chord I'm not familiar with when the sheets aren't organized in any specific way. That's why I figured to get a book where the work has already been done for me. So perhaps my question should be, which book is best for the lazy student? ☺
 
The Sakuma book. I've been using it for 6 years. It fits in the pocket of a standard binder (that I keep my sheet music in), covers 4 positions of chords up to the 12th fret, and I haven't found a single mistake in it yet.

I'm far too lazy myself to be bothered with looking stuff up online and printing charts out. So I'd say this is ideal for the lazy student!
 
Like a few others, I really wouldn't bother with a book. There are so many chord charts available on line (just Google "ukulele chord chart" and look at the Images) - I am sure you will find enough to be going on with.
 
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Best? Learn the notes and create your own.

I'm finding more and more that I need chords that Just Aren't On THe Chart, or the Chart version, though technically accurate, isn't all that useful in context. I'm looking at YOU FMaj7 . . . (55oo or 5557 work well...)

That said, Sakura or "Ukulele Handbook" which includes other tunings.
 
Preacher said:
A good suggestion, photoshooter, and I have done a lot of that. The key word here, though, is ALL. And another goal is convenience. I've got lots of pages printed out, but certainly not all the chords are covered, and it's a pain to search for a chord I'm not familiar with when the sheets aren't organized in any specific way. That's why I figured to get a book where the work has already been done for me. So perhaps my question should be, which book is best for the lazy student? ☺
Click to expand...

I'm with you there. I bought the Hal Leonard book in Kindle format and keep it on my tablet. I like it fine but recently I found a pdf chord book that I use a lot. If you go to the Collingwood Public Library Ukulele Group (CPLUG) website and scroll down the page you'll see download links for a large format chord book. It's definitely worth checking out. While you're there check out the songbook too :) Many thanks to groups like CPLUG for putting these resources on the web.

That being said, based on this thread I may check out the Sakuma book too.
 
The Sakuma book is fantastic.
 
ubulele said:
As a lazy uker, I learned how to decipher the chord name notation, learned the four main movable shapes for dominant 7th chords, and just derive what I need from them—works all over the neck and I'm not dependent on a book. There are very few chords you can't derive in simple, predictable fashion from the dominant 7th shapes or the corresponding simple major and minor chords. The same approach works pretty well when you switch to other tunings, too—you memorize the main shapes (about 10–16 per tuning) and derive the rest as needed. It doesn't depend on anything you shouldn't be learning anyway, and I find it a lot simpler than trying to memorize thousands of chords as random dot arrangements or being slave to C6 tuning.
Click to expand...
#


Ubu ...you can do this IF you are well versed in theory and understanding of chord construction ......and I note that you say something or other to that effect about "should be learning anyway".....:agree:

We mere mortals and Can't Be Arsedonists though are in thrall and deep respect to guys like you whom have learned so we don't have to (well I have a bit) and then they have put it all in a book .....my fave is :

Hal Leonard Ukulele Chord Finder. Over 1000 chords laid out in rows and columns. The rows being the chord name from the basic to the diminished 7th for each chord starting with C over 7 pages and then similarly for each note up the keyboard ,fretboard C,Db,D etc.

The columns are three positions of each chord ...so you get 1st position and then two higher, 2nd and 3rd arguably........


but in defence of what Ubulele says, and I was yanking his chain , you very quickly come to grasp the concept of what he is saying about shapes repeating themselves as moveable chords ...e.g. play the second position C at fret 3 thus : 5433 ...and at 7655 it is D , 9877 E and then this is where your knowledge of scales comes in 10,9 8 8 F....

and so on and all the sharps and flats in between ....so you can in fact and in theory play the whole of a scale with one shape.....

And the other good thing about the book is there is a brief , but sufficiently informative chapter , couple of pages on chord theory and construction ,so it will go some way to help you learn how chords are made and you can then start to work them out a bit ....they aren't actually hard once you get the hang of the theorem......
 
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Ukulele Puapua sells a laminated 5 x 8 inch card with "108 Ukulele Chord Forms" on one side and "Hawaiian Vamp" on the other side. At my level, it is more than I need but it seems that it would be useful as a quick reference that is easy to carry.
 
I have all those three chord books.

My advice... get all three. It's really good to compare chord inversions between books when arranging a song. Those books don't cost much and don't take up much shelf space.

Roy's book is very comprehensive with 4 inversions on each page for all keys. Very handy. It also contains a great chord substitution example for Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.

The Hal Leonard book contains a good intro about musical chord theory (harmony). I also bought an e-book copy of it for my Surface Pro tablet and iPhone. Handy to have. It also tells you the degree of the scale for each note. Roy's book doesn't. Useful for theory.

Ukulele Chord Dictionary is a handy one to have as well. I've had it since I started playing uke in 2006. It has a great section about moveable chord shapes. It's also useful for learning all the main chords for each chord... i.e. A, Am, A7, etc... It doesn't offer inversions but it is very useful for just focusing on learning the main chords for a certain chord.

As for online resources, I always go to ezfolk.com. They have some really rad versions of the chords.
http://www.ezfolk.com/uke/chords/

There is also the Gig Bag Series for Ukulele. It's a picture book and handy but the plastic spine on my broke.

@coolkayaker1: Roy's book is hard to find. Funny, I bought it off him directly in Hawaii in March 2015! hehe Had to make the run to Hawaii to get it!

Aloha!

Petey
 
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