Can guitar/piano chords on fake books be used on ukulele?

I play piano and have a few fakebooks at home with piano and guitar chords. Can I play the chords as-is or would I need to transpose?? Obviously I wouldn't follow the guitar tablature but I would think that a G7 on the piano/guitar would also be a G7 on the ukulele.

I'm confused because I see ukulele fakebooks (which are quite expensive and pretty limited) and I wonder why people don't just use the guitar or piano versions which are cheaper and more widely available.

They certainly can be used by ukulele players, especially if you're wanting the chord changes to a song. A C chord is still a C chord whether you play it on piano, guitar or ukulele. They will probably be voiced differently, but if you see a G Em C D7 (for example) progression written for guitar or piano, it will also work for ukulele.

marimorimo said:

I'm confused because I see ukulele fakebooks (which are quite expensive and pretty limited) and I wonder why people don't just use the guitar or piano versions which are cheaper and more widely available.

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Yep, chords are chords are chords. Personally I think the main reason for the proliferation of ukulele fakebooks and songbooks is marketing - in my experience, a lot of the so-called "third wave" of uke players are hobbyist strummers who don't have a music background and don't know that they can use any songbook they want. Additionally, many need those uke-specific chord diagrams in order to play. Somebody saw a market and went for it!

The only uke-specific music I will buy now is tab plus standard notation, as it's helpful for knowing the fingering since the same note can appear in several places on the fretboard. But if I just want the chords for something, I'll seek out a lead sheet or piano arrangement because there's a lot more variety available.

marimorimo said:

I play piano and have a few fakebooks at home with piano and guitar chords. Can I play the chords as-is or would I need to transpose?? Obviously I wouldn't follow the guitar tablature but I would think that a G7 on the piano/guitar would also be a G7 on the ukulele.

I'm confused because I see ukulele fakebooks (which are quite expensive and pretty limited) and I wonder why people don't just use the guitar or piano versions which are cheaper and more widely available.

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I bought the Daily Uke just because it seems to be the favorite for when uke players jam, so the songs in it could be nice to know.

I plan to play plenty of my piano and C instrument music on the uke. I'm just beginning so I haven't gotten there.

I've been using music notation, (piano, flute, recorder), & making my own tabs from it.

It's not hard, all you need to know is what the notes are & where they are on the fretboard.

Thanks for the answers! Now I know I don't need to waste my money on ukulele songbooks, most of which don't have the songs I'm interested in anyway.

The only ones I'd want to buy are the ones for ukulele solo with tabs for all the notes...until I learn to figure out all the notes are and maybe then I won't need those anymore. But it's a long journey ahead!

I've got the Daily Uke books, as well as several of Jim Beloff's other books, mostly to support them. I have a crapload of fake books from when I played guitar, and I use them - but since I can't read music or tab, I just look at words and chord names - that is, Lead Sheets.

A great example are the Rise Up Singing/ Rise Again books. Rarely does a line of notation appear, and there are no chord diagrams - simply the names and the words - which makes it really easy for a group of people with dissimilarly tuned instruments to play together. To misquote Dr. Seuss, "A C is a C, no matter how small."

ksiegel said:

I've got the Daily Uke books, as well as several of Jim Beloff's other books, mostly to support them. I have a crapload of fake books from when I played guitar, and I use them - but since I can't read music or tab, I just look at words and chord names - that is, Lead Sheets.

A great example are the Rise Up Singing/ Rise Again books. Rarely does a line of notation appear, and there are no chord diagrams - simply the names and the words - which makes it really easy for a group of people with dissimilarly tuned instruments to play together. To misquote Dr. Seuss, "A C is a C, no matter how small."

-Kurt​

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*blinks*

So it wouldn't be like a clarinet (Bb instrument) and flute (C instrument) where when they each play a C, they're playing different notes? The names of the notes are still correct, not transposed? Well, this is a revelation.

If you play a C4 on a piano, a flute, a uke, or whatever, it is a C4 - the fingerings are different, but the note is still a C4.

uke1950 said:

If you play a C4 on a piano, a flute, a uke, or whatever, it is a C4 - the fingerings are different, but the note is still a C4.

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So a baritone is still a C instrument. That's where I was confused. On a clarinet, you have to play a D to get a C because it's C is Bb.

ksiegel said:

I've got the Daily Uke books, as well as several of Jim Beloff's other books, mostly to support them. I have a crapload of fake books from when I played guitar, and I use them - but since I can't read music or tab, I just look at words and chord names - that is, Lead Sheets.

A great example are the Rise Up Singing/ Rise Again books. Rarely does a line of notation appear, and there are no chord diagrams - simply the names and the words - which makes it really easy for a group of people with dissimilarly tuned instruments to play together. To misquote Dr. Seuss, "A C is a C, no matter how small."

-Kurt​

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I agree that the Rise Up Singing is a great resource. I haven't seen the Rise Again book, but assuming it is the same format and quality, I'll have to get a copy.

One minor quibble with terminology. A Lead Sheet refers to a simple melody, lyrics(if any) and harmony, given as chord names. Fake books usually consist of a bunch of lead sheets put together into a book. The original Fake books were jazz standards, but the fiddle tune fake book and others have appeared lately and are great for non jazz players.
A chord sheet supplies the chords and lyrics with no indication of the melody, therefore not too much use unless you know how the song goes, but very useful if you do.

Twibbly Instruments like clarinets, saxophones and trumpets are transposing instruments. This means that they are written in C instead of Bb or Eb to simplify reading. This does simplify things if the music is written for your instrument, but makes things more difficult when you're reading music written for a "C" instrument. The guitar is also a transposing instrument, but since it transposes down an octave, it doesn't cause the same difficulty in reading music for other instruments. The reason for writing the guitar an octave higher than it sounds is to avoid having to use the bass clef or one of those weird tenor or alto clefs.
I'm not sure of whether the baritone uke might also be a transposing instrument, but if it is, it will be an octave transposition, so chord names will remain the same. If that sounds like too much info, just ignore it and have fun playing. I'm a trivia buff.

Makes perfect sense to me. Thanks!