Searching for Vintage Ukulele Songbooks

Hi everyone!

I am very much interested in vintage ukulele songs, such as those by Johnny Marvin, Cliff Edwards or Roy Smeck, however I have had much trouble in finding chords and songbooks for these songs.

I noticed that Ian Chadwick was selling a large collection:
http://www.vintageukemusic.com/ordering.htm

However, it appears the information on his website is outdated and hasn't been updated for some time. I have tried contacting him at his given email address but have had little luck in doing so. If anyone could provide any assistance in this then I would be most grateful.

Perhaps I have missed something but I have indeed searched the forum and have not had a great deal of success in finding the songs I want (this is probably the moment you all tell me to try and work out the songs by ear )

Many thanks to all.

I see a lot of vintage ukulele song books on ebay. I don't know if they are specifically what you are looking for, but it wouldn't hurt looking there.

Rllink said:

I see a lot of vintage ukulele song books on ebay. I don't know if they are specifically what you are looking for, but it wouldn't hurt looking there.

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Totally, but the issue is is simply the cost, each of the vintage song books costs quite a lot, especially when many of them are from the US. And Ian seemed to offer it for quite a fair price for such an extensive collection - or am I simply being stingy?

Depending on what you call vintage, there are a lot of chord/lyrics on the internet.

In days of old, people bought sheet music, (1920~30).

I may have a couple stashed away somewhere. I'll look for them later this evening. If they're what you want you can have them.

uke1950 said:

In days of old, people bought sheet music, (1920~30).

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There is plenty of vintage one-song sheet music available on the internet, and I've bought a bunch myself over the years, but the problem is that they're all piano arrangements. Even the "Ukulele Accompaniment" is always just a few chord names/diagrams. For those of us looking for more complex uke-specific arrangements... I'm not sure anything like that even exists from 1900-1940. I don't think the ukulele was seen a full-fledged instrument back then, the way it is now.

Soundbored said:

There is plenty of vintage one-song sheet music available on the internet, and I've bought a bunch myself over the years, but the problem is that they're all piano arrangements. Even the "Ukulele Accompaniment" is always just a few chord names/diagrams. For those of us looking for more complex uke-specific arrangements... I'm not sure anything like that even exists from 1900-1940. I don't think the ukulele was seen a full-fledged instrument back then, the way it is now.

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I'm not so sure about that. I have ukulele-specific sheet music for "When You Wish Upon A Star" that was published in 1939. "Singing In The Rain" was originally performed by Cliff Edwards and his ukulele in a 1929 film, and I can't imagine the sheet music wasn't made available at that time specifically for ukulele. These may be exceptions to your statement, but it indicates an awareness of some demand for ukulele-specific sheet music.

The heyday of the Ukulele was in the 20's. It was the dominant instrument in the early 20th century. Chord diagrams were invented because of the Ukulele. When I was buying sheet music you could bet with fair certainty that titles before 1926 wouldn't have chord diagrams, but after that date they would. More sheet music specific to the Ukulele was published then than for any other instrument.

The arrangements are often wonderful. The writers of Tin Pan Alley were composing for their market, and their market was Ukulele players. As such, the most talented writers of the American songbook composed for our little companions; in other words much of the classic Tin Pan Alley repertoire we know today was actually written for the Ukulele in the first place. They wrote in several tunings, their compositions weren't too complicated for the average player, but included little touches here and there like maybe a simple diminished chord or a clever turn around - things that are seldom found in today's sheet music, but make all the difference between beautiful progressions and boredom.

I have a pretty substantial collection myself, but still it's nothing compared to what Ian offers (I have his too). His site says he'll go back to filling orders in the fall. Try a few selected titles in the meantime, but Ian's stuff is where to go - at over 3500 titles for less than the price of 5 pieces of vintage music - well worth the relatively short wait.

I posted a while back about the New York Public library archive here

http://forum.ukuleleunderground.com/showthread.php?117817-New-York-Public-Library-Makes-180-000-High-Res-Images-Available-Online

There was quite a bit of sheet music in there too.

These may be of interest;
http://musicmansteve.com/folios/Folios.htm

Camsuke said:

These may be of interest;
http://musicmansteve.com/folios/Folios.htm

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Very nice! Considering I never seem to have time to play in the first place and have way more music than I need, there are still some very tempting titles there.

southcoastukes said:

The heyday of the Ukulele was in the 20's. It was the dominant instrument in the early 20th century.

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No, that was clearly the piano.

Chord diagrams were invented because of the Ukulele.

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What? No, chord diagrams were first used in guitar and lute methods from the 16th century.

More sheet music specific to the Ukulele was published then than for any other instrument.
The arrangements are often wonderful. The writers of Tin Pan Alley were composing for their market, and their market was Ukulele players. As such, the most talented writers of the American songbook composed for our little companions; in other words much of the classic Tin Pan Alley repertoire we know today was actually written for the Ukulele in the first place.

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I wish that were true, but I think most composers of that time period wrote on the piano.

I'm curious to see an example you have of a "uke-specific arrangement". Everything I've found is like this:



Yeah sure, there are uke chords there for strumming along, but the actual lead arrangement is for voice and piano. Another "feature" of tin pan alley sheet music is extremely "busy" treble parts. They liked blizzards of notes. I have a version of 'Aloha Oe' from 1916, and the treble staff is unplayable on the ukulele. It's piano music. You need to have a good musical sense, and uke skills, to know how to simplify the lines to something worthy of being called a "ukulele arrangement".

Look for May Singhi Breen's collections. Known as "The Ukulele Lady", she was the person who convinced the Musician's Union to include Ukulele as an instrument. She also was responsible for more ukulele arrangements of popular music than anyone else, and her arrangements span nearly 50 years.

Granted, she mostly used a D tuning, but for those of us who play by using a known tune and the chord charts, her arrangements work just fine. (Some are quite a bit trickier than others, but she was a serious musician, after all.)

And I have Ian's collection.


Worth it!

Soundbored said:

I'm curious to see an example you have of a "uke-specific arrangement". Everything I've found is like this:

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Maybe you haven't looked in enough places. I found this, copyright 1940, on eBay.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/WALT-DISNEYS-PINOCCHIO-WHEN-YOU-WISH-UPON-A-STAR-VINTAGE-ILLUSTRATED-SHEET-MUSIC-/141307414723?hash=item20e69408c3:g:2vYAAOxyIPNTd1aj

As mds725 has shown, this is the kind of sheet music that was left behind by my brother's father in law when he died. It was for uke, but most of what he had was a different tuning than that which is used today.

mds725 said:

Maybe you haven't looked in enough places. I found this, copyright 1940, on eBay.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/WALT-DISNEYS-PINOCCHIO-WHEN-YOU-WISH-UPON-A-STAR-VINTAGE-ILLUSTRATED-SHEET-MUSIC-/141307414723?hash=item20e69408c3:g:2vYAAOxyIPNTd1aj

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I guess you didn't see the image I attached in the post above, for some reason all the images I post come out tiny.

Anyway, what you posted is piano sheet music with a few uke chords printed above it. That's what I was talking about in my post. That's not an idiomatic ukulele arrangement.

Soundbored said:

I guess you didn't see the image I attached in the post above, for some reason all the images I post come out tiny.

Anyway, what you posted is piano sheet music with a few uke chords printed above it. That's what I was talking about in my post. That's not an idiomatic ukulele arrangement.

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Maybe you could post (and, I hope, in an easier-to-see size) what you mean by sheet music with an "idiomatic ukulele arrangement." All I know is I can play this song on an ukulele using this sheet music.

mds725 said:

Maybe you could post (and, I hope, in an easier-to-see size) what you mean by sheet music with an "idiomatic ukulele arrangement." All I know is I can play this song on an ukulele using this sheet music.

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You mean you can play the treble staff marked "Piano", and ignore the Piano bass clef? Or play the staff marked "Voice"? Or simply strum the uke chords? What exactly do you mean?

What I mean by "idiomatic ukulele arrangement", is an arrangement for solo ukulele with single note lead lines, written with the intention of performance on the uke. Not a piano arrangement, not a vocal melody, not a chord sheet. The kind of thing you can easily find for guitar from every era and genre. I have yet to see this for uke from the "golden era".

Soundbored said:

You mean you can play the treble staff marked "Piano", and ignore the Piano bass clef? Or play the staff marked "Voice"? Or simply strum the uke chords? What exactly do you mean?

What I mean by "idiomatic ukulele arrangement", is an arrangement for solo ukulele with single note lead lines, written with the intention of performance on the uke. Not a piano arrangement, not a vocal melody, not a chord sheet. The kind of thing you can easily find for guitar from every era and genre. I have yet to see this for uke from the "golden era".

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I don't care that the sheet music I posted has more information than I can use as long as it has all the information I need. The melody line allows me to sing and and the ukulele chords allow me to play accompanying chords on my ukulele. I suspect that what you're looking for is sheet music for solo ukulele (i.e., playing a combination of chords and melodies), and in the so-called golden age that simply wasn't how the ukulele was used. it became popular back then as an accompaniment instrument, and sheet music like the page I posted served that purpose AND permitted additional accompaniment on other instruments or by other vocalists singing harmony. I guess what you're looking for is the "golden age" equivalent of tabs, which is the prevalent way of presenting music for ukulele these days. Maybe you could post ANY example (not one that necessarily comes from the early 20th century) of what you want.

mds725 said:

I suspect that what you're looking for is sheet music for solo ukulele (i.e., playing a combination of chords and melodies), and in the so-called golden age that simply wasn't how the ukulele was used...

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Yes, that is what I'm always looking for, and I think you're right, it just wasn't thought of that way. But there were some players from that time who could make it sing, and be fully expressive - not just 'strummy'. Listen to Cliff Edwards doing the best, and saddest, version of "Over The Rainbow" ever.

Thanks for your replies mds.