Sheet Music

Hello UU, Providence here and I would like to know about ukulele sheet music as it doesn't seem there is much out there. What I would like to know is what are some recommended books of sheet music? Please excuse me if this topic has already been covered. Thank you

-Providence

Ian Chadwick has posted a ton of vintage song books.

Check them out.

In general, if you read sheet music you should be able to use any Fakebook style collection of lead sheets without too many problems.

ihavenotea said:

In general, if you read sheet music you should be able to use any Fakebook style collection of lead sheets without too many problems.

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Very true. Or, for that matter, pretty much any regular sheet music that's for piano/vocal/guitar will work for the uke too if you're just intending to strum and sing. You would merely ignore the guitar chord diagrams and pay attention only to the chord names.

Providence, if you're looking for music that actually has ukulele chord diagram, check out Jim Beloff's series of "Jumpin' Jim" books. They feature different sets of popular songs.

Another way to notate ukulele music is tablature, which goes beyond just telling you what chord to stum, and tells you exactly where to put your finger and at what time (for melodies, etc.). Probably my favorite collection of tablature is Mark Kailana Nelson's "Learn to Play Fingerstyle Solos for Ukulele".

:nana:

JJ

P.S. If you go to somewhere like SheetMusicPlus.com and type in a search for "ukulele", you'll get tons of results.

Perfect!

Thanks alot, so that figerstyle solos for ukulele book is all about tab? I know this might be some fallacy of some kind here to use a finger pick for the ukulele but I have to keep my nails short, so what is a recommended pik to use on the ukulele. I am looking at perhaps buying a couple of those Alaska Piks personally but is there something better to use than that? Thanks.

There is also plenty of tab with standard notation on my website at the link in the signature line below. There is also a link on the tabs page to Uke Hunt's series on how to read tab.

Alaska Piks are really for someone who's planning to fingerpick, like how a classical guitar player uses their nails as picks. I've tried them before and they take some getting used to. They can also be uncomfortable until stretched a bit, and you may have to file down the edges that otherwise tend to dig into your fingers.

Most steel string guitarists use a flat pick (plectrum) held between the thumb and index finger. If you're going to be strumming, a flat pick is the way to go.

Honestly, you don't need much nail at all to fingerpick. There are even classical guitarists who play without nails at all.

IanChadwick: I had no clue about your books. Excellent!

Thanks ihaveanotea. Great info!

itsme said:

Honestly, you don't need much nail at all to fingerpick. There are even classical guitarists who play without nails at all.

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Yup. After all, it's called "fingerpicking", not "nailpicking".

My nails are of a perfectly standard, "normal guy" length. They don't enter into my fingerpicking at all. I just use the pads of my fingers.

JJ

ihavenotea said:

Ian Chadwick has posted a ton of vintage song books.

Click to expand...

Very cool link, thanks.

There are also many websites with tabs. My personal favorite is Chordie.com. For the songs with grid-style notation, you can change the mark-up to match your instrument (ie - uke C, D or G tuning), create and publish songbooks, even export to iPod notes to take on the road with you!

I know there are a lot others, I'm just hooked on that site.