Jumpin' Jim's Gone Hollywood songbook-Low G? Help!

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Blackwingy

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Hey all-

A couple of weeks ago I discovered this video on YT, which I fell in love with:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IN3aETNaThI

...and I wanted to find the music for the song, "Honolulu". Thanks to google I learned it's included in Jumpin' Jim's Gone Hollywood songbook. I also noticed one of the Amazon reviews mentions the tabs are for LOW G tuning...I worried a bit about this, being a rank beginner with only high G ukes on hand, but anyway, it arrived today.

Question is-are the songs-some or all-meant for a low G uke? I can't find any mention of it in the book, but sure enough staggering through various titles, some sound weird or a little "off"-just a little-when I play through them. Although I am a totally rank beginner, I have a good ear and can sing every song in the book(big old movie buff here!), so...what's up, do you think?

I'm sure the experts will know!

(On a personal and off-topic note: I don't know if Jumpin' Jim is a member here, but I was stunned to see that my late husband, Pete, is the third person (after Jim's wife and Jeannie Basinger) that Jim thanks in the introduction. He must have chosen the stills that are diplayed in the book, as that was one of his jobs at Larry Edmunds for many years. He's been gone for 5 years now...it was a bittersweet shock to have his name jump out at me in that context. Talk about a small world!)
 
I just tried to find the Amazon review that mentions Low G and couldn't find it. Any of these books that I have seen are chords or melody and lyrics with no tablature. Low G or high g will work.
 
Raygf said:
I just tried to find the Amazon review that mentions Low G and couldn't find it. Any of these books that I have seen are chords or melody and lyrics with no tablature. Low G or high g will work.
Click to expand...

Here's the Amazon page with the review that mentions it:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0634062182/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?qid=1372379514&sr=8-2&pi=SL75

The book does have tabs. I don't know how one could tell or if there's some notation that goes on a chart to suggest a low G tuning-yep, I'm a newbie! :)
I have read in my browsings that some early/jazzy ukulele songs are intended for low G, so I wondered.

Anyone out there have this book? It's pretty cool, btw.
 
Blackwingy said:
Here's the Amazon page with the review that mentions it:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0634062182/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?qid=1372379514&sr=8-2&pi=SL75

The book does have tabs. I don't know how one could tell or if there's some notation that goes on a chart to suggest a low G tuning-yep, I'm a newbie! :)
I have read in my browsings that some early/jazzy ukulele songs are intended for low G, so I wondered.

Anyone out there have this book? It's pretty cool, btw.
Click to expand...

I might have found the review if i had read Hollywood and not Hawaiian. Duh! I found two pages of preview for the Hollywood book on Sheet Music Plus and there are chord grids over treble clef standard notation of the melody with the lyrics under that. One of the melodies has some low G notes, so if you are trying to read and play the melody on an ukulele, you would need a low G. The chords can be played on either. I have not seen any Jumpin' Jim's Gone . . . books with tablature. I own several, just not the Hollywood one. Tablature is four lines representing the strings and numbers on the lines representing fret numbers. Hope that helps.
 
Thanks-now it's my "duh"-you're right, they are the chords up there above the lyrics but I guess not strictly "tabs" as there's no finger positions on them. I sort of thought of chord grids & tabs as one & the same.
Wouldn't having a low G make the chord sound different, though? And how can one tell which-low G or high-is suggested by the song? The caveat the Amazon reviewer notes seems to suggest some songs won't work with a reentrant tuning.
Thanks again for your help!
 
Blackwingy said:
Thanks-now it's my "duh"-you're right, they are the chords up there above the lyrics but I guess not strictly "tabs" as there's no finger positions on them. I sort of thought of chord grids & tabs as one & the same.
Wouldn't having a low G make the chord sound different, though? And how can one tell which-low G or high-is suggested by the song? The caveat the Amazon reviewer notes seems to suggest some songs won't work with a reentrant tuning.
Thanks again for your help!
Click to expand...

Low G makes the 4th string play the note G an octave lower.
Strumming the chords along with these songs works on your high g ukes. Strum away!
 
Blackwingy said:
And how can one tell which-low G or high-is suggested by the song?
Click to expand...
Pretty easy: if you want to play the melody and have notes below C (the note on the first ledger line below the staff) you will need a low-G uke.

In general chords sound a bit fuller with low G, more towards guitar. Some like it, some don't - and even that depends sometimes...
 
The Amazon UK /comments/ do mention it is geared towards low-G

This just means slipping a classical guitar's 4th D-string on there. You can get separate strings, it's the smallest wound nylon one. Classical guitars do wear out their wound bass strings faster than they do the plain trebles - you can buy half-sets too. Tip - put a spot of superglue on the wrap where you will cut it to stop it unravelling, otherwise it will unravel when you take it off and release pressure on it (unusable then).

You can keep the high-G string handy for for when you want to replace it.

Of course it may be an excuse to buy another ukulele.
 
Some of the songs have melody lines that dip below middle C. If you are skilled enough to play melody off standard music notation, then I expect you can also handle the challenge of taking it up an octave, or substituting a harmonizing note, or transposing the whole song to a higher key, or yes, changing a string to use a low-G tuning. Not that I would ever discourage someone from buying a new ukulele just to play a few low notes in one songbook!

If you are strumming chords then low or high G is irrelevant except to suit your personal taste. I play high G. I play from that book a lot. It has never occurred to me for an instant that the book is "geared for low G."

"Honolulu" incidentally never strays below middle C.
 
acmespaceship said:
Some of the songs have melody lines that dip below middle C. If you are skilled enough to play melody off standard music notation, then I expect you can also handle the challenge of taking it up an octave, or substituting a harmonizing note, or transposing the whole song to a higher key, or yes, changing a string to use a low-G tuning. Not that I would ever discourage someone from buying a new ukulele just to play a few low notes in one songbook!

If you are strumming chords then low or high G is irrelevant except to suit your personal taste. I play high G. I play from that book a lot. It has never occurred to me for an instant that the book is "geared for low G."

"Honolulu" incidentally never strays below middle C.
Click to expand...

Thanks heaps for the feedback, Acmespaceship, and all of you.
Yes, After all my newbie low G? high G? angst, I sat myself down and strummed through "Honolulu" and yep, it sounded fine. Talk about overthinking it! LOL, I have no excuses. But I do understand the deal a lot better now-I think. ;)

Now about my strumming..! Oy!
 
Everybody should have a low-g uke, just in case.....

Ukes as such usually love to be in groups, that's why we all suffer from UAS :cool:
 
I prefer a low g on my accoustic tenor as I like to play melody notes below middle C, like b, a and of course, g. I thought I might keep my soprano uke in high g but now it sounds odd so I'm switching that one too and all my ukes will have low g.
 
I have tried many sets of low G strings on several tenors and have decided that I prefer high g on tenor. Although, I have enough tenors that I will continue the experiment with one or two. The rest are staying or going back to high g. I have come to prefer low G on baritone with Southcoast's linear set. I find it to be a more balanced sound.
 
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