New Ukulele Fake Book

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Shastastan

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I'm not cheering for this fake book, but just want to mention it because it has a lot of the same songs that Jim Beloff has in his 2 Daily Ukulele books. I own and use both of them. The new ukulele books is published by Hal Leornard Corp.. I have 15 fake books, but they are not uke fake books. We use them a lot for playing gigs and sometimes I use our little chord chart stamp on a copy of a song from fake book. It's really nice that Beloff has chord charts in his books already. Because I already have Jim's books, I'm not going to get this new ukulele fakebook which is not released for sale yet that I saw on Amazon. This is just FYI.

Stan
 
Aloha Stan,
Great name....thank you for sharing, is there any one that you like best...Happy Strummings..
 
I think the main thing is that a fake book usually has more simplified versions of the songs.
 
Hey, Stan, we must have similar Amazon buying histories: that same book came up as a "recommendation" for me this morning. I also figure that there's going to be a lot of overlap with the two Beloff books but, I have to say, that if this uke fake book was available in PDF so I could have it on my iPad, I'd buy it. Unfortunately, I contacted Hal Leonard Music asking about it and got this reply: "We are not able to offer our books as PDF files due to copyright restrictions."

I get that, but I also know some music publishing companies *do* have theirs as PDFs which are "locked" (I have two, "Hawaiian Tunebook" and "Fingerstyle Ukulele" from Mel Bay) so I know there are ways that the publishers *can* do it. Sigh...I just wish the Beloff books were PDFs for electronic use; the Kindle and iBook versions are simply image files which are not usable in real life playing. I'm about ready to buy an extra copy of each Beloff book, pull the pages out, scan 'em in my ScanSnap (easy peasy) and create my own PDF. I've done that with other books--but there are just so many pages in the Beloff books (but that's good!).
 
I just started using the iReal b app on my ipad...very cool. Yes, the versions are simplified but using the app is a great way to learn jazz chords on the uke...I use the uke chord app for lookups.
 
Hi Stan. If you're asking which fake book that I like best, that's sort of like asking which food do you like best. All the books are different and include rock n roll, latin, jazz, Christmas, folk, gospel, etc.. I like the Ultimate Jazz Fake Book, but there are a lot of pop, but non-jazz, songs in it. I use these books a lot with the music program, Band In A Box.

Stan
 
A fake book is a book of lead sheets. A lead sheet shows the melody notation, the chord symbols, and the lyrics. Fake books are very handy especially for piano players. If you've ever purchased a piece of sheet music you will see that some, even downloads, can be over $10. One fake book that I have has 620 songs and it cost $18. So..........
 
I think that putting them on an ipad ( or other tablet) is a great idea. It would eliminate the need for a music stand light--which I've found don't always even illuminate the entire music page. However, I wish they would make the tablets with even bigger screens--at least the same size as most notation. Yeah, I have to wear reading glasses with a special rx just for reading music. That would be quite a project that you are proposing. Certainly Jim Beloff could offer that feature for a price. As tablets become more and more popular, the demand for pdf format would increase for music books. I'm thinking that some musicians with eyesight problems would welcome these innovations?? I have a friend, not a uke player, but who may have to quit playing because he can't see the notes clearly enough. You might contact Jim and see what he says....or not..:)
 
I have a great fake book for the Beatles's discography. It's arranged for guitar, but I just play the chord shapes on the uke.
 
When I first started my Ukulele journey, I purchased both of Jim Beloff's DU books ... and sadder but wiser, re-sold them a couple months later at half price. I could not play 80% of the songs as they just sounded "wrong". I don't know what he does, but most songs are either over complicated, over simplified ... or just sound off. I've heard other more experienced Uke players say the same thing and they just transpose the ones that don't sound right. But as a beginner, I can't do that. I am really curious about the Hal Leonard book as it doesn't have Beloff's name anywhere on it, but I'm afraid it might be too much like the DU books. The book I like the best .. and not easy to find.. is the Ukulele Songbook which only costs $9 for 50 songs (!) and all of them have chords, melody, tabs, are arranged by number of chords and are PLAYABLE without transposing. The best beginner to intermediate Uke book I have found is 10 Steps to Learn 'Ukulele the Hawaiian Way. Really good and not just for beginners. Of course, the best of the best of the best is being a member of UU!!
 
NightStar said:
When I first started my Ukulele journey, I purchased both of Jim Beloff's DU books ... and sadder but wiser, re-sold them a couple months later at half price. I could not play 80% of the songs as they just sounded "wrong". I don't know what he does, but most songs are either over complicated, over simplified ... or just sound off. I've heard other more experienced Uke players say the same thing and they just transpose the ones that don't sound right. But as a beginner, I can't do that. I am really curious about the Hal Leonard book as it doesn't have Beloff's name anywhere on it, but I'm afraid it might be too much like the DU books. The book I like the best .. and not easy to find.. is the Ukulele Songbook which only costs $9 for 50 songs (!) and all of them have chords, melody, tabs, are arranged by number of chords and are PLAYABLE without transposing. The best beginner to intermediate Uke book I have found is 10 Steps to Learn 'Ukulele the Hawaiian Way. Really good and not just for beginners. Of course, the best of the best of the best is being a member of UU!!
Click to expand...

Interesting. I haven't had that experience. I can't play all of the songs though because some have too many chords for my level of playing. There have been a couple of times where our club members have suggested some chord substitutions. I can usually go either way in those situations.
 
Ukulele Wednesdays, a London based ukulele club that meets at several local pubs, has an excellent, large, and FREE songbook on their website. Nice song selection spaning many genres and generations. You can download it, just gonna cost you ink and paper, if you want to print instead of viewing on tablet.
 
bunnyf said:
Ukulele Wednesdays, a London based ukulele club that meets at several local pubs, has an excellent, large, and FREE songbook on their website. Nice song selection spaning many genres and generations. You can download it, just gonna cost you ink and paper, if you want to print instead of viewing on tablet.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this recommendation. Just downloaded it and already found some favorites and guilty pleasures. Cheers!
 
bunnyf said:
Ukulele Wednesdays, a London based ukulele club that meets at several local pubs, has an excellent, large, and FREE songbook on their website. Nice song selection spaning many genres and generations. You can download it, just gonna cost you ink and paper, if you want to print instead of viewing on tablet.
Click to expand...

need the melodies for these, thats where fake books come in, you can learn new songs on your own!
 
You know I think I saw a file on that site too, where you can listen to all the songs, in case you are not completely familiar.
 
So true. Paper can be had cheaply, but ink will kill you. I hate lugging around heavy binders too. For uke clubs, we need both Daily ukes, and it's a pain to carry those with all my other stuff. I'd get the dig. version but I previewed it on Amazon and it's just too small a font, even with full single page view for these old eyes to read. I liked someone's suggestion recently about opening up the books, scanning them and putting them on a tablet. Hopefully this way you could be able to view them easier. (will have to wait til I get new scanner..not in budget, just bought new bari and have my eyes on a Ubass, have to have my priorities).
 
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