Ukulele Music Book Review Thread

I personally have never really owned any ukulele books. I did have a ukulele chord chart by ron middlebrooke though. It came with my sop hilo.

I'm curious to see what ukulele books all of you have bought or used, and what did you think of it? What are some good books to look for?

I'm using Calvin Chin's 'Helping you go from lonely strummer to life of the party' and Sokolow & Beloff's Ukulele Fretboard Roadmaps. Both books teach much the same thing - moveable chords and picking patterns, but they use different methods. So for now, I'm going along with the Chin. Although I'm new to the uke, I do have a bit of music theory from playing piano and sax, so that helps with the heavier theory parts. The Roadmap book has a CD to listen to and play along with but the Chin doesn't. For songs to strum along to I use Ukulele's Wednesday's Songbook, free on the net.

What are other people doing?

I have a few diferent books, and this is what I think of each one.

UKULELE CHORD FINDER by Hal Lennard.
This has 1001 chords for the Ukulele.
It is a good reference book.


UKULELE METHOD BOOK VOL. 1
Written and Narrated by Lil Rev
Produced by Hal Lennard
This book is for the Absolute newbie.
It comes with a cd, and shows a person how to read simple tabs, and musical notation, but all of the songs are either nursery rhymes, or songs that were popular in the 1800's.
I would only recomend this one for someone that has never touched a stringed instrument before.


E KANIKAPILA PLAY ALONG SERIES VOL. 1
Featuring favorite Hawaiian songs
Produced by Nohili-Heizer Co.
If you love traditional Hawaiian, and Hapa Haole ( from the 1950's-1970's ) songs, then this book is for you.
This book gives a bunch of songs that are imbedded in the soul of Hawai'i.
It comes with an audio cd as well.
The only thing that I don't like about this book is, while it does show the chords that are needed, it doesn't show the strum pattern.
So this book is not for the beginer.
I got this book last year on a trip to Oahu, I will need to have a local ( Hawaiian ) teacher help to learn these songs, because it is too hard for me to use on my own.
So next time I go to Hawai'i, I will have to go back to the place I got it from, and ask for help.
E hele mai i na kanaka lawai'a e kanikapila me makou!


ISRAEL KAMAKAWIWO'OLE THE SONG BOOK COLLECTION ( Guitar and Ukulele )
This Book is amazing.
This book is tabbed for Ukulele, but you can also use it with a Guitar, if you put a capo on the 5th fret. ( it is tabbed for both )
I learned alot of lyrics from this book.
There are only two things that frustrate me:
One, these are very complex tabs, so this one is also not for the beginer.
The other is that I only have a High G Ukulele, and most of the songs ( if not all of them ) are played in Low G.
For the person that loves Bradda IZ music, can read complex tabs, and has a Low G Ukulele, this book is for them.


Well, I hope this helps.

Aloha
Acabooe

I have really liked the book: Learn To Play Fingerstyle Solos for Ukulele by Mark Kailana Nelson. It comes with a CD and all the songs are enjoyable to listen to and play (even for a beginner). I pick up this book every night when I practice my playing. I liked it so much, I even wrote a review of it on my site

Regards,
Julie Strietelmeier
http://ukulelereview.com

I also have Iz's book and it looks great, but is too hard for me except for a few songs.

I found a copy of "Hawaiian Uke Songbook" by Ken Eidson & Ross Cherednik at my local library (in SF). It's more my level and most songs I can sort of pick out except for the notes that go past the 10th fret where my cheap soprano is completely out of tune. Also a lot of songs are for low-G so I have to play them in a different key on my baritone.

"Hawaiian Uke Songbook" has about 50 almost exclusively hawaiian songs. The last piece is a japanese song called "Sakura" which is a nice arrangement. The only problem with this book is that I know only a handful of the tunes, but I'm still thinking of buying this book on Amazon.

"He Mele Aloha" is a large and awesome collection of traditional hawaiian songs and common chords. Definately a must-have if you're into the traditional stuff. Since it's lyrics/chords (no tabs) you have to search around if you don't already know what a song 'sounds like'.

I have a few of the Jumpin' Jim series which I used when I got my first uke. Those include lyrics, chords, standard notation and a few tabs.

You can find the above items pretty easy and cheap on ebay.

On the web be sure to check out tropicalstormhawaii.com -- they have lots of stuff there in addition to the traditional stuff.

Have fun!

I have some stupid book i bought for $20 hahaa

Its hopeless, doesn't teach you anything ... I could have invested that $20 ito 20mil

I have the "Exploring the Ukulele" by Herb Ohta Jr. and Daniel Ho. It's quite useful and the Hawaiian Songs in there are nice, too.

UkuLeLesReggAe said:

I have some stupid book i bought for $20 hahaa

Its hopeless, doesn't teach you anything ... I could have invested that $20 ito 20mil

Click to expand...

so what's the book? for 20 bucks it better be good!

well i have the
1)first lesson ukulele by jerry moore the only thing i learned from this book is the difference between melody n harmony n basic picking n strumming, the only thing i don't like about this book is the songs has no music score

2)ukulele method by roy smeck which teaches more on how to read music score

3)the bari best by jumpin jim i just bought this book today cuz it has more songs than my other two books combined

I just bought:

1. Mel Bay's Fingerstyle Solos for 'Ukulele'. This book has a nice mix of songs for both beginners (well, not for complete noobs) and intermediate players. I'm probably somewhere between beginning and intermediate and was able to sight read a few songs without too much trouble. The songs are a mix of Hawaiian, folk, classical, and a blues piece. The book also comes with a CD.

2. Jumpin Jim's Ukulele Masters Lyle Ritz Solos. This book is really hard. I couldn't get thru any of the songs. The book comes with a CD which has some bass accompaniment and is very inspiring and nice to listen to. Maybe someday I'll learn a few of these great jazz standards.

I have a few, but I'm still search for my ideal book:

1. Ukulele from the Beginning book 1 and 2 - These are fine if your below the age of 10. I've not read book 2 yet, but book one teaches 9 chords over 39 pages with 24 songs to play. Nope it's not my thing at all.

2. Ukulele for Dummies - I loved this book, but it's sheer size is impractical, and as usual with the Dummies guide, it's layout is all over the place.

3. 21 Easy songs for the Ukulele - if you want very basic fret patterns, strums and lyrics this is the book for you. It doesn't have sheet music for each song, nor is it a tutorial, more of a song reference.

These are both songbooks, but I cherish them.

Beloff's The Daily Ukulele, and The Leap Year Edition. They are TBUS' official songbooks, great beginner to intermediate stuff to play along together from.

I also have Fretboard Roadmaps, but some of it is kinda confusing.

Pekelo Book 1 -My new favorite book.
Beginning Ukulele-The Complete Ukulele Method by Alfred -A good starter but could be arranged in better order.
Understanding Ukulele Chords- An excellent reference book.
Ukulele Aerobics- This one is a real work-out, got hard very quickly.
Learn to Play Fingerstyle Solos for Ukulele- I liked it at first but it got hard quick.
20 Spanish Baroque Pieces-MacKillop -Very good selection of music.
From Lute to Uke-Mizen -Not bad.
The Barogue Ukulele-Mizen -Not bad.
The Classical Uke-John King -I think I have heard better arrangements for some but some were nice.

jjsdad said:

2. Jumpin Jim's Ukulele Masters Lyle Ritz Solos. This book is really hard. I couldn't get thru any of the songs. The book comes with a CD which has some bass accompaniment and is very inspiring and nice to listen to. Maybe someday I'll learn a few of these great jazz standards.

Click to expand...

I would have a agree with your statement, it is above my level. Also, I know a very competent player who worked through this book and was struggling through it at times.
But once he finished the book he was a much better player in many aspects.

As Moliere once said: The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it. Although, I am thinking that Moliere never tried Lyle Ritz-style Jazz on the uke.

I have five instructional books, one Jimmy Buffett song book, and the two Daily Ukulele books. The instructional books all say pretty much the same thing, except the beginner's book, which I left in the dust as soon as I started Uncle Rod's Ukulele Boot Camp. Frankly, the instructional books aren't worth the money that I paid for what little I got out of them, and everything in them is available on line in much more helpful formats. I'm done buying books,

Nickie said:

These are both songbooks, but I cherish them.

Beloff's The Daily Ukulele, and The Leap Year Edition. They are TBUS' official songbooks, great beginner to intermediate stuff to play along together from.

I also have Fretboard Roadmaps, but some of it is kinda confusing.

Click to expand...

I bought Fretboard Roadmaps and realized that I was already doing much of what was in it, but I just didn't know what it was that I was doing. But most of their songs aren't very fun. I find that in a lot of instructional books. They need to find better songs to use. But I agree that Fretboard Roadmaps is confusing, and I've talked to more experienced members here on UU, who explain the different exercises much better than they do in the book, and lots of times, after I talk to the other people, I realize that the book is making things much more complicated than they need to be.

Hi, I've got lots of uke books. I ordered most of the Jumpin' Jim books when back in 2006-2009 because I couldn't find any others. Here are ones that I found very useful:

Hints and Tips for Advanced Ukulele Players (Mel Bay)
- great tips book with some hand drawings. Never saw anything like this and I incorporated a number of things into my own style. It shows how to use the uke in novel ways.

Hawaiian Ukulele, the Early Methods (1-57424-052-8) Centerbrook Published
- a great collection of early Hawaiian uke method books. Seems hard to find.

Beginning Ukulele (Alfred Publishing)
- comprehensive book with DVD with Daniel Ho

Intermediate Ukulele (Alfred Publishing)
- comprehensive book with DVD with Daniel Ho

Mastering Ukulele (Alfred Publishing)
- comprehensive book with DVD with Daniel Ho

Ukulele Method for Chord and Melody Playing (Roy Smeck) Mel Bay 1978 edition
- there are so many neat things in this reprint. The original 1928 version is a bit different and also contains 100 fancy strums. This book doesn't but it is great though in D6 tuning. It even shows what fingers to use

Discovering the Ukulele (Herb Ohta Jr. and Daniel Ho)
- explains really well the uke, and great arrangements

Exploring the Ukulele (Herb Ohta Jr. and Daniel Ho)
- explains really well 3rds and 6ths, etc.. and great arrangements

Learn to Play Fingerstyle solos for Ukulele (Mel Bay)
- lots to learn in this book

Ukulele Way (James Hill Books 1-5)
- comes with CDs. Focuses on sight-reading music and melody playing. Would work well with a teacher. Though, you can sign up online for the videos.

Hal Leonard Ukulele Chord Finder
- You can buy it in two sizes and also as a Kindle book. The bigger book size is nice because it remains open when you open it.

Hal Lenoard Ukulele Method 1 and 2
- Lil' Rev that are great for starting out.

101 Ukulele Licks
- Lil' Rev's outstanding tips for essential blues, country, bluegrass... [with CD]

I have more books but these are the ones that influenced me. There are good chord books too I like.

Petey

The first book I bought for ukulele was 'Learn To Play Fingerstyle Solos for Ukulele by Mark Kailana Nelson' whilst I enjoyed the book, I didn't know many of the songs in there, but a very good book for the progressive ukulele player

I had the 'From Lute To Uke' book bought for me a few christmases ago, I love this book, I find it really easy to learn the different songs too, this is the book I use to practice my fingerpicking on a daily basis, its so good I have recently invested in the Baroque Ukulele version

I use 'The Fretboard Roadmap' book quite a lot and I have learned some great techniques with this book, it also teaches you moveable chords as well

I have loads of other books that I use from time to time but these are my favourite 3 books

I have found a great selection of books here. Currently working the Ukulele Ghibli and Ukulele Jazz. The arrangements are top-notch and the playing tips are excellent.