Jazz standards

Mattyukaholic

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Hi everyone,

All this talk of Glen Rose jazz ukulele lessons on another thread got me thinking..

Does anyone know of one collection of jazz standards in one book for ukulele? I'd like it with good ukulele four note jazz chords rather than simplified three note chords like in the Ukulele Playlist purple book.

I know about Ian Chadwick's DVD but I don't want to have to go through 2000 songs, just thinking some really nice jazz standards.

In a Mike Lynch video he mentions that Glen Rose has a collection of jazz standards but I can't find it anywhere on his website (only the tuition books).

Thanks for any help,
Matt
 
Hi everyone,

All this talk of Glen Rose jazz ukulele lessons on another thread got me thinking..

Does anyone know of one collection of jazz standards in one book for ukulele? I'd like it with good ukulele four note jazz chords rather than simplified three note chords like in the Ukulele Playlist purple book.

I know about Ian Chadwick's DVD but I don't want to have to go through 2000 songs, just thinking some really nice jazz standards.

In a Mike Lynch video he mentions that Glen Rose has a collection of jazz standards but I can't find it anywhere on his website (only the tuition books).

Thanks for any help,
Matt

James Hill and Craig Brandau each have great ukulele jazz books out.
 
Glen Rose doesn't have a book of jazz standards. His approach is to teach you to play lead sheets from regular (non-uke) jazz fakebooks. This means you will have to learn to play those tunes without the uke chord boxes. Glen suggests a number of fakebooks. His approach is worthwhile but more challenging that just playing from music published for uke, like Jim Beloff's books, which have the chord diagrams for uke.

There is also Dr Uke's website. He has many jazz standards on there with the uke chords, but not in book format.

http://www.doctoruke.com/songs.html

Let us know if you find anything else.
 
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If one really wants to play Jazz, no matter what instrument is played, a clear understanding of harmony is needed.
People who play jazz immediately know what is meant by chord symbols like Eb-7b5 or GM9/B, and they know where those chords, inversions or substitutions are on their instrument. It takes some time to learn that new language, but once you learn it, your playing will sound authentically creative and free.
 
Thanks everyone. This is both daunting and exciting. I was worried my playing was reaching a plateau. It seems like jazz is opening up a whole new universe of playing. I'd never quite got the hang of fake books etc but I'm going to start from scratch.
 
Glen's first two books each have ten standards per book and great ones. He gives the starting note for singing but not the standard notation. That would involve copyright infringement. You also must apply the lyrics but it doesn't take much effort to do so. The first two books give a very solid foundation.
 
I've tried learning some jazz tunes from the two Lyle Ritz jazz books. I find the blue one way beyond my abilities, however. But the orange book, just called "Jazz," has a great selection of jazz standards with lush-sounding arrangements for the uke. I find that book challenging too, but it's a little less so. And it's so rewarding to work through a tune in that book. His chords sound complex and rich. By the way, it has both gCEA and dGBE chord diagrams. There's also the Ohta San book of the same series. It, too, has great standards, but I don't find his chords as interesting as Ritz's.
 
Thanks everyone. This is both daunting and exciting. I was worried my playing was reaching a plateau. It seems like jazz is opening up a whole new universe of playing. I'd never quite got the hang of fake books etc but I'm going to start from scratch.

Don't be intimidated by jazz... Especially on the ukulele. Because you only have four strings, playing extended chords requires you to leave some notes out of the chord. As a result, many chord shapes will be repeatedly used - but will represent different chords.

For example, 2,3,3,3 can stand in for Cm6, Am7b5 and F9 (among others). So, a very simple chord shape ends up sounding super "jazzy."

One note regarding Dr. Uke's arrangements... They are a good starting point, but he almost always uses first position voicings for all of the chords. He does this for simplicity, but most often, an easier or better sounding progression can be achieved more easily further up the neck.
 
My personal jazz uke learning method includes Glenn Rose and Dr. Uke...If you get through this material you've done a lot and are well on your way to being a decent jazz player. Dr Uke is great because you can "hear" the chord changes and the rhythm in the audio files...very helpful!
 
One note regarding Dr. Uke's arrangements... They are a good starting point, but he almost always uses first position voicings for all of the chords. He does this for simplicity, but most often, an easier or better sounding progression can be achieved more easily further up the neck.

I wonders if that was the case. I often prefer the fmaj7 chord up the fretboard as played in a lot of Ohta San pieces but noticed he was always using the first position version.

Thanks for the good advice re jazz too. I'm genuinely excited to get stuck in.
 
Thanks for all the good advice. I've got the Lyle Ritz and Herb Ohta books. They're two of my all time favourite artists. I completely found the same thing with the Lyle Ritz books. The blue one will take some working up to.

I'm going to work through the Glen Rose PDFs. Though I know most of the chords already the important thing for me is learning to fit them altogether in patterns and he's great at explaining the best progressions etc.
 
Hi everyone,

All this talk of Glen Rose jazz ukulele lessons on another thread got me thinking..

Does anyone know of one collection of jazz standards in one book for ukulele? I'd like it with good ukulele four note jazz chords rather than simplified three note chords like in the Ukulele Playlist purple book.

I know about Ian Chadwick's DVD but I don't want to have to go through 2000 songs, just thinking some really nice jazz standards.

In a Mike Lynch video he mentions that Glen Rose has a collection of jazz standards but I can't find it anywhere on his website (only the tuition books).

Thanks for any help,
Matt

at this moment in time im attempting to learn lyle ritz songs.
I'm doing ok learning jazz but understanding the break down of how
the theory works i will be honest a bit confused to some degree.
I honestly have been learning by listening and watching but i want
to get to the point where i can understand how it works better.
 
The great insight for me from Glen Rose was to understand the series of chords in a Jazz song - what Kimo Hussey calls a musical sentence. The nice thing about these songs is they often sound wonderful in different tempos.

For amazing Jazz uke instruction you can Skype lessons from Ms. Sarah Maisel.
 
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