Do you make up your own songbooks?

Thanks to this thread, I bought forScore last night and scanned in two of my ukulele music books (my Iz book and my son's Moana book), some chord charts, Uncle Rod's Boot Camp document he told me about and some other free pdf music. Now my small collection of ukulele music can come with me wherever I go. Thanks all!

Side note: I haven't quite figured out how to use the built-in darkroom scanner (their user guide wasn't too detailed on that), so I had to use my other scanner app to make a multi-page pdf and then upload to OneDrive and then import into forScore from OneDrive.
 
I will never use paper again. I have a 13.3" Android tablet and MobileSheets Prob with hundreds of songs all cross referenced so I can choose any list I want. I also have audio tracks with each song sheet from rehearsals which I practice with anytime.
 
When I was getting ready for my one and only ukulele student to start, I went to the music store and looked over what they had for beginner books. I wasn't happy with any of them. So from the very beginning we started our own book. We put a cover sheet on the front of it that said "Keep on Truckin'", and under that it said "Ukulele Book, Keep Out, Private and Confidential." Then we filled it with what she thought that she needed to have in her book and songs that she wanted to play. We made it fun. It actually turned out pretty good. And it is her book, especially made for her. That makes it special. I'll put it up beside any Hal Leonard beginner book that you would have to pay sixteen bucks for.
 
Rllink said:
... it is her book, especially made for her. That makes it special. I'll put it up beside any Hal Leonard beginner book that you would have to pay sixteen bucks for.
Click to expand...

I couldn't agree more. It's kind of an incentive and spirit killer if you are forced to play music that you can't relate to. Your student is much more likely to practice and enjoy playing if she's playing music that she chose and enjoys.
 
kohanmike said:
I will never use paper again. I have a 13.3" Android tablet and MobileSheets Prob with hundreds of songs all cross referenced so I can choose any list I want. I also have audio tracks with each song sheet from rehearsals which I practice with anytime.
Click to expand...

When I recently got a 10" Android tablet, I tried both Mobile Sheets and Orpheus. Mobile sheets is very good and allows multiple indexing and I thought that was the one to go for but I kept finding myself choosing Orpheus for preference. What I like is its simplicity and yet it is very effective.
 
I'm very new to the Uke world having bought my Kala Soprano last month. I have about 20 songs that I've printed that I found on Pinterest. I have tons saved to my Ukulele board, but many of them cannot be printed. What I do have are just loose sheets laying around. Putting them into a binder is a much better idea.

I'm curious where to find songs, though. I love John Prine and would love to get the music for some of his songs...... along with many others. Is there a site or two everyone goes to or are they found through google searches?

Thanks!
 
I have a thousand or so in OnSong and some in different songbooks in the program. Most are not PDF but if they are, I use the sticky note function and add the chord progression in Nashville numbers. I also have the paper notebooks too as sometimes they want books used. (I've been known to take pictures of songs we're using and put the "book" in iBooks to use and then delete when I'm done.) I've got more music than skill or time.
 
I save all of my song sheets as pdf files. I put them in OnSong on my iPad but sometimes I print them too. I will often download the sheets as pdf and embellish them if needed. Or sometimes I create my own pdfs by combining information from different sources. Sometimes if I'm trying to "flesh out" a song I'll go to youtube to hear performances or tutorials for more ideas. Any notes or helpful tips are added to the song sheet. My goal is to get it to one page if possible. Pdf files are saved as song name in lower case letters followed by key in capital letters. This is what works best for me. Once everything is in OnSong I create different playlists that function as "songbooks".

As for DaisyUke's question about where to find songs, I'll link some of my go-to websites.

Richard G's Ukulele Songbook. Over 1300 songs nicely formatted as pdf files with chord diagrams.

Ukutabs

Doctor Uke

Ukulele Boogaloo

Stewart's Ukulele Songbook

Jim's Ukulele Songbook

Uke Tunes

ultimate guitar.com - uke chords, guitar chords...it's all good :)


There are lots of ukulele clubs around the world who are kind enough to put their songbooks online for all to enjoy.

Bytown Ukulele Group
San Jose Uke Club
Ukulele Inspired
Ukulele Club of Virginia
Worthing Uke Jam
Ukulele Wednesdays
 
DaisyUke said:
I'm curious where to find songs, though. I love John Prine and would love to get the music for some of his songs...... along with many others. Is there a site or two everyone goes to or are they found through google searches?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I get the majority of my stuff (chords) off of ultimateguitar.com. What's nice about that site is that they provide up/down arrows so you can easily/automatically transpose the song until you find the right key for your singing voice. I like cowboylyrics.com too. There's a lot of John Prine chords on that site and it's where I get a lot of my old-school country stuff. (classic-country-song-lyrics.com is another)
 
Last edited:
I do lead sheets - just chord names and lyrics - for songs I know the melody of. if I don't know the melody, well... I can't play it, as I don't read notation or tab, and time signatures are completely foreign. (I was kicked out of drum lessons in 6th grade, because I couldn't do a quarter-note roll after 6 months). I know a waltz is in 3/4 time, and many other things are in 4/4 time, and I can tap them out, but that's about it.

I generally try to print my lyrics at a minimum of 14 point - any smaller, and I can't read them. 16 is preferred.

But that's why I don't use a tablet - I don't think I can see the lyrics, unless I make the text large, and get one of those pedal contraptions that scrolls the page. And how well does the screen do outdoors, in bright light?

So I carry my binders, and my songbooks, and my Music Stands.
 
DaisyUke said:
I'm very new to the Uke world having bought my Kala Soprano last month. I have about 20 songs that I've printed that I found on Pinterest. I have tons saved to my Ukulele board, but many of them cannot be printed. What I do have are just loose sheets laying around. Putting them into a binder is a much better idea.

I'm curious where to find songs, though. I love John Prine and would love to get the music for some of his songs...... along with many others. Is there a site or two everyone goes to or are they found through google searches?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Try Chordie.com. You can change instruments, and transpose, but be forewarned that a lot of the songs contain errors, and they are all hosted Elsewhere. (But you can build your own songbook on line.)
 
mikelz777 said:
I get the majority of my stuff (chords) off of ultimateguitar.com. What's nice about that site is that they provide up/down arrows so you can easily/automatically transpose the song until you find the right key for your singing voice. I like cowboylyrics.com too. There's a lot of John Prine chords on that site and it's where I get a lot of my old-school country stuff. (classic-country-song-lyrics.com is another)
Click to expand...

I too go to UltimateGuitar.com for most of my lyrics and chords. They often have several versions and you can check them by playing through to see which is best. The transpose function is very useful and I then usually copy and paste the result into a text file and tidy it up in a word processor. Classic Country Songs is a good source for what it says but be aware that they have transposed everything to either C or G. No problem if those are comfortable keys for the song but the do give a link to http://www.logue.net/xp/ which enables you to transpose a lyric sheet to any key. You just paste in the chord/lyric sheet, tell it what key to transpose to and what form you want the output and it outputs in a form you can then copy and paste into a text file - very useful.
 
Tootler said:
I too go to UltimateGuitar.com for most of my lyrics and chords. They often have several versions and you can check them by playing through to see which is best. The transpose function is very useful and I then usually copy and paste the result into a text file and tidy it up in a word processor. Classic Country Songs is a good source for what it says but be aware that they have transposed everything to either C or G. No problem if those are comfortable keys for the song but the do give a link to http://www.logue.net/xp/ which enables you to transpose a lyric sheet to any key. You just paste in the chord/lyric sheet, tell it what key to transpose to and what form you want the output and it outputs in a form you can then copy and paste into a text file - very useful.
Click to expand...
I have the ultimateguitar.com app installed on my Kindle and it works great.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

ukeclass
Need help with some sort of device to help me repair cracks on my own
Replies
5
Views
127
Poul Hansen
Poul Hansen
M
Tutorial Learn to write own songs
Replies
9
Views
385
monamohn
M
rsci
3D Printing Your Own Luthier Tools
Replies
13
Views
654
Smallchewbacca
S
Eggs_n_Ham
Guh. Looks like I now own a pretty little Ohana pineapple spruce/rosewood concert.
Replies
19
Views
738
Keith5523
Keith5523
Mike $
  • Suggestion
Closed Like your own posts
2
Replies
28
Views
979
ukukeguy
ukukeguy
Top Bottom