Help for selecting song books

Rosendust

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Hey all, I need help deciding on the following song books:
Hal Leonard's Disney and Hamilton
Daily Ukulele(by that I mean which version)
And any of the Hal Leonard Christmas volumes.
Thanks everyone!
 
Daily Ukulele is handy because a lot of strum-a-longs and uke festivals play out of it. As for myself, I generally find plenty on the internet to play, without buying books. The problem that I've found buying them is that there will be twenty songs in the book but only three or four that I really want to play. I hate paying for songs I don't play. I've always been able to find a song that I want to play by googling the name of the songs and adding "ukulele chords." to it.
 
a suggestion:

look at the table of contents from various songbooks... any songbooks at this point.

collect a list of the songs you want to play or learn to play.

now checkout the internet for lyrics and chords for those songs and create your own songbook.

many groups have their own songbooks but it is awkward sharing them due to copyright issues.
most groups create their songbooks for their members' education and personal use - not for sale.

anyway, that's one way to go about it :)

keep uke'in',

PS I have a Popular (Oldies) songbook, Hawaiian songbook, and Holiday songbook on the
Ukulele Boot Camp website - see link in my signature below :)
 
I can recommend Hal Leonard's Christmas Ukulele Fakebook, as it has so very many songs and hymns old and new. The chords aren't dumbed-down so if you're beginner/intermediate (as I was when I bought it) you'll find plenty there to stretch you. I bought mine on Google Play Books, so I can access it from my PC, phone, tablet, whatever.

I tend not to buy books now though, as it's easy to buy the songs I need from sheetmusicdirect.com (a Hal Leonard site). Having said that, to buy all the songs in the Christmas Fake Book individually would cost an arm and a leg, so I still heartily recommend the book.

Jim Beloff's Daily Ukulele books are likewise great value. I was given the paper copy of one as a present and bought the other electronically. Some of the arrangements I think are a little simplified for beginners/learners, which is an observation not a criticism. I've not seen an arrangement of Fairport Convention's 'Ukulele' anywhere other than here (I can't remember which one off hand).

I've not tried the Hamilton or Disney books.
 
I like both of the Daily Ukulele books. Well worth the money, given how many songs they each offer (365 & 366). The "yellow" book contains music mostly from the 1920's-1970’s. The songs are in keys containing chords that are more accessible for newer players, and in a vocal range comfortable for the average singer. The "blue" book has oldies, as well as some newer material. About half of the songs are a bit more challenging, but there are still enough easier ones to make owning the book worthwhile. I think of it as a book to grow with. :) As mentioned in an earlier post, the Daily Ukulele books are also popular with group uke sessions.
 
If you only want the chords & lyrics, look online, an unbelievable amount of people call them 'tabs', though they are not! ;)

If you want notation, check out flute music online, lots available.

For books, I find the Fake Book series best value.
 
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