Question about strumming in sheet music

BonesDT

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Hi guys,

I think I'm ready to move on from "beginner" uke songs and start playing some intermediate/advanced sheet music (you know, like when they actually sound like real songs).

I'm trying to find a book with a good collection of sheet music, but I'm a little confused about something.

For example, look at this sheet music I found for Skip to My Lou:

https://theuke.com/ukulele_sheet_music/skip_to_my_lou.html

It shows the suggested strum pattern in the upper left corner (which is awesome) and then shows the 2 chord patterns used (you have to strum chords, right?) and it has the chord letters along the way. But then the actual notes and the tablature seems to indicate playing single notes ("finger picking"?)

So what's the deal? Is this sheet music strictly finger picking or do you strum it, or is it a hybrid? If you strum it, do you do a full DDUDDU for every single note?

Thanks for the help.
 
What you have is kind of a lead sheet with tabs for the melody, not really tabs for a fingerstyle arrangement.

So the idea is that you can strum the chords with the suggested pattern while singing the melody in the sheet music. With the tabs below the standard notation you know how to play the melody on the Ukulele, so you know how it sounds. Also if you are two uke players, one can strum the pattern while the other fingerpicks the notes.

If you want to play solo uke without singing, you should find a chord melody arrangement in stead. That will have tabs that sometimes pick single notes, sometimes multiple to create chords.
 
Congratulations to BonesDT for making the transition from making ukulele music to making music on the ukulele. I won't give any advice because musical journeys are personal and I would only be illuminating my path and no one else's.
 
If you want to play solo uke without singing, you should find a chord melody arrangement in stead. That will have tabs that sometimes pick single notes, sometimes multiple to create chords.

I think you nailed it here. That's what I'm looking for. I'm looking for some sheet music so I can play solo songs that sound great on their own (uke only, no singing, no other instruments, no background). I'm more interested on strumming patterns with some finger picking, but I don't think much of songs that are strictly finger picking.

I've been looking around for a book of sheet music but I'm struggling finding a good one. They all seem to be complete beginners (where you strum only two cords for the entire song) or strictly finger picking.
Any recommendations? I'm looking for something challenging, where I have to sit down and work on a song for days to start getting it.

As an example, I've pretty much gotten a good handle on the Advanced Blues Shuffle from the Uke Like The Pros youtube channel. I really enjoyed the Advanced lesson where you variate the chords on every single strum. Really started to sound like professional music. I'm basically looking for more of this kind of "advanced" chords.

thanks for the congrats ripock.
 
If you’re pondering what I think you’re pondering, the magic phrase to search for is “chord melody”. The basic idea is to play chords voiced to emphasize the melody notes. This gives a rich self-accompanying instrumental effect. James Hill’s book Duets for One has some great intermediate to advanced arrangements, and his The Ukulele Way course at Uketropolis.com focuses on it. With the right search term you should find several others on the Interwebs and Youtube
 
There are lots of chord melody arrangements out there.
I would suggest finding out what songs you want to play, and then look for tabs for those.
There are many themed books og tabs, like Beatles, Robert Johnson etc. And traditional songs and jazz songs you might also be able to find tabs for online.
 
If you’re pondering what I think you’re pondering, the magic phrase to search for is “chord melody”. The basic idea is to play chords voiced to emphasize the melody notes. This gives a rich self-accompanying instrumental effect. James Hill’s book Duets for One has some great intermediate to advanced arrangements, and his The Ukulele Way course at Uketropolis.com focuses on it. With the right search term you should find several others on the Interwebs and Youtube

There are a lot of resources on the internet for free chord melody arrangements. Here’s one link to get you started:

https://sites.google.com/site/tabs4ukes/rock-pop

This is perfect. Thank you.
 
Hi BonesDT

Below is a useful Ukulele Magazine article about how to learn the chord melody style of play. The author explains why, after all is said and done, learning a bit of music theory will make things easier. Knowing scales, chords and song's melody will help the player get where they want to be. You've already gotten excellent advice.

https://www.ukulelemag.com/stories/...e-with-this-arrangement-of-down-in-the-valley

Hope it's helpful. All the best, Bluesy
 
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