The Quintessential Hawaiian Uke Song

Yes, the "He Mele Aloha" book is only chords and lyrics, plus a short history of each song. These are all pretty popular songs and you can find performances and/or tutorials on YouTube if you want to hear the rhythm or pronunciations for the lyrics. While Amazon does not carry the book, a lot of independent bookstores and music stores in Hawaii do carry it and they will ship it to you. For example, Kanile'a Ukulele sells the book from the accessories section of their website: https://www.kanileaukulele.com/shop/shop/accessories/he-mele-aloha

Nice! Thanks for that!
 
While digging, it also seems that the book only contains the lyrics and cords, not the music itself. I love the idea of this book, and think it is an amazing reference, but I think it might work better as a companion to other resources.

Yes, absolutely. If you're learning Hawaiian music you need to listen to a recording a LOT - whether your reference has standard notation or not - before you ever try and learn to play or sing the song, in my opinion.

For example, Kanile'a Ukulele sells the book from the accessories section of their website: https://www.kanileaukulele.com/shop/shop/accessories/he-mele-aloha

Great find! It really is too bad they discontinued the spiral binding...
 
I recommend a book called He Mele Aloha, which contains more than 200 Hawaiian songs. He Mele Aloha only has chords and lyrics, but you can find videos for most of the songs in the book on YouTube in order to learn the melodies.

While digging, it also seems that the book only contains the lyrics and cords, not the music itself. I love the idea of this book, and think it is an amazing reference, but I think it might work better as a companion to other resources. I obviously don't have a copy, but I thought I would pass along what I had uncovered.

Ten years ago, someone made a list of the songs in the He Mele Aloha book in another forum and posted a link to a YouTube recording for each song. Some of the YouTube videos are gone now, but this seems to be a good place to start.
http://www.taropatch.net/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=9603&whichpage=1
 
Yes, the He Mele Aloha book is a must! Expensive. But, worth every penny. Along with that, you must go over to Steven Espaniola's YouTube channel. He has been going through the book with uke lessons! He is also a teacher BTW. And you might follow him on the FaceBook Group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/269530227903403
 
Some good suggestions here! OpihiMan, your post is all Greek to me. I'm impressed! It's a bit daunting to think of learning lyrics in a language that is foreign to me, but the uke is inspiring me.

Go for it bro! Check out some Youtube videos to help with pronunciation. Also, I forgot "Hawaii Aloha" which is an anthem.
 
The He Mele Aloha book is great. However I bought a softcover version which is difficult to impossible to use on a music stand. So make sure you will buy a spiral bound copy.
 
Wow, this songbook seems quite a favorite. Thanks for the suggestions!
 
I have the printed He Mele book which I use a lot, notes all over to help me sing the songs. When I discovered the Kindle version I also purchased it to have on my iPad. It really helps to have it, at least for me.
 
Yes, absolutely. If you're learning Hawaiian music you need to listen to a recording a LOT - whether your reference has standard notation or not - before you ever try and learn to play or sing the song, in my opinion.

Plus one on this suggestion. Most of the songs I can sing from memory are the ones I listened to over and over when I was a kid in school.
 
A lot of the "traditional Hawaiian music" that you hear people playing was actually written after World War 2, often by composers that are still alive today. If you're looking for music that was written in the Kingdom of Hawaii, these are probably the 2 most popular ones today:



Did anyone get the name of the movie she mentioned? That guy noodling around with the stringed instrument drowned her out. : )
 
Looks like I'm late again . Two songs I like are " Blue Hawaii " and " On a white sandy beach " .
 
If you're looking for more contemporary Hawaiian ukulele music, get the album "Guava Jam" by the Sunday Manoa. That album was released in 1969 and has inspired the last 2 or 3 generations of Hawaiian ukulele players. You can find hundreds of covers, tutorials, and play-along videos for these songs on YouTube, especially the songs "Kawika" and "Guava Jam" (the first and last songs on the album). Here is a Guava Jam tutorial on the Ukulele Underground website. It is usually played as an instrumental, so you don't have to learn any Hawaiian language. https://ukuleleunderground.com/2015/06/uu-solos-guava-jam-solo-ukulele-arrangement-2/

 
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