The fun of the Ukulele is making your own music! You don’t have to just listen the original artists, you can step back in time to the days when people would bring out their own instruments and sing.
You can find just about everything online to help you strum along to the tunes you want to sing, but even with all these great resources a great chord book compiles many songs together in one place that you can take anywhere.
The Problem with many Uke Books
As you begin to search for books you will find books with themes and different price points. If, for example, you just want to strum along to Disney songs, they have made a book for you. Here’s the problems with most of these smaller books. For 10-13 bucks you are getting a small collection of songs, that are often just copied from their guitar counterparts. This book publishing method leaves you with a handful of songs, many not transposed into keys that are enjoyable to play on the Ukulele. In most cases it would be better just to search for the songs on webpages than to purchase these books.
Enter the Daily Ukulele
Of all the books I have evaluated and used one series stands out for their arrangements, variety and value. The Daily Ukulele series from Jim and Liz Beloff gives readers a song for every day of the year. What this means for you is you get 365 songs arranged in great keys for the Ukulele.
The songs are listed alphabetically and they range from Tin-pan alley Ukulele classics, to oldies, to modern folk songs. At the top of each page the chords are listed with their shapes, so you can see easily if you are ready to tackle the song, even when it includes new chords. The first edition even includes a back section with standard holiday songs and children’s songs.
I consider these books the next purchase for a player after they get their Uke and tuner. It’s very fun to bring these out when friends are around. The print on their larger plastic comb bound books is large enough for you and a friend to share together as you play. You can buy digital versions, but we recommend getting the plastic comb. This version will open flat so you can set it down, and unless a big wind comes, your music will remain in front of you, ready for you to follow along.
If you are willing to put down some money to have a printed copy of chords to strum along with, go ahead and spend a bit more than the smaller books offer and get the Daily Ukulele. You will probably want both volumes. Together the Beloffs have given us 700 ukulele arranged songs to learn and play along with.
Printing your own
No volume offered will include every song you could want to play. If you have access to a printer you can begin building your own collection of favorite songs. If you participate in Ukulele clubs your collection will grow with each meeting. Buy a good sturdy notebook that you can use to save your favorite chord sheets. I also recommend getting sheet protectors for the pages you want to keep.
When friends come over you can open your daily Ukulele, or personal notebook and make your own fun as you strum with other players.