Here are links to the current songbooks. Click on a cover to go to the relevant songbook page where you can download the songs.

SONGS

Andrews Sisters Medley Added 27/08/2015

Alexander’s Medley Added 27/08/2015

Tipperary Medley Added 27/08/2015

We’ll Meet Again Added 27/08/2015

Download a zip file of the entire collection of songs as individual .pdfs.

Download a zip file of the entire collection of songs for the PG Songbook

Ukulele Songsheets - a cautionary warning! by Stuart Jebbitt “This Sheet must be wrong...it’s different to this other one I’ve got”...... Nearly all Ukulele bands work from song sheets, incorporating the lyrics and chords of a song and perhaps one or two other pointers, such as a strum pattern. However, they are not an exact science! I’ve seen numerous versions of the same songs in various Ukulele band songbooks and on websites, and no two versions are ever exactly alike. Some are in different keys, with different strum patterns and sometimes they even have differing chords and lyrics. This doesn’t necessarily mean one is ‘right’ and another is ‘wrong’, just different. Some versions will leave out some of the less essential passing chords, and some will use jazzier chords than normal. Some put the chord changes in line with the lyrics, others just above the lyrics. Sometimes where the actual chord changes fall in a particular song can be a matter for debate, especially with a song in which the vocals can be interpreted in different ways. The Instrumental backing isn’t always necessarily directly glued to the vocal line. In short, Song sheets are not Music, they are simply shorthand guides on how to play a song that you already know, or have access to a recording of. Creating them inevitably involves compromise - You have to find a balance between including enough information to help the group play the song, but without cramming in so much information that you simply end up overloading them. I’ve seen Song sheets that map out the precise number of bars each chord is strummed for, with dozens of forward slashes decorating the page! The danger here is you end up not actually feeling the music. It becomes a counting exercise and not a music exercise. Much better just to get to know the song over time and feel the chord changes that way. Also....It’s good do bear in mind the subtle difference between performing and playing. For example, If we were to teach a group of classical piano students a piece like Beethoven’s ‘Fur Elise’, we would use standard musical notation (bass clefs and trebles clefs et al) and by the end everyone would learn to perform it in more or less the same way. This is because music notation is very precise in nature, and designed to cover all the variables, including expression. ‘Fur Elise’ pre-dates recorded sound, and so it had to be that way in order to be performed consistently wherever it travelled to. With pop/rock music it is very much about playing a song. The genre is much freer and encourages variation. No two cover versions of a song are ever the same and nor are they expected to be. In classical music you tend to learn and then perform a piece, whereas in pop music you tend to play it.(You ‘play’ in band, because it is PLAY - exploratory, expressive, and fun) It is fine to mess around with all the variables, the tempo, the rhythm pattern, the feel, and the format, and make it your own, especially with repertoire not originally intended for the Ukulele. Lastly, whilst you can buy Pop and Rock Songbooks written out in standard music notation, these are rarely created by the artist themselves, and are inevitably an abridged compromise. Bearing in mind that the average commercial pop recordings can easily include 40-80 separate instrumental tracks, it has to be, unless you wish to create songbooks that are 4 foot in length!

Below are some extra songs not included in the songbooks. Click on the pdf icon to download the relevant file