Blues Ukulele: A Jumpin' Jim's Ukulele Songbook

I own about ten songbooks for the ukulele, but this is one of my favorites. At first I found the songs a little intimidating because many are not easy to learn. But it has been a wonderful experience to sit on the beach and spend hours learning to play the blues on the ukulele -- a surprisingly pleasant match. "St. Louis Blues" is magical on the ukulele, and the CD is a big help in learning that one. "Midnight Special" is a fun, gritty folktune that is much easier to learn -- only four simple chords. "Frankie and Johnny" is a classic that sounds charming on the ukulele as well. This book is a great selection of classic music, carefully arranged for the ukulele, and a paragraph or two of the history of each song that brings you into the world of the blues and makes the experience all the richer. I highly recommend this book.

This book contains chords and tabs for several blues songs. Most of these songs are classical blues songs, and very fun to play. For me as a novice Ukulele player this book was easy to understand as well as informative. Seeing as I enjoy blues the songs in this book where to my liking and then some. For every song in the book there is a "solo version" as well as lyrics and chords for the song. The CD is great and helps one easily figure out strumming patterns. The solo version of every song is set up in easy to understand tab. The only difficulty is in the level of difficulty of the individual song. A very good start for anyone who wants to play the blues on their Uke

This has been the best and most fun music book I have ever used. I have learned several of the songs and made them part of my repertoire. Not only fun to play but a great study on how to arrange songs since he gives you the straight melody and then his version with the runs and fills. It invites you to make your own changes to suit your ear when you disagree with his choice, and that is very educational in itself. I'll wonder why he chose that particular chord and look for a substitute. I play the songs on both ukulele and guitar and they sound great on both, but am going to try one of his blues guitar books next. You might argue about whether a couple of the songs are really blues, but they turned out to be favorites, anyway, so glad he included them. He plays ridiculously fast on the example CD, like having a record player stuck on 78 rpm. I personally wouldn't play any of these songs at that tempo even if I could.

I suspect the use of Blues in the title is more marketing strategy than accurate description. There is even a disclaimer in the front of the book that tries to justify the songs in the book as blues. Ragtime may be a type of blues, but I think the author misses the mark. Most, if not all of the arrangements feel like a jazz musician doing their version of the blues. I gave the book 3 stars because you will not learn blues in this book, but the content is well done.

I have some music experience, and have been strumming uke for about 3 years. I just had a quick peruse through this book and it looks like a real learning experience! There is a page of "chords used in this book" at the beginning which is massive. For those who were disappointed in the book, here's the skinny. No one just opens a book and plays the blues. It takes more than "feeling it." It takes a lot of work like anything else worthwhile. I am shocked at how complicated it all looks in black and white, but I'm determined to take one step at a time until I can play one song, then another, then another. Practice, practice, practice. And best advise from one of my first music teachers: "A yard is hard, an inch is a cinch." Finally, you can get FREE demos from Sokolow himself on YouTube. Good luck to all. (BTW - he pronounces it soko-low, not soko-loff.)

This is an excellent book and CD. You have to patiently work through the tunes and listen closely to the CD. I also recommend modifing some of the more difficult passages to suit your skill level and playing ability. Personally I was interested in about half the songs but that is better than most books from my experience. I have learned quite a few licks and tricks...Fred is a talented guy. A good addition to your uke book collection.

Terrific book for those who have learned how to strum "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" and want to take their ukelele playing to the next level. The songs are the primal songs from the blues canon: St. James Infirmary, St. Louis Blues, Frankie & Johnny, etc. All the well-worn classics are represented, including one sample old-school twelve-bar blues. (You really only need one of those.) Every song has two charts--one for chords, and one with tabulature so you can play chords and solos at the same time, like the pros. The included CD also has two recordings for each song, one to match each chart. The first is the author singing along with his chords; the second is a mix of chording and soloing. Great stuff--lots to learn here for the intermediate uke player. Hope Jumpin Jim comes out with more of this sort of thing. (The only others I know of right now are tabs for traditional Hawaiian music.)

I can play this with the help of the CD. I like that the book gives you more than one version to play... it gives you chords and notes for one version and then it gives you tabs and chords for the other version plus you get a bonus CD of the songs. WOW... that's amazing!

alle Angaben wie vereinbart eingehalten

Got a ukulele for Xmas, and love the tone. Am an old blues singer by nature and am impressed with the songs in this collection. A must have book for the blues lover and the uke lover both.

Mi é piaciuto molto, lo uso per studiare.

Stunning book. The song choices are great, Includes info about the origin of them and sometimes verses included that are not so well known. There is a vocal accompaniment version of the song as well as a solo tab version. It includes a cd as well, though the song demos are on You Tube as well.

1曲につきコードストロークの弾き語りとフィンガー・ピッキングによるソロ弾き用 TAB 譜が用意されていて唄うもよし、完全インストでもよし！とカッコイイ楽譜です。買ってよかった～☆