Having got my hands on my new ukulele (I went with the Sandalwood Bugsgear EleUke), my UAS has temporarily abated – I give it about six minutes. However, thanks to Heather sending me a scan of her copy the sheet music to Play A Little Low-Down Tune, my eye has turned towards ukulele song sheets.
A particular favourite theme of mine is sultry 1920s girls with great hair. Most are stylish and simple drawings like those featured on I’ll See You In My Dreams and I Ain’t Gonna Play No Second Fiddle. Some are more realistic such as Swanee Butterfly. And a few have real life flappers on (looking a little more dumpy and a little less glamorous than their fantasized counterparts) such as Roll ‘Em Girls.
Ukuleles and grass skirts abound on hapa haole sheet music: My Waikiki Ukulele Girl.
If you’ve ever wondered where the striking picture on Richard Gillman’s page came from, take a look at the cover of Crazy Words, Crazy Tune Vo-Do-De-O. You can also see it peeking through in this job lot of sheet music (which has got a few other gems in).
You can also pickup vintage ukulele instruction books such as Hawaiian Songs and Hulas from the 50’s and Rapid Ukulele Method from the 60’s. But the real gem is The Kamiki Ukulele Method from 1917. You can read the whole book on ezFolk.
My UAS has just returned. The culprit is the Arthur Godfrey Flamingo plastic ukulele.
I’ve been collecting sheet music for about 6 months now. Being a graphic designer (and a bit of an old soul romantic) they satisfy a lot of interests in one small punch. And cheaply! I’ve purchased lots or specific music on ebay but I pick up most of my pieces from local antique malls. There is always one booth filled with paper goods and they run $1-3. I love how ukulele chord diagrams are largely favored over guitar notation. And searching for the songs themselves online has proven to be a treat. A gentleman named Rogerhas filmed his old victrola playing these wonderful renditions from the likes of Annette Hanshaw as featured on the first piece you posted, Al. I’ve been slowly scanning my collection in the hopes of posting pdfs for everyone online.
Thanks for the link to the Kamiki Method. I would have loved to have snagged that!