Vintage Sheet Music Window Shopping

sing a little low down tune cover song sheetHaving 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.

crazy words crazy tune coverIf 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.

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5 Comments

  1. Jill March 29th, 2008 12:56 pm

    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!

  2. Jodi April 1st, 2008 8:01 pm

    A large collection of sheet music scans and cover art can be found here:
    http://mainemusicbox.library.umaine.edu/musicbox/index.asp
    There is another HUGE free archive, but I don’t have it here. Such a great resource.

  3. Jill April 2nd, 2008 3:17 pm

    Oh yay! Thanks Jodi!

  4. Woodshed April 2nd, 2008 10:25 pm

    Thanks for that, Jodi.

    I’ve just checked out your website and noticed you’ve done a Waifs cover. I love that band. The first time I saw them was one of the best gigs I’ve ever been to.

  5. Vintage Sheet Music Window Shopping | SHMUGGI - The Sheet Music Digest April 3rd, 2008 12:08 am

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