Mel Bay 101 Three-Chord Songs for Guitar, Banjo, and Uke

Our 23 yr old daughter recently got a Ukelele & wanted to learn to play it -so we thought this might help. Still not sure if it will or not as I haven't been able to get her to open it again. At first glance of the book she just kinda shrugged her shoulders & looked at me quizzically. There aren't a lot of books for Uke to pick from & I didn't want to spend a lot of money on this, so considering those factors I gave it 3 stars instead of my initial 2 star thought. Songs aren't very recent, but there is a decent selection of "folksy" type songs - so considering that we got it for Uke & as a learning tool, we figure that's OK. However, I made the mistake of thinking all the songs would be for the SAME 3 basic chords - such as G - A - C - which it is NOT. While each song does use only 3 chords, each song uses 3 different chords. My guitar chord knowledge is very basic - so to me, some of the chords in the songs were not familiar at all &/or seemed pretty difficult. Also, I personally did not understand how the reader was supposed to "read" the music or interpret how the chords were supposed to be strummed from the information given - but perhaps that was just me. If I learn more I will update.

I used to check this songbook out of the library, when it was actually in the stacks. It's hardly ever there, so I finally bought a copy off Amazon. It is a collection of folk songs that only need three chords to play, while singing the songs. The three chords are the standard C, G and D7 chords familiar to anyone who plays guitar. Larry gives the easy and partial chords and the full version of them for guitar, making it even easier for the guitar guys to use the book.There are many songs that only use these three. So if you are a beginner who wants to do a campfire sing-a-long, or just learn to play and sing a few tunes, this is the songbook for you.Being a neophyte guitar player myself, I find book to be a blast. The songs are mostly familiar American folk songs, hymns, and a few Celtic songs. It's just fun, and I can see why this book was never in the library. It's strictly for beginners, but it's well done, and anyone with a guitar, banjo or uke will have fun with it.

I'm a beginner banjo player so I can't play very many songs in regular books, but I can do a few things with chords. This is a pretty good book with only 3 chords to play, so if you've mastered them, you can play anything in the book. One problem is that some of the songs don't sound right with only 3 chords, so if you know a few more, you can dress them up a little.Since I started out learning tabulature, I didn't know how to play from notes on a regular music staff, and this helps me learn them. It tells you what string and fret the beginning note to play for the beginning note so that helps a lot. Another problem is I don't know half of the songs in the book so I'm going to get another instrument I know how to play to do the melody first so I know how the tune goes.The book has words for all the songs, and sometimes more than one verse so it's fun for sing-a-longs. Anyone who can play chords can play this book, so it's fun. And the songs are alphabetically arranged so if you are trying to find a specific song, you don't have to look at the table of contents.

I like the concept. I only wish that the tunes were more interesting. They tend to be very old, or very religious. This is a nice means of learning how to use three chords to play a lot of songs, although it is not explicitly taught in the text.

Autoharps belong in churches. There are over 40 mentions of harp(s) praising God in the Bible. There is one verse telling women to be quiet. Why aren't there more harp(s) in the churches of today praising God? Look up Autoharp Angels to find out more about the Autoharp, and check out this book and the other fine 3 chord hymn books!

It's okay, but would have liked songs that weren't so old. But the songs are easy to play knowing only three chords.

I have found many good old songs all in one place that I needed for singing with residents of a nursing home and also for my guitar students, including my own grandchildren, who love this book. The format is large and easy to read, the arrangements are super easy and fun.

I would love to have written a great raving review of these 127 pages of of useless songs, but alas,I simply cannot!After waiting a bit for this ridiculous book to arrive, I quickly opened it up only to find that there were noukulele notation or even tabs for me to use in order to play these songs on my ukulele.And, I've also found that other Mel Bay books have also failed in the form that the songs were written.With this book you simply have to know how to read music!.

GREAT FOR PLAY AROUNDS

This book is really helpful.

I like it, thanks

Good, basic starter.