American Roots Music for Ukulele: Over 50 Great Traditional Folk Songs & Tunes!, Book & CD (Easy Ukulele Tab Edition)

gift for my son

I bought this five years ago and it's STILL my favorite uke finger picking book. It makes me so delighted to play! I got it spiral-bound at a nearby print shop and I play from it a few times a week. I came to Amazon to find more arrangements by Dick! Thanks!!

I bought a Lanikai spruce-top tenor ukulele about six months ago, along with Ukulele-for-Dummies and a digital tuner. I had some prior experience with guitar and mandolin in my younger years. I find the tenor uke with Aquila strings very mild and pleasant in tone and easier to play than the other instruments. After going methodically through the Dummies book, also excellent, I got American Roots. What a pleasure it has been...many, many hours of relaxing playing and singing, but also enough challenge to make me want to do better. I'm now starting Sheridan's Hallelujah Ukulele and have his Civil War Songs book waiting on the table. I plan to go back through these books again and again and get a little better with each pass. Thank you Dick Sheridan for sharing so well what is obviously a true love of your heart and soul. These old songs hearken America back to a simpler time in our history...they call us back to deep roots that we can rediscover when we yearn for relief from a new world of constant electronic badgering. Turn off your TV and cell phone, better yet, get rid of them and get this book.

I definitely don’t know these roots

This is a very nice selection of roots music. It doesn't cover everything, but many of the tunes and songs are difficult to find online, and nowhere near the quality of the arrangements in this book. It has the chords, a single-note melody, and a solo arrangement for all but a couple of pure melody tunes. This means you can have a go at all the music at whatever level of playing you feel comfortable with.The solo versions are rich and sound very good for a solo uke. If I were to nitpick, I would point out that these arrangements are uke-friendly, and not always in the commonly played keys. I can't really complain, as trying to make them in fiddle, mandolin and banjo friendly keys would make them very difficult to play on uke. Just an FYI if you intend to jam with other, non-ukulele musicians.The disk is a nice addition, and is great listening on its own. I am quite pleased with the purchase.

This is the best book I have found for practicing clawhammer and fingerpicking on the ukulele. Among its 50 folk songs are many that are very familiar to me and the type of songs I am interested in playing. On each the melody is given in musical notation and tabs, and a uke solo version is also included. The uke solos are also on the CD to let the player know exactly how they should sound. I find the arrangements very well put together because they sound interesting but are not so difficult that they discourage an inexperienced player. Chord diagrams are included on each song sheet and there is a special more extensive chord section at the back of the book. I'm very glad to have purchased this book and highly recommend it.

The book's song selection is good. Standard notation and tab are shown for each song's melody, and tab is given for a uke solo on each too. Chord diagrams are also included. To play the tunes with others, however, I sure wish that the songs were in the same keys commonly played by others (i.e. the fiddle tunes are usually played in keys of "G" or "D" or "A" rather than in "F" or "C" as written in this book). Guess I could use a capo when jamming with others. Learning "Turkey in the Straw" in the key of Ab will be different.

Overall, this book is great if you have a little bit of experience. Not the best for young beginners. My boyfriend recently picked up the uke so I got him this since he loves roots music. At first, some of the tab seemed a bit intimidating, but with much practice, he is picking it up. It gives uke chords in the back of the book and a little instructional page on how to play the uke, but like I mentioned, it isn't the best if you want to learn fundamentals.

I am SO pleased with this book ! Over the past few years I have bought many books on ukulele, and I can honestly say that this one has helped me the most at where I'm at now. A hoard of great songs, and two lots of finger picking patterns, one easy and the other more difficult, but its a great way to improve without being baffled. Also you can just strum the chords if you wish. A great book for anyone wanting to advance from just strumming to move on to fingerpicking. I would recommend this book to every novice or intermediate ukulele player, and, a great buy at a great price.

This is a good selection of simple American traditional folk/country/blues tunes. All tunes have full musical notation plus tabs for ukulele - most have a tab for the basic tune plus a tab for finger style picking. The tabs are fairly simple - ideal fora beginner like me (but nowhere near as complex as Colin Tribe!). Good for a finger picking beginner.

Very poor sound quality on the CD. A bit irritating - songs in the book are not in the same order as on the CD. Spine of book is weak - page fell out on first use trying to get the book to sit flat on music stand. Print quality of tab is good. Nice range of songs from easy to challenging, and there are plenty of them. Not disappointed but glad I didn't pay too much.

Very nice selection of songs and varying in difficulty. I would say I'm upper beginner going on intermediate and found a lot of songs for my level, plus some more to strive for. I really appreciated the separate melody and solo sections. I usually started learning the melody then once I was really confident started tackling the solo so there was a nice progression.

There are a lot of songs that are not well known but I feel you need to be an advanced player for this particular book. Not ideal for beginners.