Jim Carey’s Songbooks and Song Sheets @cong_boy

If you see this man – buy him a pint! Or donate on his songbook site – he deserves it!

Jim Carey now has over 2,000 songs available for download from http://ozbcoz.com as:

• single sheets
• complete songbooks for Ukulele GCEA, Baritone DGBE, Guitar EADGBE and Mandolin GDAE.

Jim has adapted the already very clever Ukegeeks Scriptasaurus code to create this amazing resource.

SONGBOOKS

The current songbooks, October 2017, are the final versions planned for 2017: http://ozbcoz.com/songbooks/

• The Ukulele Songbook is available for download in regular C tuning (GCEA).

INDIVIDUAL SONG SHEETS

If you go to the Songs Index page http://ozbcoz.com/Songs/index.php then you can choose from:

• Ukulele C (G-C-E-A)
• Ukulele G (Baritone tuning: D-G-B-E)
• Ukulele Bb (F-Bb-D-G)
• Ukulele D (A-D-F#-B)
• Guitar (E-A-D-G-B-E)
• Mandolin (G-D-A-E)

When you have chosen the instrument and song you can:

• scroll the page for “play along” online
• change the layout of the PDF file for viewing and printing
• change from right-handed to left-handed chord diagrams
• transpose individual song sheets to different Keys
• edit the songsheet
• download it as a PDF file
• copy the “Chordpro” format text for the song sheet.

The songs are all “chord based” rather than showing “finger picking”. However, some of the song sheets include sections of “tab” to show finger picking for riffs.

• If you transpose a song key then only the chords transpose, not the tab.
• Jim has hidden the tab sections in the PDF versions for printing transposed songs.

Jim has given some advice about what to expect if you want to print a particular song sheet for more than one instrument, eg. Ukulele C Tuning and Guitar, or Baritone Ukulele and Mandolin: http://ozbcoz.com/advice-needed/

TIP: OTHER 4 AND 6 STRING INSTRUMENTS

You can use the “Chord Builder” function under the Song Edit menu to add new chords and change chord voicings.  This means that you can edit a song sheet to show chord diagrams for any 4 or 6 string instrument.

For example, if you want a song sheet for A-D-G-C-E-A tuning (standard Guitarlele / Guilele / Requinto tuning):

• choose Guitar E-A-D-G-B-E as the instrument
• choose the song
• use the “Chord Builder” to add appropriate chord definitions
  • use the same chord names so that your definitions overwrite the originals
  • select “Update” to see your changes
• save or print the PDF or copy the Chordpro because your changes will NOT be saved on the site

ETHICS, INFO AND EDITS

Jim has collected ukulele song sheets from clubs and individuals around the world. He has done this ethically: asking for permission and giving credit wherever possible; inviting people to contact him about any errors or misattributions.  It is no easy task to identify where particular arrangements originated and different people will have come up with exactly the same arrangement independently.

• The “Song Info” button generates a pop-up that shows the information Jim has entered about the song writer(s), the artist for that particular version and other “song facts”
• Where possible, song sheets include a credit to the arranger and/or the club or site where Jim found the arrangement he has used.

Jim has edited many of the arrangements that he found, to correct errors or improve the arrangements. For example, where a guitar arrangement has been used as a “starting point” then a basic transposition to a “ukulele version” can result in an arrangement that sounds a bit odd and/or is harder to play than necessary.

I know how much work Jim has put into quality control and editing because he has included some of the song sheets that I have made, emailing several times about individual songs to check possible errors (he was usually right!) or to query chord voicings and the chord names I had used.

THANK YOU, JIM!

Ukulele players around the world have been using Jim’s Songbooks for years – and now guitar and mandolin players have much to thank him for. I have found it very helpful to be able to print Ukulele and Guitar versions of the same song for band use.

Being able to copy and paste the Chordpro text is also extremely useful and saves a lot of time. I edit the Chordpro “off line” in a Plain Text Editor and then create a printed song sheet using Songsheet Generator. There is nothing wrong with the functions available on Jim’s site – I just prefer a landscape layout and I make use of the other formatting options available in Songsheet Generator.

I still have a lot of song sheets to make for Ukes4Fun and my “starting point” now is to check if Jim has already included that song. So, thank you, Jim!

About Liz Panton (Ukulele Allsorts)

Singer-songwriter, music-maker, organiser and unionista, bit of a geek, life long learner - there is always room for improvement!