Mel Bay Baritone Uke Chords [Paperback]

Mel Bay (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1981

A catalog of baritone uke chords in photo/diagram form grouped by type. Major, minor, seventh, diminished, augmented, and ninth chords are all shown in all keys in fretboard photos and diagrams. Major seventh, minor seventh, sixth, minor sixth, seventh augmented fifth, and seventh diminished fifth chords are shown in diagram form only. Also includes helpful photos and information on the correct way to hold the baritone ukulele and the pick, and on tuning the baritone uke. This book may also be used with the tenor ukulele in D-G-B-E tuning.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Mel Bay was born on February 25, 1913 in the little Ozark Mountain town of Bunker, Missouri. He bought a Sears Roebuck guitar at the age of 13 and several months later played his first "gig." (He recalled playing until his fingers were raw!) Mel took up the tenor banjo shortly thereafter and continued to play both instruments. During his teenage years Mel played with a wild assortement of bands and characters in rural Missouri. Perhaps no "gig" was as strange as the job he landed with, in Mel's words, "a snake oil salesman." This flamboyant peddler would pull his ostentatious Pierce Arrow automobile, complete with steer horns mounted on the grill, into the center of a small, rural town. Mel would sit on the car and play up a storm on the tenor banjo. After a crowd gathered, the peddler took over and began extolling the merits of his "wonder elixer." In 1933 Mel Bay moved to St. Louis and began his professional career. He played with numerous local and traveling bands. In addition, he landed staff guitar jobs on several radio stations. Mel fronted his own trio (piano, bass, guitar) and played steadily for 25 years! He was equally adept on most fretted instruments and played mandolin, uke, Hawaiian guitar, tenor and plectrum banjo professionally. While Mel was actively pursuing his playing career, he continued to teach as many as 100 students a week. He decided to begin writing instructional materials due to the difficulty encountered by guitarists at playing good sounding chord forms in rhythm sections and due to the poor note reading ability prevalent among guitarists. After the war Mel was asked to write instructional materials on guitar for GI's wanting to learn music under the GI Bill. In 1947 Mel formed his own publishing company and wrote his landmark initial book titled The Orchestral Chord System for Guitar. (This book is still in print under the title Rhythm Guitar Chord System and continues to be one the finest rhythm guitar chord texts available!) His Modern Guitar Method was penned shortly thereafter. For years Mel traveled from town to town talking to guitar teachers and players and showing them his publications. At one time Mel claims to have known virtually every guitar teacher in America on a first name basis! The guitar and Mel Bay books caught on in a big way in the 1950's. Things have continued to grow ever since. Mel used to sell D'Angelico guitars. At any given time he would have 5 or 6 "lying around the house." Mel played professionally on his New Yorker model but his favorite was the initial Mel Bay Model crafted as a gift for him by John D'Angelico. This famous guitar had all of the main features of the New Yorker but was a "cut away" model and had a slightly thinner neck. This instrument has been pictured on the Mel Bay Modern Guitar Method for decades. Someone once calculated that sales of guitar books written by Mel Bay have exceeded 25 million copies. When asked, Mel frequently said that he quit counting long ago. Sales of his Modern Guitar Method have alone surpassed the 7 million mark. It is safe to say that Mel Bay is one of the pivotal figures in the world of guitar music and instruction in this century.

Product Details

• Paperback: 32 pages
• Publisher: Mel Bay Publications, Inc. (May 1, 1981)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0871668645
• ISBN-13: 978-0871668646
• Product Dimensions: 11.7 x 8.4 x 0.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #393,549 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Useful for beginning and intermediate players, April 23, 2007

By 

Cotton-Ayed Joan (Central Valley, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Mel Bay Baritone Uke Chords (Paperback)

This book provides large-format chord diagrams showing finger placement for all the chords a beginning or intermediate baritone uke player is likely to use. There are also photos of finger placement for major, minor, seventh, diminished, augmented and ninth chords. Chords are not presented in music notation as shown on the front cover for one chord. Inside the book, you are referred to Mel Bay Fun With the Baritone Uke or Mel Bay Fun With The Baritone Uke Book/CD Set for additional (very basic) information on strumming a few tunes on the baritone ukulele. All of these books could also be used with a tenor banjo or plectrum banjo tuned in "Chicago" or "guitar" tuning.

Some people will find the little book on this page to be useful along with Mel Bay Guitar Chords. The basic introductory information in the DVD accompanying the guitar chord book (i.e., holding and tuning a guitar) are applicable to the baritone ukulele, and many of the finger placements for playing chords are the same. If you quickly compare the chords in the two books you will get good idea of the similarities and differences in playing the two instruments. This would be especially useful if you already play the guitar a little or if a guitar player is teaching a beginner on the baritone uke or tenor banjo. Where the chords are different, the baritone uke chord could also be used as a simplified chord on the guitar. This might be nice for beginning guitar players where the complete guitar chord is tough to play. The guitar book DVD sometimes presents these simplified chords as alternatives where guitar chords using five or six strings are presented in the book.

The chords are presented in the same order in both books until the sixth chords, which are reversed in the uke book with the seventh augmented and diminished fifth chords in the guitar book. The movable and modern rhythm chords in the guitar book are replaced by a less extensive summary of movable major, minor and seventh chords on the baritone uke. These could be used as simplified movable chords on a guitar.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Baritone Uke, November 10, 2009

By 

J. W. Bradfield (Idaho) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Mel Bay Baritone Uke Chords (Paperback)

The baritone uke is really easy to learn for anyone that aleady plays guitar. It is just the top 4 strings of a guitar. This book does a pretty good job of showing how to play songs without those 2 missing strings. I recommend this book if you want to know the difference between guitar and baritone uke chords. The baritone uke is a great tool to write simple songs with.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Uke Chord Book for Beginners, December 1, 2008

By 

P. D. Davidson "VolEwok" (Portsmouth, VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mel Bay Baritone Uke Chords (Paperback)

I still can't play well, but it's not the books's fault. The book is very good.