Ukulele madness!

[Barre Fly]

I bought a uke last week and I am completely in love with it! Anyone else play these funky little instruments?

[wingsdad]

I've dabbled with the little rascal for about 10 years. Finally came upon this funky devil last year, an Oscar Schmidt OU-250BELL:

[Brian Krashpad]

I have one but rarely play it. I need to figure out the key relationship between ukelele and guitar. Do you tune yours in the same intervals as the 4 high strings as guitar so that you use the same chord shapes, only they result in a different key?

I've been playing mandolin a lot more, since I can use that for church, which I couldn't do with ukelele.

[Barre Fly]

Wingsdad, that is lovely!!

Krash, I use a chromatic tuner - so you've just got your G, C, E and A strings and with the chords, yes, alot of the shapes are the same, such as a D shape is a G chord on the uke - but chords like C for example are completely different. C is just third fret down hold the A string...I think it's why I like it so much, I'm finding it much easier and my chord changes are quicker.

[hubberjub***]

I can play some baritone uke. If you haven't checked out Jake Shimabukuro you really should. He is the Hendrix of the uke world. He's got a great version of Gently Weeps and even did a version of Thriller. Awesome.

[Barre Fly]

If you haven't checked out Jake Shimabukuro you really should. He is the Hendrix of the uke world. He's got a great version of Gently Weeps and even did a version of Thriller. Awesome.

Brilliant! I love the places musicians take this instrument, thank you I will check that out for sure

[Brian Krashpad]

Wingsdad, that is lovely!!

Krash, I use a chromatic tuner - so you've just got your G, C, E and A strings and with the chords, yes, alot of the shapes are the same, such as a D shape is a G chord on the uke - but chords like C for example are completely different. C is just third fret down hold the A string...I think it's why I like it so much, I'm finding it much easier and my chord changes are quicker.

Actually that C chord you mention isn't any different than a guitar shape either-- it corresponds to an open G chord on guitar (minus the 2 bass strings).

At least I'm pretty sure that's right. Check for me!

PS-- here's a shot including my uke:



Now everyone has seen my Johnson

[wingsdad]

Hee's some handy chord charts:

Uke Chords

Baritone Uke Chords

Looking for some direction and a jump-start in learrning to play, I've picked up a few of these songbooks at the local store where I got my ukes...cool, genre-organized in notation w/ chord diagrams (no tab):

Jumpin' Jim Beloff Uke Songbooks

[markb]

I understand they're quite popular in some circles.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms/2009/take...wasthere/0818/

[Barre Fly]

That's the clip I've been looking for!!! I missed it on tv and having been (feebly) attempting to track it down

Krash - they are lush!! Is that a mandolin there too?
I absolutely take your word on the open G chord, I've just about managed to learn my basic chord shapes and look the rest up as and when I need to play them

Thanks for the links Wingsdad, there's also a pretty funky collection of songs on the Doctor Uke site

[Brian Krashpad]

Krash - they are lush!! Is that a mandolin there too?

Yeah, that's my dad's, he loaned it to me long ago. It's a Framus, made in Germany in the '60's I think. I'll be returning it over Thanksgiving. I've bought a cheapie electric-acoustic Washburn that I use for church:



I don't really know how to play it yet, so every week if there's a simple song in church I play mandolin on the simplest one. With mando, instead of using a truncated chord based on the guitar's four high strings' spacings (like uke), it's a bit more involved. You take the four low strings on a guitar (or the strings on a standard electric or double bass) and reverse them, so instead of EADG, the mando is GDAE. So the chords are like a mirror image of the low strings on a guitar. A bit tougher to visualize, but at least it stays in the same key so you don't have to transpose like on uke.

I absolutely take your word on the open G chord, I've just about managed to learn my basic chord shapes and look the rest up as and when I need to play them

Haha, it's not that involved, really. Here's the guitar chord I was referencing:



If you look at just the four higher strings, and ignore the note names, you'll see that minus the two bassiest strings, the G chord is the same thing you do for C on a ukelele. In fact, when I was learning, playing just the high four strings on guitar (so you didn't need to do that big hand stretch to fret the 2 lowest strings) for that chord we used to call a "cheater's G." Much easier to do than the full chord, if you are still in the phase where it takes awhile to change chord shapes.

The cool thing is that if you keep at it, eventually you develop muscle memory and your fingers know where to go!

[Barre Fly]

Ahhh! That was the first chord I learnt on guitar, just never realised it was "open" G :

That Washburn is really pretty! Although perhaps pretty isn't the best word to use to describe a man's mandolin... Perhaps I'll amend to, what an attractive and yet manly looking mandolin you have, good sir!

[hubberjub***]

This will make you think twice about making any Tiny Tim jokes.



And this is what won him some notariety.

[Barre Fly]

He is absolutely a god on the uke! Although, I preferred him when he was lesser known - slightly more humble and more genuine passion in his playing...(same song for comparison)...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puSkP3uym5k