Ok, so a standard ukulele is...

[karma279]

Basically a guitar with a capo on the 5th fret?

The finger positions for chords are exactly the same (minus #5 and #6 string) but they are 4 steps lower in scale? Or 3 steps higher, same difference?

 

Like you finger a "G" as 0003, but it would be a "C" chord. If you finger 0232, does that give you a "G"? And would 2220 be a "D"?

ABCDEFG gives you:

DEFGABC equivalent (if that makes sense)?

 

If this is correct, scales would be the same right?

 

And is it just a matter of getting a larger gauge string to change the high G, reentrant, to low G?

[gitnoob]

[seagullplayer77]

My understanding is that a baritone ukulele is tuned the same was a guitar (EADG), but I don't have much experience with regular ukes.

Stackabones has a uke or two, and there are a few other people around here who play them as well. Perhaps they could offer some insights .

[Chicken Monkey]

That's one way to look at it. The lowest/closest to you string is the second highest in pitch, though, so the voicing is a little different.

[Stackabones]

My understanding is that a baritone ukulele is tuned the same was a guitar (EADG)

 

 

Bari is DGBE.

[Chicken Monkey]

Bari is DGBE.

 

 

Right. The top four strings of standard tuning, not the bottom four.

[gitnoob]

So do you uke players think in terms of transposing from the guitar fretboard, or do you just memorize uke-specific chords and scale positions?

[karma279]

That's one way to look at it. The lowest/closest to you string is the second highest in pitch, though, so the voicing is a little different.

 

 

But you can change the gauge of the G to tune it down an octave and still maintain the tuning right?

[Chicken Monkey]

So do you uke players think in terms of transposing from the guitar fretboard, or do you just memorize uke-specific chords and scale positions?

 

 

I'm making the transition from thinking about guitar to memorizing the uke chords. It can be a tad crippling to jump through the same conversion hoops every time you try to have a conversation with your band mate.

[Jim Sallis]

Confusing, huh? Ukes come as (in order) soprano, concert, tenor, baritone --gaining an inch or so in lnegth and another couple of inches in the lower bout with each step up. Basic tuning is g C E A: staggered triad with sixth on top. (Ukes often retune to D, etc. An excuse to have many.) The uke sound largely comes from the "re-entrant" tuning, with the high string on the bottom. (Baritones, tuned to the top four strings of a guitar, while nice to play and cool-sounding, IMO forfeit the characteristic sound.) Most of us players think not about chords but work out of the Nashville system: If I'm in C, yeah I'm playing a G position, but I'm thinking 1-4-5-6 and so on -- not transposing each change.

[Stackabones]

So do you uke players think in terms of transposing from the guitar fretboard, or do you just memorize uke-specific chords and scale positions?

 

 

It's much easier to think uke C chord and play 0003, than to think G chord on guitar which is C chord on uke. I tried that for a while and it drove me nuts.

 

I found it helpful to think in numbers. So I woodshedded all the 1-4-5 patterns and then all the 1-6-2-5 and etc.

[Stackabones]

But you can change the gauge of the G to tune it down an octave and still maintain the tuning right?

 

 

Generally only on tenor, but not on soprano or concert.

[Opa John]

The ukulele was the first stringed instrument I learned when I was a kid. I played one for six years before ever picking up a guitar.

Playing the uke screwed up my head for life......When I'm playing a G chord on the guitar, I'm still thinking of it as a C chord. E as A. C as F. A as D. etc., etc., etc. I really have to slow down and think sometimes if someone is calling out chord changes to a song I'm not familiar with. It works better if I just close me ears and watch their fingers.

I suppose it would also work in the opposite manner for someone going from guitar to uke.

[masterbuilt]

My understanding is that a baritone ukulele is tuned the same was a guitar (EADG), but I don't have much experience with regular ukes. Stackabones has a uke or two, and there are a few other people around here who play them as well. Perhaps they could offer some insights .

The baritone is typically tuned DGBE, like the top four strings of a guitar. They are the same key. Sopranos are tuned re-entrant tuning with a "high" gCEA.

Here is an online ukulele tuner for re-entrant tuning...

http://www.get-tuned.com/ukulele_tuner.php