Newbie tuning question
- Thread starter tonyg
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Welcome! Changing the G string from high to low doesn't require any other re-tuning. If you are playing around with alternate tunings in general, a high or low G won't make a difference with alternate tunings except obviously the overall sound will be different.
Knows Picker
Well-known member
Tuning up should not be a problem, go for it!
Tiuning up to D shouldn't be a problem, but you might want to play around with different strings. I keep a D-tuned soprano nearby all the time.
merlin666
Well-known member
Tuning up a concert is not common and to suit your voice an easier way might be use of a capo. Many people including myself transpose to a different key to suit their voices. So if the song is in C and has F and G chords, you could try key of G instead that has C and D as common chords in songs.
Capos work well on concerts, in my experience. Alternate tunings work with high or low g, but they will have a different flavor.
What key do you want to play in? What chords do you need that aren’t easy in gcea tuning?
Alternate tunings AND capos will really get you places!
What key do you want to play in? What chords do you need that aren’t easy in gcea tuning?
Alternate tunings AND capos will really get you places!
ScooterD35
Well-known member
It’s more common to tune a soprano up to D than a concert. I actually have a soprano Flea that I keep in aDF#B all the time. The shorter scale is better suited to tuning up. For what it’s worth, a capo on the second fret is a great way to try out the higher tuning.
Scooter
I don't plan to tune to a different key, but tonyg's question raised one of my own, if he re-tunes a Low-G concert to D, does that mean the Low-G becomes a Low-D?
I am thinking that is what tonyg means. But I am not sure.
I am thinking that is what tonyg means. But I am not sure.
Tuning to d would mean tuning up to A d f# b. Tuning the G string down to D would be tuning to g, as in DGBe. Regular gcea is tuned to c.
Not sure why it ended up being this way, but this is how it normally is described.
merlin666
Well-known member
I have heard two common explanations 1) the lowest root note is C and 2) the open strings form a C6 chord.
I tuned it to A d f# b, but not sure if I liked it, so I tuned back down. Plus it made me nervous. My problem is twofold: I come from a guitar background and primarily am a singer/strummer and always made liberal use of a capo. I don't play in a group so if a song works for me to sing in the key of f#, no problem.....just capo at the 4th fret and use d, g, and a7. This works fine on my baritone ukulele, but not so much on my concert.....even at the 1st or 2d frets I don't care for the capo on the concert. Too bunchy and my particular instrument sounds best without a capo. I probably should've gotten a tenor. But I've got a couple hundred old time country songs and hymns in my repertoire and about 2/3's of them I've found keys on the concert that work, and I'm happy with that. One thing I've noticed about the concert uke is that certain chords sound better than others, like those in the keys of C, and G as well as Dm and Am. Amaj and D maj not as much. Not sure why.
merlin666
Well-known member
With only 4 strings there are many possible voicings for each chord and the easiest chord is not necessarily the best sounding for each song or a particular uke. For low G and high g ukes often different voicings are used. For example Em on high g is 0432 and with low G use 4432.
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