Tabs in hi g on low g uke - how to?

Hi,

All but my soprano uke are tuned to Low g. I just got the Jumpin Jim's Ukulele Songbook for Christmas. It seems to be written for high g.

Do you guys normally just play the A string instead of the Low g, or is there another technique? It makes it more difficult to do the chord progressions and sometimes sounds a bit off if I use the A string.



Thanks

I could understand your question if you were talking about fingerpicking a melody, but the Jumpin' Jim books are just chord sheets, right? I don't see how a chord progression or fingering would change at all from high-g to low-g. Did I misunderstand something?

Most chord charts that are written for standard uke (such as most of the Beloff books) sound off to me when played on low G, especially when played in a group with others who have standard ukes. Sometimes I'll try to figure out other inversions higher up the neck and that will help, but personally I don't find low G works particularly well for strum-and-sing songs in general.

janeray1940 said:

personally I don't find low G works particularly well for strum-and-sing songs in general.

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How is it any different than strumming a guitar capo'd at the 5th fret? The voicing would be exactly the same, and certainly guitars are used for strum-and-sing songs. Of course, it wouldn't have the high-g uke voice, but I don't think that makes it unusable or even unpleasant...

OregonJim said:

How is it any different than strumming a guitar capo'd at the 5th fret?

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Can't answer that, since I've never strummed a guitar capo'd at the 5th fret.

I'm not big on theory but the way I understand it is this: when playing low G, instead of the root being the lowest note in a chord, sometimes the note played on the low G string becomes the lowest note - a simple example would be the first-position C chord. Instead of the C being the lowest note, the G is, and while it's not wrong in any way, to me it sounds off. So instead I'll play a barred C chord. It isn't at all wrong to just play the chords as written at all, but as the OP expressed that it sounded a bit off, I'm just saying I've noticed the same thing.

This book has two versions of each song - which is why I wanted to try it. One version of the song is strumming with chords. The second version is solo/fingerpicking. My question refers to solo/fingerpicking tabs in general with low g vs hi g.

OregonJim said:

I could understand your question if you were talking about fingerpicking a melody, but the Jumpin' Jim books are just chord sheets, right? I don't see how a chord progression or fingering would change at all from high-g to low-g. Did I misunderstand something?

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steel rider said:

This book has two versions of each song - which is why I wanted to try it. One version of the song is strumming with chords. The second version is solo/fingerpicking. My question refers to solo/fingerpicking tabs in general with low g vs hi g.

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Are you reading the tab, or the standard notation? If it's the tab, and it's written for reentrant uke, any note you play on the 4th string will be an octave too low, so you'll have to transpose it to another string. Usually I use the E string for this. The G note that equals the open 4th reentrant string is on the E string, 3rd fret - sorry if that's too elementary and you already know that, but I don't have any way of knowing how well you know the fretboard or if you can read standard notation Hope that helps!

steel rider said:

This book has two versions of each song - which is why I wanted to try it. One version of the song is strumming with chords. The second version is solo/fingerpicking. My question refers to solo/fingerpicking tabs in general with low g vs hi g.

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Ah, that I didn't know. So your original question makes sense now. Cool - I'll have to pick up a copy. The two 'Daily Ukulele' volumes I have are only chord charts.

In any case, transposing runs on the (missing) high-G string up to the E or A string is about the only practical option we have. The other is to transpose everything down an octave.

Edit: janeray1940 - looks like we posted at about the same time - sorry. You covered it well.

This is what I was wondering. Thanks! I've heard to use the A string but that sounded off. Using your approach works!

janeray1940 said:

If it's the tab, and it's written for reentrant uke, any note you play on the 4th string will be an octave too low, so you'll have to transpose it to another string. Usually I use the E string for this. The G note that equals the open 4th reentrant string is on the E string, 3rd fret

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steel rider asked :

Do you guys normally just play the A string instead of the Low g, or is there another technique?

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Sounds to me you're trying to make a rod for your own back, my friend ... just use the instrument set up with a high G ... life's too short to struggle!

As others have said you'll make it easier on yourself to play fingerpicking tabs written for high G on a reentrant tuned instrument.

Chords should make no difference. Except that occasionally a voicing might seem odd switching from one to the other.

In general it is actually easy to transpose the vast majority of finger picking tabs written for high G to play on a low G instrument (the reverse is harder because of issues of range). Overwhelmingly there are two notes that present a problem, G which is played on the open string and the A above it. If I look over my fingerpicking tabs 80-90% of the time these are the notes used on the high G string. Most often it is the G because the tab is trying to take advantage of the ringing sound of the open string. Just substitute the third fret on the second string. It won't be an exact equivalent because it won't have the same ringing quality but is close enough. To get the A, either use the A string open or the fifth fret on the second string. if you get to where transposing is more complicated than this you probably won't want to bother.

katysax said:

Just substitute the third fret on the second string. It won't be an exact equivalent because it won't have the same ringing quality but is close enough.

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Having just gone to a low g - and finding my fingerpicking tunes to be 'off' - are you saying that I can just play the equivalent of an open G on the E string, 3rd fret? Does that mean that the low g isn't normally used in fingerstyle? I'm trying to understand the theory. I'm about to abandon the low g, but would like to look at this further before doing so. cheers.

fisher00 said:

Having just gone to a low g - and finding my fingerpicking tunes to be 'off' - are you saying that I can just play the equivalent of an open G on the E string, 3rd fret? Does that mean that the low g isn't normally used in fingerstyle? I'm trying to understand the theory. I'm about to abandon the low g, but would like to look at this further before doing so. cheers.

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The low G is definitely used in fingerstyle - I use it all the time (as well as other notes below C that can be found on that string). I think what Katysax was saying is that if you are playing from a reentrant tab and the tab calls for the open G, that same note can be found on the E string, 3rd fret rather than rearranging the tab entirely to suit the low G tuning.

Yep. That's what I was saying.

There are plenty of uses for low G in finger style, but if you are playing tabs written for high G on a low G uke you need to make adjustments.

I usually find that if the melody is on the G string then it can be substituted usually by playing the same note on the E string. If the note in the tab is a harmony note - you can usually leave it on the low G string. As others have said, if you want to play a lot of stuff from high G tabs, it makes a lot of sense to have one ukulele tuned to high G. When you've been playing a while and know the fretboard and get comfortable transposing, it isn't that hard to play high G tabs on a low G uke.