Uke > Guitar, Need Help.

coolkayaker1

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My son plays guitar and we have a boodle of them lying around the house. Today, no reason, I picked up an acoustic 6-string Garrison G-30 (2001, before they sold to Gibson) and starting plunking around. Wow, I can play (sort of)! Arpeggiating, barre chording technique, pinky accents, strum pattern: same as uke.

Does anyone know of a specific reference--book, DVD, website or streamed video--that takes a ukulele player to the guitar (chording, etc.). Would be nice to convert with knowledge from a uker (like, "Here's a uke G chord, just do this to play it on a guitar" sort of thing) on aspects that are the same, different, the chords, etc.

Thanks in advance.
 
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Just buy the biggest, fattest chord dictionary you can find. And take it easy for a while or you'll get tendonitis before you know it. Playing uke may make you think you have more flexibility in your hands and fingers than you actually have, but wrestling a 6 string elephant is a whole new ballgame.

Good luck with it though :)
 
Does your son have a capo? If not, get one and install at the fifth fret ... hey, presto ... you're playing a humongous ukulele, tenor scale - C tuning. Just ignore those extra strings. You don't need them.
 
Hey Steve...I've been playing guitar again (have a slew of them...well maybe 8-10, couple of nice ones...) and have found this website to be very helpful. Just (re)learned "Rainbow Connection" last night to teach to my uke/guitar class. Nice collection of tunes...rock, pop and a little jazz.

http://www.justinguitar.com/

Ck out his Youtube channel.

Edit: Actually, Justin has a uke tutorial for "Rainbow"...here's the guitar version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGlfY3dKx1Q
 
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Hey Steve...I've been playing guitar again (have a slew of them...well maybe 8-10, couple of nice ones...) and have found this website to be very helpful. Just (re)learned "Rainbow Connection" last night to teach to my uke/guitar class. Nice collection of tunes...rock, pop and a little jazz.

http://www.justinguitar.com/

Ck out his Youtube channel.

Edit: Actually, Justin has a uke tutorial for "Rainbow"...here's the guitar version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGlfY3dKx1Q

Great advice. I'm checking out this site now. Thanks, Fred!
 
Does your son have a capo? If not, get one and install at the fifth fret ... hey, presto ... you're playing a humongous ukulele, tenor scale - C tuning. Just ignore those extra strings. You don't need them.

Geetee, just ignore the extra strings? I like the sound of it; will try it tomorrow. Thank you.
 
Just buy the biggest, fattest chord dictionary you can find. And take it easy for a while or you'll get tendonitis before you know it. Playing uke may make you think you have more flexibility in your hands and fingers than you actually have, but wrestling a 6 string elephant is a whole new ballgame.

Good luck with it though :)

Dug out my kid's big ole book of geetar chords. Good idea, BK. I'm off to stretch them joints and to do some book learnin'. Thanks!
 
Can you find a teacher? While uke is fairly easy to learn on one's own, there are hand training tricks that you need to learn to be efficient on that bigger fretboard and the six stings. You won't want to unlearn bad habits. I played as a self-taught in college. I was fairly good at folk, but then dropped it. Now I"m learning the right way and even my thumb doesn't want to go where it should.
 
The recognized good method DVD series (to some folks) is the Gibson Learn & Master Method set. 10 DVD's of lessons, a book and 5 play along CD's. Before you cough at the price, two lessons with my teacher cost what this set does. It's not a lot to invest and you'll see if he takes to it. Then you can plump for lessons in person or Skype to advance.

There is no "convert from Uke" per se. The chords are the same, the key is different (guitars are tuned E-A-D-G-B-E while anything but a baritone uke is G-C-E-A and the G is 're-entrant" or high where as the guitar goes up in pitch only.) The C chord on a guitar has one more finger (for those 2 extra bass strings) and is an F, I think on a ukulele. HOWEVER, no problem to switch over as the principles are similar. You just play each as its own instrument. I switched from soprano uke as a kid, to baritone (Dad would always buy the BIGGEST of anything, so I ended up with a tenor recorder which I hated and a baritone uke, which flummoxed me as a kid until I figured out it was a mini guitar, then I ended up with a guitar as a teen, playing folk.) Never had an issue==one taught the other but you just had to adjust what you did.

I don't think there is anyone who bothered to write "guitar for uke players." Just go with it. As the fingers need stretching on the wider guitar fretboard and since there are two extra strings, just learn guitar.

Guitar makes Uke easier, not so much the other way but it helps.

While you are at it with the Garrison G-30, restring it and keep it humidified. I think a friend of mine had one for years, played a 12 string version. She's a string player (busks violin) but this was her guitar as well. I think it's Canadian.
 
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