Appreciating Reentrant Tuning

Whenever this topic comes up I am interested in people's opinion, and I think that some people just think linearly, and they like things to go in order. When you come right down to it, it makes more sense that music goes in a straight line, that is how we are taught. Re-entrant people seem to be a bit more scattered in their thinking, and they can relate to something that does not follow the order. That's just my observation anyway, and I don't think it is an either/or, so there are a lot of people in the middle who have their own reasons that have nothing to do with that. But people who I have actually met in person and who prefer either linear tuning or baritones fit into that observation thus far.
 
Jarmo's point hit home with me. I find that, playing the soprano uke tuned in reentrant fashion, and singing along with my voice being in a naturally lower part of the register than the uke itself, the combination often does seem to be effective, with my voice lending what the ear might perceive as a bass-like component to the overall sound. I remember James Hill saying that he likes to perform with his wife Anne Janelle in part because his uke and her cello occupy different enough parts of the register that they "don't get in each other's way". I find that's the case with a reentrant soprano uke and my voice. If you tinker with learning a given vocal song in a key that lands your voice in a nice comfortable range (presumably below where the uke's range is), it can sound pretty decent. Does that make sense?
 
I like reentrant tuning for strumming partly because on both up and down strums, you hit a high note first and it lends a brightness to the sound. The point about the instrument's pitch lying above the voice is true whether it's a soprano or a tenor if it's tuned GCEA but really only true if your vocal range is tenor or lower. An alto overlaps with reentrant tuning and a soprano lies in the same range. I'm a tenor and top of my comfortable range stays below the open low G string. I can reach A but only if I can work up to it and I only ever try to go for it when I'm singing in the choir I belong to. Singing solo, F is the highest I will sing except in rare cases.

I quite often sing with a baritone (linear) or a tenor tuned DGBE (reentrant) and quite like doing it. That overlaps with my vocal range.
 
My relatively inexpensive Kala is reentrant tuned, the Pono is linear. I find the picking is better on the linear, but strumming is better on the Kala. Not trying to get into your pocket, but maybe buying a good inexpensive uke to tune to reentrat is the way to go. Some of the entry level Oscar Schmidts, Kala and Lanikai ukes can be found on ebay for under $ 100.00 and they are very decent instruments.
 
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