Uke size

I have no preference. I bought a concert size for no reason other than it was the one in the middle, and I thought that it wouldn't be too big or too little. I have played tenors at festivals and in stores, and frankly, a lot of times I didn't know that they were tenors and not concerts until I looked at the tag. I don't have a lot of experience with owning different size ukuleles, so that is probably why.

I seem to like different ukes for different songs. The one I play most often right now is the tenor. I like the sound and sizewise it seems to fit me well. But I'm glad I have other sizes. I don't have and have spent very little time on a concert, so my comparisons only include soprano, tenor, and baritone. Maybe down the road I'll add a concert. I'd add one sooner, but I have to convince my spouse that there's really a need for another uke, given that I only started playing a few months ago.

Last year there was an article in I think the Wall Street Journal (I can't find it now) about the ukulele "re-craze". It had a sidebar chart of ukulele sales in the US from numbers provided by the big box and internet stores. Sales by size were as follows: 1. Concert, 2. Soprano, 3. Tenor, 4. Baritone. In Europe, not based on a survey, but through discussions with some music stores, Soprano was #1.
The U.U. Forum leans towards Tenor-centric. I'm not certain why, but I suspect that one reason maybe that there are a number of guitar and ex-guitar players that find the tenor size more comfortable than soprano or concert. But, unlike the baritone, the tenor seems to maintain more of that "ukulele sound".

Soprano is definitely the most common size in Sweden, and I suspect in Europe overall as well. Stores here carry quite a few sopranos, maybe a couple of concerts but only occasionally the odd tenor. I've never seen a baritone here.

I prefer the Soprano for lots of reasons. To me it gives the most authentic old-style ukulele sound. I can have two of them (tuned to C and D, see below) in the living room without them taking up too much space. They suit my small hands (or rather the Tenor doesn't). I can cycle over to my local ukulele club easily carrying one or two ukuleles. The soprano can be tuned up to ADF#B or even BbEbGC, which often suits my voice better. They tend to be less expensive.

I am hesitant to voice my size preferences, because they have changed a few times over the years, and they may do so again as I learn and grow as a player. One thing that is becoming more apparent to me as I experience more ukuleles is that my preferences are in part not for specific sizes, but for specific instruments. The way they are built, the way they sound and feel.

That said, lately I have been preferring both sopranos and the bigger sizes (tenor/baritone/guitarlele, and possibly the guitarlele, but it only arrived today, too soon to say). My two sopranos are both in re-entrant tuning, one in C and one in D, and to me they are as different to my linear tuned tenor/baritone/guitarlele as a mandolin would be. There are distinct differences in how I play them, what I play on them, how they sound, and how I experience them. That is why I can't really say I prefer this or that size (of those I mentioned) to another, because they are completely different and hard to compare. If I could only play one instrument, it would at this moment be a soprano, but I'd miss the sustain and depth of my bigger instruments.

teryg said:

I seem to like different ukes for different songs. The one I play most often right now is the tenor. I like the sound and sizewise it seems to fit me well. But I'm glad I have other sizes. I don't have and have spent very little time on a concert, so my comparisons only include soprano, tenor, and baritone. Maybe down the road I'll add a concert. I'd add one sooner, but I have to convince my spouse that there's really a need for another uke, given that I only started playing a few months ago.

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My feelings are the same as yours Teryg, I have managed to acquire ukes in all sizes (ahem!) and I just go for the uke, regardless of size, which seems to match up with the song I am trying to sing. (Although, having said that, I do agree with those that say that the soprano is the one to go for if you want the proper, pukka ukulele sound.)