The Art of the Soprano

OhioBelle

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Having spent a little bit of time with my new Primrose soprano, I thought I'd see what the rest of you all think about this statement:

Sopranos are the trickiest ukulele to play.

It is far less forgiving of sloppy technique than my tenors. It requires more precision from my fretting hand. It requires more care in holding so that I don't muffle the resonance of the top with my arm.

I've heard many of you talk about getting to know your uke, and that is the joy in this soprano. I am having a ball figuring it out.

So what say you all? Sopranos - difficult or not? How do you play yours to get the sound you want?
 
Of course it's difficult...
All the uke sizes have their own little set of difficult things to master, I guess. However, it's a question of habit. The small soprano isn't that bad if you play it a lot, and concentrate on mastering the little fretboard and the small size. The tenor in GCEA tuning is difficult for me because of the heavy string tension (which REALLY puts me off), and the baritone is difficult because I sometimes confuse it with guitar. The thing is; if you focus, concentrate and practice, no size ukulele is more difficult than the other to master. There isn't a musical instrument in existence which isn't 'difficult'...
 
I don't think sopranos are any more difficult than any other size, it is what you get used to.

My fingers feel too cramped on mine just now, because I have been playing bari & tenor scales lately, it would just take a bit of practice time to be able to play one just as well as I can play my tenors. :)
 
Anything larger than a soprano is cheating .
 
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I don't think sopranos are any more difficult than any other size, it is what you get used to.

My fingers feel too cramped on mine just now, because I have been playing bari & tenor scales lately, it would just take a bit of practice time to be able to play one just as well as I can play my tenors. :)

I agree, and also with drbekken.

I am a large man with big hands. My main instrument for years was electric and upright bass.

But I primarily play soprano. Not sure why. I enjoy it, but also love concerts and baris. For some reason I've never got on with tenors.

I am something of a traditionalist. Maybe sopranos seem most uke-like to me?

The only truth is, many instruments are easy enough to play, but all are difficult to master.

Play what you like; like what you play.
 
Because I think that the soprano was never meant to be played like, or in the finger picking mannerof a small guitar , as in the way that the current crop of Tenor players do. The soprano is happiest at the strum style with the occasional picked passages and segments. Yes I know that there are exceptions to the rule ,I am generalising..and when I say strum I don't mean just simply sing and one fingered strum, I mean triple strokes,split strokes,fan strokes, figure 8 strum and all the rest of the tools in the box.

Soprano was the original size and was prevalent for 40 years before Concert and Tenor came along in 1920s, then Big Brother Barry tipped up in the 1940s......So if you solely want to finger pick then concerts or tenors may well be the better choice,especially for older slightly stiffer jointed hands. Leave the soprano to Ohta San (exceptional exception to the rule and picks on sop)and the strummers maybe and cut your cloth accordingly. For the first time in a long time I find myself without a Soprano,I miss it so am doing more Uke Banjo work and occasionally pick up a concert,which I find to be a useful compromise just slightly more mellow in tone. I have got a tenor ,not bothered , it doesn't do what I want it to. And for myself that is the joy of the sizes, they do have different characteristics and respond differently to different techniques.
 
I find the concert and tenor ungainly, I adore the sound of the one concert I own but it's gigantic! For me comfort and relaxation come in the soprano even then I prefer the smaller sopranos, Kiwaya, Imua, I have a Kamaka and I love it's mellow tones but sometimes in comparison even it seems large.
To me the baritone seems not really like a ukulele at all, but we all need our own ways to go mad.
 
My old Martin is the most fun to play, especially on Tin Pan Alley style tunes and/or bluegrass/country stuff. It's a challenge, especially while standing since it has no strap and I'm not about to drill an 83 year old uke. Just takes a little more concentration to fret and keep it in place, but, it's light and manageable.
 
Small person with small hands here - I actually find sopranos the easiest to play, although two of my three ukes are concert scale. When I'm confronted with a difficult piece I sometimes try to learn it on my soprano first because I find it to be more forgiving.
 
I started with a tenor but once I started playing sopranos I sold my tenor. Yes, it takes a lot of practice but now that I have settled into the soprano size, anything larger doesn't feel right.

Kurt
 
Soprano to me deviates from guitar the most and is the purist form of ukulele imo. Its difficulties and limitations are what adds to the character and lure of this instrument for me
 
Interesting query, Belle, and many good observations made in response, all perhaps highlighting the "subjectivity" of these things! For me, having taken a fair whack at the soprano, concert, and tenor sizes, I always seem to be drawn back to the soprano, tuned up to aDF#B. That's what seems to serve me best in the context in which I love to play-- coffee shop and retirement home outings in which I accompany myself singing songs I grew up loving during the sixties and seventies. The soprano, tuned as indicated, really provides a punchy and percussive foundation for my singing. I love keeping it simple, and maybe the little soprano is just part of that overall vibe. Needless to say, I have immense respect for those who may prefer a different size uke.
 
I have somewhat large hands. Sopranos are a real challenge. I love my tenor.
I have large hands 10 1/2 inches thumb tip to little fingertip. I've mostly prefer the soprano for sound, string tension and bar chords.
Play dark or somber songs with a baritone if it is handy.
On the soprano there is no trouble playing the chord shapes and I can play the first position D, D#, E with just the pointy finger and the ring finger.
Sopranos seem to have more punch, this is good but you can also hear your mistakes easily, even in group sessions.
 
Ukulele is easy instrument. But there are many music from very easy to very difficult. If we play difficult music on easy instrument, easy instrument becomes the most difficult instrument. I think soprano is the easiest in ukulele.

I teach my friend since last October. He has big hands. I was surprised that even big hand wants to use three fingers for D, Dm and 4 fingers for E on his soprano.

I think that we should use two fingers(index and middle) for Dm. And the first joint of the index finger should be flexed (round on the figure below). Same method should be used on D too. I think movable E (cross on the figure below) sounds worse than non movable E (round). We should use strings as long as we can on small instruments. non movable E is better.

click image upload

I play simple song simple arrangement and keep low position on my soprano. Low G helps me to keep low position too.
 
Ukulele is easy instrument. But there are many music from very easy to very difficult. If we play difficult music on easy instrument, easy instrument becomes the most difficult instrument. I think soprano is the easiest in ukulele.

I teach my friend since last October. He has big hands. I was surprised that even big hand wants to use three fingers for D, Dm and 4 fingers for E on his soprano.

I think that we should use two fingers(index and middle) for Dm. And the first joint of the index finger should be flexed (round on the figure below). Same method should be used on D too. I think movable E (cross on the figure below) sounds worse than non movable E (round). We should use strings as long as we can on small instruments. non movable E is better.

click image upload

I play simple song simple arrangement and keep low position on my soprano. Low G helps me to keep low position too.

I have to disagree. With regard to flexing finger joints, I'm just not physically capable of doing it. It's a great idea for people who can do it, but there are many of us that can't.

With regard to the non-movable E chord being better than the movable one, I would say that depends entirely on the context. I play 3 different E chords fairly frequently and which one I play depends on factors such as whether I want to slide that shape up the neck, which chord is easier to change to the next one in the sequence, and what voicing I am looking for, in addition to keeping the strings as long as possible.
 
Ukulele is easy instrument. But there are many music from very easy to very difficult. If we play difficult music on easy instrument, easy instrument becomes the most difficult instrument. I think soprano is the easiest in ukulele.

I teach my friend since last October. He has big hands. I was surprised that even big hand wants to use three fingers for D, Dm and 4 fingers for E on his soprano.

I think that we should use two fingers(index and middle) for Dm. And the first joint of the index finger should be flexed (round on the figure below). Same method should be used on D too. I think movable E (cross on the figure below) sounds worse than non movable E (round). We should use strings as long as we can on small instruments. non movable E is better.

click image upload

I play simple song simple arrangement and keep low position on my soprano. Low G helps me to keep low position too.

Sorry you just proved the point that soprano is not easy but unwieldy so you need to approach it in more unconventional ways.
 
Sorry you just proved the point that soprano is not easy but unwieldy so you need to approach it in more unconventional ways.

Two fingers for D, Dm and 4 fingers for E may work better on small soprano than the other bigger ukulele. Because former avoids narrowness and latter can stretch easily on smaller instruments. We are talking about how we play our soprano to get the sound we want as OP proposed.
 
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I started out with tenor ukes, because my hands cramped trying to play on a smaller fingerboard. Then I got a Firefly Banjo Uke, slightly larger than standard soprano scale. Then I won an Ohana Vite Uke - soprano neck on a concert body. Then I commissioned a concert uke from Brad Donaldson (Still my absolute favorite instrument, followed VERY closely by my KoAloha Sceptre Tenor).

I have several soprano ukes now, a couple of concert-sized, and many tenors. I don't think any of them are harder to play than any other, once I got over the finger cramping.

When I do gigs, I switch back and forth between sizes, and don't even think about it. I don't knowingly play triplets on anything (I've been told that I do play them, but I don't know about it until it is pointed out to me), or split strokes, but the fans and figure-eights just happen based on song, not instrument. I finger pick on all of my instruments, and strum on all of them, too. (I don't have a Bari, because of an injury that makes it painful to play any guitar or baritone uke for longer than a couple of minutes..)

And I use a strap only on the Donaldson - nothing else needs one, although I do have a couple of Uke Leashes for "someday".

So is a soprano trickier to play?

Nope, I don't think so. it just took a while to get my hands accustomed to the size.



-Kurt​
 
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