D tuning

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Hi, CeeJay! I don't mean that.

CeeJay said:
Here's the thing , Jim has it right ,if you are playing accompaniment to sing long with on your own , then tune it to YOU . If you are wanting to try different keys , change the tuning or the uke for one in a D or Eb or whatever tuning. That is the ideal for the soprano uke .
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I think you don't need tuner. You don't need D or Eb either. You just tune what you want.
 
:smileybounce:My bum is green has now forever replaced my dog has fleas in my mind - thanks for that :D
 
ubulele said:
"Did" being the operative word. Back then, there were no other choices, and consequently, we played out of tune a lot. I've got a good ear, and yet I get better, more consistent tuning when I use an electronic tuner—in the right way. It's good to know how to tune a uke without a gizmo, but only a fool encourages others to forego them entirely. He may be a fool to forego them himself, not knowing how bad he sounds to others.

"Need" is also relative: you don't "need" to play in any key but C, if that's your self-limiting choice. But if one insists that one tuning will suffice for everything, he's being willfully myopic, projecting his own limited "needs" on others who aspire to better things, who have greater abilities (or just other needs). Several songs leap to mind that, for my voice range and the way I want to play them, require a tuning other than C. I could make do in a different tuning, but not without making substantial sacrifices, and with no improvements to compensate; even capoing isn't a viable option.

I don't understand the folks who feel a need to hold everyone else back to their own basic level of competence, their own dogmatic and over-simplistic viewpoint. "You don't need this, you don't need that (because I don't use them)." Well, who are you to decide?
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Not sure to whom you are addressing your point Ubu. Would you mind please being a little more clear on this , if it's me , please do say . I am simply having a conversation so it would be nice to know which part of your comment is applicable.

AS for electronic tuners ...I bought one when they first came out and were BIG money ,I have never looked back tuning wise. And they are also the subject a bone of contention amongst Forum Folk as well, so more grist to the mill. I'm off to play some uke now...:D
 
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Remember guys, please keep it civil and no bashing other users.
 
Hi, CeeJay! I still do not use electric tuner. I use pitch pipes for ukulele and guitar. There are no pitch pipe for guitalele on the earth so far.

The people, tune D here, are tunes what they likes to their ear or voice.

We tune our instruments to other instruments through tuner (See the green arrows below).

The purpose of D tuning here is tuning what they like to their ear. We don't need to use tuners (red arrow) on this purpose. I actually do not use tuner sometimes.

image sharing
 
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zztush said:
The people, tune D here, are tunes what they likes to their ear or voice.
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This has nothing to do with tuning by ear, though. Only because I prefer the sound of D tuning (it's not "detuning") on a soprano doesn't mean I shouldn't want to use an electronic tuner to get accurate pitches for the strings. What you say is kind of like saying, "If you like vanilla ice cream, you buy it in a bowl from an ice cream place. But if you prefer chocolate ice cream, you should make the ice cream at home and lick it off the table because you like the taste of chocolate." There's no correlation between a tuning preference and how (or if) you accurately tune your strings.
 
Hi, Mivo! Thank you for replying!

I mean that you don't need exactly D, don't you? D# or Db maybe better. or slightly sharper than D or flatter than D may be better for your ear or voice, because you tune as you like. Therefore I said you don't need tuners.
 
To be clear, when I tune ADF#B, I do so using a tuner of some sort (could be an app, clip-on tuner, a good old-fashioned tuning fork or whatever) because I like to know for sure that I'm in that tuning.

I sometimes play in D tuning along with other players who are in C tuning (obviously I'm playing different chord shapes to them). It helps to lift the sound of the group if we're not all playing the same chord voicing.

Obviously if you use pitch pipes for tuning, you would need a set of pipes specifically for D tuning, for example this one:-

https://www.ellismusic.com/p-11462-kratt-sn4-ukulele-pitch-pipe.aspx

Or you could use a chromatic set:-

https://www.ellismusic.com/p-11458-kratt-chromatic-pitch-pipe-c-to-c.aspx
 
Hi, jimavery! Thank you for reply!

You are tuning D with your tuner in order to best sound with your voice (red circle on the figure below). That is fine. And it is a kind of tuning. In general, we tune our instruments to other instruments with tuner. This is the important point. We don't tune to tuner but we tune to other instruments. Hence our tuning and your tuning are aiming different purpose. The results happens crosses on the bottom figure. You said your voice is not good for C (red cross), hence you tune to D.

C or G tuned instruments are tuned well because they keep perfect 4th relationships within instruments and perfect 5th relationships between instruments (red circle). But your D does not have this relationship to other instruments (red cross).

free image host

Song key and instrument key are different. We normally change song key to fix our voice. You change instrument key to fix your voice.
 
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If I am tuned in D I can still play in C ...I can tune in any key and play any key on that instrument because it is a chromatic instrument. I can also tune it to my voice (troubadour tuning ) and as long as the instrument sings My Bum Has Fleas it will play the chord shapes that I choose to use.

BUT most importantly, whatever key that I tune to,as long as I know the relevant chord shapes then I can play with any key . It is the chord shapes relative to each other. The same shape .Different chord.
 
Hi, CeeJay!

You can play in C on D tuning instruments. But the playability is very bad compare to C tuning instruments. More over we can not use strings efficiently. Chord shapes are complicated. And the result directly affect to the sound even on pros. Even it is a chromatic instruments, keys are not equal in any meanings.

Yes you "can" play with any key but the results are different and we use our brain in order to get best results.
 
zztush said:
Hi, CeeJay!

You can play in C on D tuning instruments. But the playability is very bad compare to C tuning instruments. More over we can not use strings efficiently. Chord shapes are complicated. And the result directly affect to the sound even on pros. Even it is a chromatic instruments, keys are not equal in any meanings.

Yes you "can" play with any key but the results are different and we use our brain in order to get best results.
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Chord shapes are chord shapes ...the chord shape for a C on a D tuned instrument is the same shape as a first position
Bb on a C tuned doohickey.... It is only the same as capoing the instrument...

Sayonara. I am done with this ,it goes round in squircles. See you on another thread.
 
Tootler said:
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I'm not a great fan of high tension strings but as most standard soprano strings are relatively low tension anyway, I don't find tuning up on soprano increases the tension to an unacceptable degree but that's purely a personal view.
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I absolutely agree. Regular soprano strings easily tune up a full step without any problems. Tension is just fine.
 
zztush said:
You change instrument key to fix your voice.
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No, zztush, the instrument does not have a "key". It has a "tuning". In that tuning it can be played in any key, albeit some keys might have more difficult chord shapes than others for that tuning.

There are lots of reasons why I might want to tune my ukulele using the D tuning. Suiting a song to my voice is just an example. Obtaining a more interesting sound in a group of other players who have ukuleles in C tuning is another. Sometimes, I just simply prefer the sound my ukulele makes when in D tuning. Sometimes by tuning ADF#B, I'm simply following the instructions printed on the sheet music which specifically say that's how the song should be played.

By the way, my voice does not need fixing! :mad:
 
Hi, CeeJay! I know you have done. See you on another thread.

CeeJay said:
Chord shapes are chord shapes ...the chord shape for a C on a D tuned instrument is the same shape as a first position
Bb on a C tuned doohickey.... It is only the same as capoing the instrument...

Sayonara. I am done with this ,it goes round in squircles. See you on another thread.
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upload a picture


We don't play shape. We play chords. They are three chords key of C on C tuning and D tuning. Apparently D tuning is difficult than C tuning.
 
Hi, jimavery.

jimavery said:
No, zztush, the instrument does not have a "key". It has a "tuning". In that tuning it can be played in any key, albeit some keys might have more difficult chord shapes than others for that tuning.

There are lots of reasons why I might want to tune my ukulele using the D tuning. Suiting a song to my voice is just an example. Obtaining a more interesting sound in a group of other players who have ukuleles in C tuning is another. Sometimes, I just simply prefer the sound my ukulele makes when in D tuning. Sometimes by tuning ADF#B, I'm simply following the instructions printed on the sheet music which specifically say that's how the song should be played.

By the way, my voice does not need fixing! :mad:
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D tuning doesn't resonant well with C and G tuning. Hence Orchestra's string instruments are all tuned in C or G. I have already explain it in this thread.

http://forum.ukuleleunderground.com...ncert-and-tenor-are-C-and-bariton-is-G-tuning

This thread is asked for the benefit of D tuning. Not the preference of our sound.
 
zztush said:
Hi, jimavery.



D tuning doesn't resonant well with C and G tuning. Hence Orchestra's string instruments are all tuned in C or G. I have already explain it in this thread.

http://forum.ukuleleunderground.com...ncert-and-tenor-are-C-and-bariton-is-G-tuning

This thread is asked for the benefit of D tuning. Not the preference of our sound.
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Because we are talking ukuleles not orchestral instruments. Shame about those other brass and woodwind instruments that tune in E Flat and B Flat and F s and things then ? Oh and the benefit is, to a ukulele player ? Well I think :

a) WE can ,

b) It sounds brighter and sparklier on a, or at least many sopranos.

That is my final word on this.:deadhorse::biglaugh: Cheers . It's been real.
 
It's worthwhile to mention that a large amount of music written for the ukulele, especially in the 1920-40s, is in D and Eflat tunings. C tuning being the ubiquitous ukulele tuning is a relatively modern development, and it is arguably a result of commercial interests, not because it makes any acoustic sense to have the same tuning for differently sized instruments.
 
zztush said:
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We don't play shape. We play chords. They are three chords key of C on C tuning and D tuning. Apparently D tuning is difficult than C tuning.
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That argument brings us full circle to my point that very often songs are deliberately transposed one way or another to make them easier to play on a ukulele in C tuning. I think we've done this argument to death now. Clearly the correct tuning for a soprano ukulele is ADF#B. :p *








* or GCEA or BbEbGC or whatever tuning suits what you want to do with the song. Personally I favour C or D tuning about equally, I occasionally tune to Eb, and even more rarely C# if it helps me play along with a specific recording.
 
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