Is a baritone just a lazy man's little guitar?

Joko

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Really. Is a baritone really even an ukulele? Or is it just a soprano guitar?

It's got the same tuning. You use the same fingerings as a guitar, it's just missing the 5th and 6th string.

Sure, personally, I like playing it. It can do things the ukulele can't... but that's the point. It's not really an ukulele.

The baritone is exactly what I cringe about when I'm carrying around my uke and I hear people say, "Oh. look at the little guitar!"

IT'S NOT A LITTLE GUITAR!

The baritone is.
 
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I must admit, I do tend to use it as a substitute, DGBE just sounds nice & full, whereas GCEA sounds less so, to me. ;)

I like the GCEA for melody picking, (& gCEA is mainly for stumming, to my mind), so will still keep them, plus they're easier to handle, being smaller than a bari.

However, I have just strung my laminate tenor & my laminate long neck soprano to DGBE, & I think they have potential - both have that bari sound now. :)
 
It is for me and I don't cringe at all.......I love it
 
Honestly, baritone ukuleles do nothing for me. When I was a kid, I first learned on a baritone ukulele before moving on to guitar. They still sound and play that way to me: as a 4 string classical guitar.

I prefer a guitar to a baritone uke, but I prefer a tenor uke to a guitar...!
 
I agree that it is more “little guitar” than ukulele. The different tuning makes it that way. I think it’s in the same class as the tenor guitar and mebbe the tenor banjo. But one thing that makes it better than a guitar is it’s size. Guitars are very much larger.

I like my baritone a lot though, and I don’t wanna learn the other two strings. :eek:ld:
 
That is hilarious Joko!

I used to feel that same way. I would cringe when I heard the word baritone. I had always heard that Arthur Godfrey said, "I'm not going to learn a bunch of new chords." and had someone come up with a baritone.

But...now, I feel better about them. I think guitarists feel like Arthur Godfrey. They don't want to give up what they've learned. Baritones can bridge the gap between guitars and ukuleles and they help my guitar friends come over to the uke. Which is a great thing. Ya know, I don't remember the last time I saw two guitarists play together outside of a concert or on the tube. Guitarists love to get on a baritone and jam with the group.

But, I'm used to the soprano and concert, so they seem like a guitar to me. I don't have one, but they sure sound nice! ;)
 
It's not to me, as I'm not a lazy man but an industrious woman :D, and because I tune mine in fifths, and can't play a guitar anyway. So my baritone is more like a single-course octave mandolin. I just like the way it sounds.

I don't generally treat ukes (or anything I play) as chording instruments per se, but as melodic instruments with the capability of chords and double stops being included when applicable, as an embellishment to the melodies.

bratsche
 
It's not to me, as I'm not a lazy man but an industrious woman :D, and because I tune mine in fifths, and can't play a guitar anyway. So my baritone is more like a single-course octave mandolin. I just like the way it sounds.

I don't generally treat ukes (or anything I play) as chording instruments per se, but as melodic instruments with the capability of chords and double stops being included when applicable, as an embellishment to the melodies.

bratsche

How do you tune in fifths? Where do you get the Lo-C or the Hi-E? :eek:ld:
 
Not if you don't play it that way . . .
1. VERY sweet low-G Uke
2. "Kind of like a Cuatro, only with a nicer action"
3. Reentrant-tuned uke ALL the way down to "High A" (a-d-f#-b) if you can want to put your own string set together
4. Oh . . and as a Baritone Uke (I have mine tuned to A ("low E") 'cuz it sounds better IMO.
 
Okay, I'm going to stick my neck out and say that my own opinion is that a baritone is neither a ukulele or a guitar, but is its own instrument. That's just me though, and if people want to play them, and call them ukuleles, more power to 'em.
 
Well, one reason I keep mine around is to remind me, when I start thinking I want to play guitar, that guitars are huge. I like it, just the same, but I rarely play it.
 
Okay, I'm going to stick my neck out and say that my own opinion is that a baritone is neither a ukulele or a guitar, but is its own instrument.

Now there's an interesting idea! The baritone is neither. So we need a new name for it.

The Barulele?... The Bukulele?...The Bukkakale?
 
How do you tune in fifths? Where do you get the Lo-C or the Hi-E? :eek:ld:

It's low G - GDAE. Bass strings from a classical guitar set - the lowest 2 strings will work. Then for the trebles, a regular baritone uke's top two, with the 2nd one tuned to A instead of B.

bratsche
 
Just go to a Yamaha gl1 you'll never turn back. It is small like a baritone but got all the classical guitar neck and strings so you can work all the intricacies of classical music
 
It's low G - GDAE. Bass strings from a classical guitar set - the lowest 2 strings will work. Then for the trebles, a regular baritone uke's top two, with the 2nd one tuned to A instead of B.

bratsche

Are you talking about our regular low G? If so, then the E will be an octave too low won’t it? What low G are you talking about? A G an octave below ours would be way too low.

I think our regular Lo-G and D and A (as B) are okay, but the E is lower than the A isn’t it?

I’m confused. :eek:ld:
 
You're confusing me now, Dick! :)

Just think of all the strings as the octave below a violin or mandolin's tuning. Does that help?

bratsche
 
This Spring I had issues with my hands and couldn’t play fretted instruments, I sold most of my Ike’s because I was told the condition would last for several years.
The Cleveland Clinic resolved the issue quickly. I had a tenor guitar tuned in fifths and I decided i would make the effort to learn how to play it. The tenor guitar is now my main instrument (also playing the mandolin).

I really liked my baritone ukulele but don’t feel like I need to replace it.
 
Big Ukulele/Little Guitar. It’s just a name. I enjoy my Baritone. It suits my voice range and when I play with a group of standard tuned Ukes, it helps fill in some of the chords or at least gives them fuller voice. It’s great fun to have another option and it was not as hard as I thought to pick up the fingering or switching back and forth.
 
Okay, I'm going to stick my neck out and say that my own opinion is that a baritone is neither a ukulele or a guitar, but is its own instrument. That's just me though, and if people want to play them, and call them ukuleles, more power to 'em.
I tend to agree on all points.
 
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