My advice to beginners is: get 2 ukes. Why? . . . .

cyber3d

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So, playing as a beginner, I am constantly coming across ukulele music in both low G and high G.

I am really glad that I have both high G sopranos and a low G tenor. It must be frustrating for beginners to come up against music and can't really play it as notated because it is not written for their setup.

So, my advice for serious beginners is to have 2 ukuleles. A soprano in typical high G and a tenor or concert, or baritone in low G.
 
another reason also is that if you prefer to tune and play in something other than a variant of GCEA tuning, like Bb or A6 for yourself when alone or for suiting your vocal range without transposing to different chord shapes in another key...

YOU will STILL need a GCEA tuned uke for following along with video tutorials and/or playing at your local uke club, unless you plan to use a capo, and IMHO, using a capo on smaller than a baritone seems kinda pointless to me, when I have ukes in all the other scale lengths - yes I have quite a few ukes, and only 3 of them are currently in GCEA or DGBE tunings...others are Bb, A6, G6 and in variations of fifths tunings...

But a hi-g and low-g are useful as you had said, otherwise get a five-stringer, that has both and you have it covered in one instrument with the octave already installed. :)
 
If the problem is trying to figure out how a song's melody goes and notes go below C, it can be really frustrating sometimes, not always, with a re-entrant uke.
Usually you can play an octave higher, but then certainly other difficulties with such high frets to find right notes. I am talking about regular musical notation from songbooks.

So for that the low-G uke can really help as songs seldom go below it's low G.

But there is also another for many already available solution. If you have a guitar and a capo. Put the capo at the 5th fret and then you can use it for the job.
 
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I have a different perspective, because this is what I did and it backfired.

It caused confusion, made me feel torn and unfocused, and slowed down the whole learning process as I was bouncing around between resources, tunings, and songs, and exercises. I also "had" to upgrade multiple ukes, experiment with strings for both tunings, and it made it harder to get used to re-entrant tuning. The lack of focus really hurt my learning and negatively impacted my enjoyment.

I would rather get a twice as expensive ukulele for one tuning than two cheaper instruments for two different tunings. There will be an occasion to explore other tunings and other instruments (it's almost inevitable, especially if someone hangs out on this forum: if someone really wants to learn and not spend a lot of money, not coming here would be the genuinely best advice I have to offer, but it's a fun place!), but the beginning is not the best time to do this.
 
So, playing as a beginner, I am constantly coming across ukulele music in both low G and high G.

I am really glad that I have both high G sopranos and a low G tenor. It must be frustrating for beginners to come up against music and can't really play it as notated because it is not written for their setup.

So, my advice for serious beginners is to have 2 ukuleles. A soprano in typical high G and a tenor or concert, or baritone in low G.

I see there are quite a few people that disagree with you, but FWIW, I agree.
 
I'd advise beginners to get a nice Concert to start and then learn to play chords, Key Chords and strumming. The sound is full and less plinky than a soprano and you can switch out the G string Hi/Low to experiment. Don't get crazy with UAS until you can play most of the major and minor key progressions, at least I, IV, V/V7, and VI. You save a lot of time and money if you learn to play one instrument and learn how to sing a bit better.

Ask me how I know, said the man with nine Ukuleles and still can't read the treble staff.
 
Do what keeps you motivated to learn more. It helps to have a plan, but it won't ruin your future professional ukulele playing career to have two ukuleles. Not everyone is motivated by the same thing or learns the same way.
 
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To me the main reason to have more than one uke is in case something happens to one, you have another to play. That's exactly what happened to me the first week I had a uke, it had to go in for repair, so I immediately bought another as back up.
 
Having both High G & Low G is a very useful way to go about learning to play uke.

For instrumental/melody playing the low G has more notes, giving you more options

For sing & strum, the high G is the uke way. :)

(Nearly all of mine have low G. ;) )
 
For instrumental/melody playing the low G has more notes, giving you more options

... but it removes the option of playing campanella style, and you end up playing simplified guitar songs without the bass strings. ;)

(Tongue in cheek! I just mildly disagree with the sentiment that high-G equals strumming and low-G fingerpicking. I think tenors with low-G sound better strummed than they do with high-G, and Wilfried Welti, John King, Sam Muir, etc. have shown that re-entrant tuning is great for fingerpicking complex pieces.)
 
Somehow, that doesn't seem to worry me........ ;)
Me neither. :D If someone had told me that I needed two ukuleles right off the bat, I would have probably taken up the guitar instead.
 
ahoy

do not agree
mind
your results may vary
can only speak from personal experience

got UAS right from the start
started with a tenor then concert
finally got a nice soprano

trying to play all three
was getting nowhere fast

decided to stick with soprano

could not be happier

yours truly
mac
 
I started with a good quality concert (Pono), I really like it. I just got my 2nd uke to take to work to practice during lunch. The 2nd is a Flea, I wanted something that I could drag around with me, not worry so much about scratches or humidity, etc. I like them both a lot. Time will tell if I have UAS:D
 
Somehow, that doesn't seem to worry me........ ;)

It didn't expect it to, but I wasn't aiming it at you. ;) I just wanted to add a different perspective so that new players who read this thread aren't left with the impression that low-G is the better choice for fingerpicking and re-entrant is only for people who want to sing and strum. Re-entrant doesn't give the player fewer options. If anything, it offers a technique for playing instrumentals (in a way) that can't be done better on a guitar, utilizing the tuning for a unique playing style and sound, at the expense of five notes below the middle C (which are still not enough for a proper bass line). Re-entrant is, to me, what gives the ukulele its own identity.
 
... Re-entrant is, to me, what gives the ukulele its own identity.

I agree, otherwise I'd still be guitarded, banging away on a 6-barrel twanger, doing a horrible impression of Andy Summers (The Police), Alex Lifeson (Rush), The Edge (U2), and Elliot Easton (The Cars)...on both steel and nylon strings at a 25"/650mm scale length....

By the learning ukulele and it being re-entrant, saved me from such painful mediocrity and allowed me to become a better player on 4 strings than I ever was on 6 strings...
 
... but it removes the option of playing campanella style, and you end up playing simplified guitar songs without the bass strings. ;)

I play campanella on low G. People play campanella on guitars.



Red circle brings us campanella. It is on 3rd string and keeps 2nd string tone.
 
Yes, worth remembering that campanella is originally a guitar technique so is not dependent on re-entrant tuning. I do find campanella easier with re-entrant but if it can be done on guitar, it can be done on a linear tuned uke.
 
Yes, worth remembering that campanella is originally a guitar technique so is not dependent on re-entrant tuning. I do find campanella easier with re-entrant but if it can be done on guitar, it can be done on a linear tuned uke.

I believe it originated with re-entrant tuned Renaissance guitars, not linear ones. With linear tuning, there is no second high melody string on the uke.
 
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