Wanted - v. small child's uke (dwarfism)

Buntoni

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My perfect 6 year old girl (with dwarfism) is constantly picking up my soprano but it is too big, especially the nut width. Does anyone have a small uke or can advise on an inexpensive one available to buy new?

Thanks,

Buntoni
 
My perfect 6 year old girl (with dwarfism) is constantly picking up my soprano but it is too big, especially the nut width. Does anyone have a small uke or can advise on an inexpensive one available to buy new?

Thanks,

Buntoni

@ Bunton, welcome to the forum. It’s a great place and almost everybody here is kind, helpful and considerate; it’s predominantly a USA based group but there are many members here in the U.K. too.

There are sizes smaller than the Soprano Uke that might suit your daughter, some are at the gCEA standard pitch but some are pitched a little higher ( http://forum.ukuleleunderground.com/showthread.php?124999-Sopranino-tuning ). I suggest you investigate the Sopranino size and the Caramel make of those, the iUke is another small one and Barry Maz has a review of them on his website.

Edit. This search of eBay UK for 17 inch Ukes might help: https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_...12.TRC2.A0.H0.X17”.TRS0&_nkw=17”&_sacat=16224
 
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I think you will have a problem trying to find a nut width less than 34mm, the smallest I've seen in any info. It may be possibly to find a toy guitar with a narrower nut, but it would be unlikely to play well.

I'm guessing that it may be the size of her fingers making it difficult to reach the strings, all I can think of at the moment is to attach a strip of something along the length of the back of the neck, so that her thumb would sit below the middle of the neck, so that she could reach all the strings. A strip of wood held in place with some sticky tape would suffice too try it out.

Edit: A strap would help too.
 
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I just bought the Ohana Sopranissimo Pineapple. It is quite lovely. Instruments at this scale prefer a higher tuning at ADF#B (or higher). The Caramel for $29 (see their website) is also decent when tuned up.

This does lead to challenges when playing with others, as the natural first chord is D versus C, and all the songs (at written pitch) are available in ukulele friendly C6 tuning. C becomes
Bb and that becomes an issue for a starter (There are schools throughout Canada which teach D6 tuning. If this is just for home, you might want to keep one of your ukuleles tuned to D6 to make playing together much easier.

It also might be worth checking out Andy’s nano ukulele. In this case, the instrument is tuned a whole octave higher in C6. He normally auctions them off, but if you contacted him about a special situation, he might be able to do a special project. Hearts are generally pretty big in this ukuleles community.
 
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A little off track, but I wanted to make sure you and your daughter don't miss Minnesota's own Gaelynn Lea, winner of the 2016 NPR Tiny Desk Concert competition.
Her musicality, songwriting, use of layered tracks, and the way she's able to play a violin that is taller than she is are brilliant:
https://youtu.be/n6oSeODGmoQ

Good luck with the uke search, we'll be excited to see what she ends up with!
 
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One easy possibility might be to remove the g string. Three strings is more than sufficient to get started. All the regular three note chords can be played with less stretching and your daughter can focus on the strumming hand which is the most important and fun bit. IMO quickly getting her making some music and rhythms is the key to getting her interest not holding down jazz chords.

With three strings I suspect tuning up a whole step to D, F#, B might sound better than C, E, A just because of the higher tension but then that is something to play around with.

If you are concerned that somehow three strings would not be a serious instrument then check out all the stuff played on 3, 2 and even 1 string guitars. Three strings and some talent is far better than being tone deaf and banging away on four or six.

HTH
 
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I understand that as she is only six you won't want to spend a great deal ... you could always try one of the inexpensive sopraninos - if it doesn't suit her you can always sell it on.

I think the Caramel is out of stock at the moment, but Kaka/Enya do a cute one - no idea about nut width though.

Screen Shot 2018-03-02 at 09.52.12.jpg
 
I have seen a video or two of people with small hands using an alternate method of fretting.

Alternate_Fretting.jpg
 
Also check out the Merlin Seagull - it’s in open dulcimer tuning so it’s impossible to play a wrong note.
 
There were some threads here a year or two ago around Christmas time about "First Act" and themed ukes with Disney and other characters on the soundboards. IIRC, some of the seaonistas have used them in their videos, and have collected them as well as given them as gifts to children and grandchildren. The First Act ukuleles I've seen are sturdy plastic bodies with a thin nut width. The themed ones are some type of laminated wood product. According to the threads and in the videos the sound is pretty good, especially after changing out the factory strings. You might want to take your daughter to Toys R Us or Walmart to see what they have and let her check out the nut width, ease of fretting and see if she takes a liking to them.
 
My perfect 6 year old girl (with dwarfism) is constantly picking up my soprano but it is too big, especially the nut width. Does anyone have a small uke or can advise on an inexpensive one available to buy new?

Thanks,

Buntoni

Though I can’t readily locate the thread a short while back someone posted about a child’s type toy Uke that they had turned into a playable instrument. It didn’t sound fantastic (they provided a Vidoe), they did had to do some minor modifications and they had to change the strings too but they did get a useful item at the end.

This isn’t the exact same Uke they used but is similar: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mini-Uku...491393&hash=item4b3b14e73b:g:ukEAAOSwImlamqCp
I believe that this one has a zero fret and it looks like the distance between the zero feet and the twelfth is half the scale length (watch out for that one) so maybe you could take a similar route.

For what it’s worth I’ve bought my children both expensive toys and cheap toys in the past. They have loved them with no regard to price and the toys just been avenues down which their thoughts and imagination could roam and develope. At one point I literally gave them a large cardboard box and they had hours of fun in their (imaginary) boat and aeroplane, come to think of it they also used it as a TV or ‘theatre’ that us parents had to watch whilst they sung (badly, as kids do - but more importantly they were happy) to their audience. By all means buy something special, expensive and high quality for your child but please do remember that in this case the link between what it cost you and how much they will use and enjoy it is (in my experience) very weak.
 
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maybe the universe thinks we are already having way too much fun with ukuleles, and if we got our hands on loogs as well, we'd just explode with music-making madness?

yeah I'm SO tempted to get one, but as I'm just getting to grips with the ukulele fear it would just confuse me. I am actively looking for an appropriate child to buy for :)
 
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