Guitar vs Ukulele

DownUpDave

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When I bought my Taylor GS mini a few months ago I thought it would not be long until I sold off most of my ukes. Guitar has THE SOUND I have always strived for with my linear tuned ukes, deep, full, resonant. I also bought a used Taylor 512e 12 fret, cedar and mahogany. This thing is like angels singing when finger picked, unbelievably good.

Then I went away on vacation a couple weeks ago and took my Kimo tenor, I always take a uke on vacation. Spending one week with it got me to re-appreciate the lovely sound a ukulele produces. No it is not a guitar, not even close, but it sounds nice anyways. Then I played my Kamaka super concert, one of my few reentrant strung ukes. Holy Cow a great reentrant is wonderful for strumming and singing.

There appears to be room in my musical life for uke and guitar. Sorry to fellow UUers if I got you excited about a huge sell off of excellent ukuleles. I am spending 80% of my playing time with guitar now because of the learning curve. I will sit on my stash of ukes for one year then have an honest assesment of where I am headed and what I should keep and or sell.

There is a big disadvantage to playing/learning both uke and guitar when you are at my level. It can be very confusing and slows down the learning curve on both instruments, espiecally muscle memory. Some people would scorn this approach but I play for my own enjoyment, I don't do this for money. I just LOVE the sound stringed instruments produce, it always makes me happy, no matter how well or poorly I play at times.

Anyone else in the same boat as me?????
 
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Yup, I can't stick to one instrument. Been playing NAF for a year or so and just started picking up whistles. Very different fingerings and blowing technique. Also recently picked up guilele and trying to make sense of what to do with the two extra strings. And then there's all the tunings on ukulele like you say - linear, reentrant, cuatro. I've accepted the fact that I'll never be "great" on any of them.
 
I am for sure. I’m playing guitar about 80% of the time as well, but still love to grab the uke. I think that getting the cordoba mini really was the catalyst to pick up a full size guitar after about 10 years.
 
For me the best of all worlds is the tenor guitar. Steel strings have a sweet sound that I just cannot match with nylon.

I still have more ukes than anything else and they all get playing time. The ukes are more convenient, being able to grab-and-go with the ukes easier than with the guitars and banjo.
 
For me the best of all worlds is the tenor guitar. Steel strings have a sweet sound that I just cannot match with nylon.

I still have more ukes than anything else and they all get playing time. The ukes are more convenient, being able to grab-and-go with the ukes easier than with the guitars and banjo.

SteveZ, as you may remember I own a Blueridge BR40 T tenor guitar just like you. That is what started this whole mess, lol:p. They are a great sounding instrument and I encourage anyone looking for the steel string sound but keeping it more "uke-like" to get one. So much fun and they sound so good
 
I don't do guitars, too big for me, but my problem at the moment is learning to play harmonicas, & that is keeping me off my ukes, but I am trying to learn to read music at the same time, & that makes it a slow process, but I'm sure I'll get there in the end, but luckily, I only play for my own pleasure, so no rush. :)
 
Yes, I am definitely in the same boat. Guitars, then ukes, then guitars, then back to ukes, then ocarinas, then ukes, then guitars, then NAF (thank you, Jim Hanks), then ukes, now guitars and ukes. Not necessarily in that order. I think there's some overlap, though: there's a particular short piece, played only on the first four strings, that I had a terrible time with in my classical guitar days, to the extent that my instructor just decided it was time to give up on the piece and move on. It worked out nicely on a tenor uke, and then I tried it on a baritone, and now it's no problem at all on the guitar.
 
I played guitar for almost 50 years before I took up the uke 5 years ago, and bass uke a year later. I haven't touched my guitars since, I also find they're too big compared to the convenience and comfort of playing a uke. (I also learned harmonica from Lyle Waggoner of the Carol Burnett Show, but only dabble at it now.)


8 tenor cutaway ukes, 3 acoustic bass ukes, 8 solid body bass ukes, 8 mini electric bass guitars

• Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children's hospital music therapy programs. http://www.theukc.org
• Member The CC Strummers: https://www.youtube.com/user/CCStrummers/videos
 
I played guitar for most of my life before I discovered the ukulele. Then when I went uke crazy, it was like ukuleles were more fun and less work than guitar, so I mostly played ukes. But now, for me, there's room for both, and it comes down to which songs sound better on uke or guitar. Some songs work better for me on ukulele, and some work better on guitar, so they're like different tools for the same job, basically. A uke with C6 tuning is the same as a guitar capo'd at the fifth fret, so it's mostly the same chord shapes on both.

But with this dualistic approach, I now prefer playing Tenor and Baritone ukes, and small-body short-scale guitars, like a Taylor GS Mini or a Martin D-Jr. That way, the size difference isn't as great and it's physically easier to switch back and forth.
 
I've always wanted to play the guitar, but when trying it, I really had to struggle hard due to my tiny hands and my extremely short fingers. This is why I was more than happy to find "my" stringed instrument when discovering the ukulele some time ago. With regard to sound, I love both and I'm very happy that I can also enjoy the sound of the guitar as my husband plays not only the ukulele, but also the guitar. But to me, the ukulele opened up a whole new musical world!
 
So I wonder whether you’ve tried a guilele. I bought a guitar and promptly returned it when I realized how much harder it would be to learn. Plus having to give two names to chord shapes. Bleeyuckech. My decrepit old mind has a hard enough time with one name. But I wonder about guilele. I can’t seem to abide linear tuning on any of muh yukes. I think if I had a guilele I’d be there. Linear tuning plus more bass muscle. And.. the same chord shapes. It can’t be that simple, can it.
 
I've played guitar for almost 50 years but switched to ukulele about six months ago due to hand issues. Ukulele is more comfortable due to the smaller size, and surprisingly I *love* reentrant tuning. I've learned the new chord names and notes on the fretboard ... or so I thought....

Yesterday at Mighty Uke Day, I attended an ukulele big band workshop taught by James Hill. The workshop was fantastic, btw. :) I did fine playing chords, but when he divided us into four sections playing different (single note) parts, my guitar muscle memory completely took over. Suddenly my fingers thought the strings were D-G-B-E instead of g-C-E-A. It also didn't help that my aging eyes had trouble reading the small print (four sections of four staves to a standard letter-size page). I had to keep moving my music stand!

Anyway, it was a shock to find my fingers suddenly had a mind of their own! Needless to say, I'll be working on my sight reading with tenor ukulele in hand. :) That is, new tenor in hand. I visited Mainland Ukes and came home with a new uke. NUD coming soon!
 
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When I bought my Taylor GS mini a few months ago I thought it would not be long until I sold off most of my ukes. Guitar has THE SOUND I have always strived for with my linear tuned ukes, deep, full, resonant. I also bought a used Taylor 512e 12 fret, cedar and mahogany. This thing is like angels singing when finger picked, unbelievably good.

Then I went away on vacation a couple weeks ago and took my Kimo tenor, I always take a uke on vacation. Spending one week with it got me to re-appreciate the lovely sound a ukulele produces. No it is not a guitar, not even close, but it sounds nice anyways. Then I played my Kamaka super concert, one of my few reentrant strung ukes. Holy Cow a great reentrant is wonderful for strumming and singing.

There appears to be room in my musical life for uke and guitar. Sorry to fellow UUers if I got you excited about a huge sell off of excellent ukuleles. I am spending 80% of my playing time with guitar now because of the learning curve. I will sit on my stash of ukes for one year than have an honest assesment of where I am headed and what I should keep and or sell.

There is a big disadvantage to playing/learning both uke and guitar when you are at my level. It can be very confusing and slows down the learning curve on both instruments, espiecally muscle memory. Some people would scorn this approach but I play for my own enjoyment, I don't do this for money. I just LOVE the sound stringed instruments produce, it always makes me happy, no matter how well or poorly I play at times.

Anyone else in the same boat as me?????

Dave

Is it a difficult transition to go from Fingerstyle on the fluorocarbons to steel strings, assuming you are playing Fingerstyle?
 
After years of mediocre guitar playing, finding the uke was an epiphany in simplicity: four fingers, four strings, and an instrument that feels like cradling a baby instead of shlepping a piece of furniture. This simplicity finally made me understand the nature of a stringed instrument. So what I find is that I am a much better guitar player now then I was ever before, thanks to the ukulele. But the uke also made me realize that a regular guitar is just too big for me and makes me feel uncomfortable, which was another reason that stopped me from getting better at it.

So now, my interest is all about big ukes and small guitars of the guitalele/guilele type, and tenor guitars for the induplicable sound of steel strings. My preferences range from 17" to 21" in scale. I guess what I'm mostly interested in is a crossover of the two instruments, not settled on either uke or guitar.

I find it helpful to switch between different sizes, scale lengths, numbers of strings, and string materials. Adjusting blindly to these differences keeps my brains and muscles flexible.
 
Dave

Is it a difficult transition to go from Fingerstyle on the fluorocarbons to steel strings, assuming you are playing Fingerstyle?

I do play finger style and funny enough going from florocarbon to steel strings was not an issue. My guitars have low actions and are easy to fret, the top four strings seem to require the same or less effort to push down then my low G tenor ukes. I am playing all my ukuele chord melody pieces on the top four strings of my guitars as well as new easy fingerstyle pieces from "Guitar Nick's" website. That is a great site with LOTS of tabs, different difficulty levels and very good videos

Edit...........I am adding to this reply because it needs clarification. Looking at it from 6 weeks of concentrated practice going from floro to steel didn't seem like an issue but the first week or two it was. The tight spacing between strings caused all kinds of problems with flubbed and muffled notes. I also committed to a change in fingerstyle method of using my ring, middle and index fingers for strings 1,2&3 with thumb taking care of 4,5&6. With uke I use middle and index for 1&2 and thumb for 3&4. My ring finger, that never did anything was/is really dumb, weak and uncoordinated. This has taken alot of effort and dedication but its coming.
 
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The ukulele speaks to me, the guitar doesn't. I have trouble trying to rationalizing things. I just go with what makes me feel good. I've always liked guitars and all my life I went into music stores and pawn shops looking at them and thinking that someday I would learn to play the guitar. I even had two in the basement at one time, one being my wife's that she played when she was in high school and one that belonged to my daughter. But it just never moved me enough to take it up. I just looked at them. I even went so far as to hang around with guitar players for a couple of months, but I could never get enthused enough about it to actually learn to play. But then I saw a ukulele and it spoke to me. I wanted to play it as soon as I saw it and I can't quit. Guitars still don't do that for me. Like I said, I can't explain it, that's just the way it is.
 
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As if I didn't have enough of a challenge learning chord melody on my ul40 and low g tenor (and various baris), now I've got to go get my guitar out of the closet, clean it up, and put a new set of Elixar lights on it. Browsing this thread makes me remember the goose bumps I got just strumming an open E on the 6 string. I'm not giving up on the ukes but I sure miss the resonance of those big steel strings.
 
As if I didn't have enough of a challenge learning chord melody on my ul40 and low g tenor (and various baris), now I've got to go get my guitar out of the closet, clean it up, and put a new set of Elixar lights on it. Browsing this thread makes me remember the goose bumps I got just strumming an open E on the 6 string. I'm not giving up on the ukes but I sure miss the resonance of those big steel strings.

Atta boy. I know how much you like your Pono UL40, but there is just something guttural about those two bottom end wound strings. Open E chord indeed.
 
I just recently started playing the guitar after years of only uke, and I have to admit, (at least for the moment) I am preferring it. I am specifically learning slack key from Keola Beamer’s online instruction, and love the full, rich sound as well as seeing progress in my abilities. I gave probably tapped out on my skill as a uke player, and without intensive work won’t improve. I play instrumental arrangements and am happy with my ability, but will never learn to be Jake or Daniel Ho now. But on the guitar, I can’t wait to pick it up again as I am progressing from standing, to crawling and walking. The improvement is a huge emotional lift.

I got a Taylor GS mini e-koa, and am pimping it out. I am getting new Gotoh 510 minis installed on it this week, and already added a koa truss rod cover and ebony/abalone bridge pins - the ebony/abalone strap button goes on this weekend. Since it is not as easy for me to see the small white dots, I also added abalone fret dot stickers that are much brighter and bigger, so easier to see. Going to the dark side has quickly become an addiction...

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