Yamaha GL-1 Guitalele tuning.

Learning Guitar

I got one of these GL-1 and don't know anything about playing a guitar, but wanted to learn, so I figured that since it is small like a ukulele I'd just learn guitar on it. If the song book for guitar says to use chords C, F, G can I just play the chords and have it sound as it should? I know that if I want to play with other guitars that I have to transpose the chords to different ones. I know the tuning is ADGCEA but someone said that if I tune it up two steps I can just play the same chords as the other guitars, but I don't know..I have different guitar chord APPS for my iphone to use to learn the chords. Can anyone give me some more info on this? I didn't really want to buy a regular guitar to learn how to play one so I bought the GL-1. Did I make a bad choice to learn on...Keith

I just figured out a way to tune my guitalele to regular guitar tuning. Discadr the high A string, and move the other strings up one position. Now, you have adgce. drop the c to a b, now you have adgbe. add a heavy gauge low e string in the number six spot, and you have eadgbe. So far, it is working well. The five high strings are at proper tension, and low e is not bad either.

Hope that helps!

Tom

Thanks for the tip Tom. I've seen these at the local stores and was always tempted to pick one up and try and learn guitar. Hummm... got the UAS wheels turning now. lol

Keith,

If you just play the chord or tabs, the sound would sound fine relative to itself. The only issue, is that it would be five half steps higher in pitch than the original song. That doesn' t mean you can't play it and have fun. Just that if you try to play along with a recording, it would come out sounding out of tune in comparison. You could consider it a transposing instrument. So long as you are playing on your own, with no other instruments, you shouldn't have an issue. Where you run into trouble is if you memorize the chords in relation to the Guitar names. For example, if you play the Guitar chord shape for D, that's actually a G chord on the GL-1. If you go to play with other musicians and the song calls for a D, and you're playing the G, you'll run into trouble.

I don't think you made a bad choice, you just have to learn the transposition you need to keep in mind, five half steps up and you'll be OK.

engravertom said:

I just figured out a way to tune my guitalele to regular guitar tuning. Discadr the high A string, and move the other strings up one position. Now, you have adgce. drop the c to a b, now you have adgbe. add a heavy gauge low e string in the number six spot, and you have eadgbe. So far, it is working well. The five high strings are at proper tension, and low e is not bad either.

Hope that helps!

Tom

Click to expand...

Would the neck hold in the long run now that the tension is greater? Will that cause warp problem to the neck?

engravertom said:

I just figured out a way to tune my guitalele to regular guitar tuning. Discadr the high A string, and move the other strings up one position. Now, you have adgce. drop the c to a b, now you have adgbe. add a heavy gauge low e string in the number six spot, and you have eadgbe. So far, it is working well. The five high strings are at proper tension, and low e is not bad either.

Hope that helps!

Tom

Click to expand...

LaBella make a fractional string for 1/4 size guitars.
They work well tuned E to E on a 17in scale.

I think the tension is actually less, since the E string is looser than it should be, and the B string is actually the c string down a 1/2 step. All the other strings are the same as they would normally be on the guitalele.