Too scared to post this in the main Ukulele subforum

I received the following PM from a UU member (who I have made anonymous). And here was my reply copy + pasted.

kissing said:

Anonymous UU member said:

Hi, I was interested to see that you started on the ukulele and have slowly moved up to guitar. I was wondering if you could pinpoint why that happened? I've just ordered a 5 string and i'll probably put the low g on the outside, and I often wonder if I should have moved to a guitalele. I like finger picking, challenges and a wide range of choice and so I then start wondering if I should be playing a guitar. I'm back and forth with ideas but like the simplicity and easiness of ukuleles. I also play a bit of the charango. Did you have similar problems/thoughts?

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The main "problem" I had with just ukulele only is that, whether we like it or not, we live in a guitar-dominated world.
If music is a part of your life and you interact with various musicians, you will run into many more guitars and guitarists than ukuleles.

I participate a lot in church music, and unfortunately, the ukulele is not without its limitations as a "complete" instrument that can single-handedly accompany a group of singers. The high pitch of GCEA, lack of bass strings and relatively low volume and sustain of even baritone ukuleles made it hard to use the ukulele as a practical instrument for church (other than travel, in which case an ukulele is very useful. HOWEVER, there are such things as travel guitars which are nearly as small as ukulele).

I also got sick of walking into music stores and seeing hundreds of amazing guitars that I could not play.
This may sound like heresy, but I got bored of ukuleles. There isn't a huge selection to choose from in local stores, and mind you I have owned my fair share of ukuleles (purchased around 50 in the last few years) and some of them were high end, including Kamaka, Pono, Risa, etc.

Guitar was challenging at first. But it did NOT take long at all to grow accustomed to it.
Most of the chords are, as expectations allow, exactly the same. All you had to do is "fill in the gaps" for some of the chords which require the use of the bass strings.

I also used to play a bit of solo/instrumental pieces on ukulele. I can now play them on guitar as well now, but with added depth and complexity with the addition of bass strings. I have less use for a baritone ukulele now, because a classical guitar is a more "complete" version of it.

Currently, I actually like to play guitar more than ukulele.
There's a reason why the guitar is the instrument of choice for the mainstream. It is very practical.

The ukulele will always be special to me, and I will never stop playing.
But I do not regret my transition to guitars. Guitar is an exciting instrument if you let it become an instrument uniquely your's.
Just because it's so mainstream doesn't mean your experience will be a boring one.

There is no denial.
Being able to play both guitar and ukulele is superior to only being able to play uke.

Regards,

Sam

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Discuss :rulez:

All instruments have their strengths and limitations. None are better or worse than others. I've played guitar for 30+ years, but these days I am more likely to pick up a ukulele for casual play; I am drawn to its portable size and simplicity. I also play mandolin and five-string banjo, and each of those instruments has its benefits and challenges, too.

I've never understood this need to "apologize" for liking or playing a certain instrument. Play what you like, like what you play. Hum into a kazoo if need be. Music is awesome.

Heresy! LOL!

This has largely been my experience too.

I originally picked up a soprano uke because I wanted to learn to play a stringed instrument (never played one in my previous 52 years) and I had read that the ukulele was the "easiest" instrument to learn given it's short scale, number of strings etc. I figured with a modest outlay of cash I could get something and at least see if I had any aptitude at all and it would be a fun diversion from daily life.

I quickly learned that "easy" meant strumming chords to lyrics. While I won't put down anyone that likes doing this, I was quickly bored and started learning to fingerpick and flat pick tunes, even trying a little claw hammer style.

Still, I was dissatisfied with the sound and lack of "musicality" of the re-entrant tuning, so I gave the soprano to a friend. Next I got a baritone thinking that the longer scale and different tuning would give me the sound that I was looking for. I did in fact enjoy the sound more but still found that I was lacking the complexity and richness and sustain of the music that I liked to listen to. I love to listen to acoustic guitar music - ranging from Doc Watson and Merle Travis blue grass, to Django style gypsy jazz to Texas Swing to more new age acoustic music with percussive tapping.

So a friend offered to give me a Yamaha F335 6 string guitar. It's a good beginner level guitar but the sound, OMG the sound was EXACTLY what I have been searching for. The richness, the complexity, the ringing overtones - the sound, is driving me to work to overcome the added difficulty of 6 strings as compared to 4 and the wider neck. The guitar is definately a challenge! But I pick it up every chance I get - whether it's for 10 minutes while I wait for my wife to get dressed or for extended practice sessions when I learn a new blue grass lick, this is exactly what I have been looking for. I only wish I had started with I was 12 and not 52.

I don't regret starting with the uke. I still have my baritone ukulele and take it on car trips and strum it occasionally and won't ever get rid of it, but I haven't touched it in days while I play my guitar every chance I get - including this morning while I watched the local weather forecast before I left for work.

I won't deny it either - I prefer the guitar to the ukulele.

I don't see why there has to be one or the other music is music. And I will not apologize to anyone for what I do or don't do with it...

My own preference is to play classical guitar on a guitar and do all other types of music on uke.

Two reasons for this. I find guitar too full and deep for non classical
Music and playing classical takes so much practice and focus on technique that it takes up all the time and motivation that I have for it.

Then for everything else it usually on a uke

However I use technique from both regardless which is a great benefit...

I think I'll always prefer ukulele purely because I am incapable of handling a guitar due to health problems with my hands.
I've attempted to learn the guitar four or five times during the last three years and every time I've tried it's ended in tears.
I have often been told in the past by guitarists that I need to learn to play 'a real instrument' and it really hammered me down at first and at one point I didn't pick up any of my ukuleles for about a year.

But I toughened up and ukulele is always going to be number one for me, though I am very envious of guitar players.
I really struck gold when I found the mandolin too.

I think all musical instruments are just as valid as each other, from harmonicas to guitars to hammered dulcimers you should simply play whatever you love

I play both guitar and ukulele; at the moment I prefer ukulele. For many years I felt the opposite.

Here's why I prefer ukulele at least for now: 1. It's smaller - easier more comfortable to hold. 2. The palette of sound is different from guitar, more trebly, like a mandolin. 3. The reentrant tuning allows interesting possibilities of melody arrangements. 4. Four strings make jazz chords easier and cleaner. 5. Four strings make chord changes easier and cleaner allowing for more use of chord changes to add coloration to the music. 6. The sound is clearer and less muddy. 7. The camaraderie.

Now, sometimes I miss the bass strings on the guitar, or the situation calls for guitar and not ukulele. I also play saxophone and clarinet, but they don't work at a Bluegrass jam and neither (for the most part) does a uke. In general I think it is a lot easier for a guitar player to become a uke player than a uke player to become a guitar player.

I really have a problem with fretting 6 strings. I've made a couple serious attempts at learning guitar with less than great results.
My solution to the problem???

IMO every church worship guitar player shoild be issued one of these. Leave the bass note to the bass player.

Play what you want. The same as I will play what I want.

What I don't understand, and I never will, is why the competition between the 2 instruments?. They seem very different to me. Yeah, similar, but NOT. Not really.

I have no desire to play the guitar. None. Never have and never will. It isn't a problem for me at all. But that doesn't mean you can't love what YOU love. Maybe the reason I love the ukulele so much is that it ISN'T so mainstream. (Although it's more mainstream than it used to be.)

People really need to quit worrying about what other people like. If you like guitar better, good for you.

Same here...learning the guitar, mainly slack key. Now I have a hard time putting doen the guitar!! lol
Still play the uke, just not as much

I play mostly classical and just got into ukes late last summer- then that led me into small scale classical guitars-
where I found I can play longer and with less effort-
but it's a jungle out there trying to find the one that suits you-
and I've found that Cordoba keeps the wide nut- important to classical and as the size of the guitar diminishes- to facilitate adult hands

I've had this electric Squire strat for some time but don't play it much- especially after the practice amp went through a flood
but for Christmas I got this audio amp with a coulple of mike inputs and found I can mix the mike- and a guitar- through into the tuner or CD mix and play along with the audio- so that's interesting,
I can even add echo

Fortunately I play and enjoy both the guitar and standard/concert ukuleles. If I want to play Yesterday as on the recording I pick up the guitar, if I just want to casually strum Yesterday, I'll pick up a uke. The way I see it it's just different tools for different jobs. I really enjoy both!

I have played both guitar and ukulele since the 1960s. To many of the people on UU, that makes me an old fart. Great! I love it! hehehe

I play thirteen different instruments. So, I am of the belief that the goal is MUSIC. The instrument I choose at the time I play is apt and suitable for the goal of producing whatever sound I prefer at the time. I played music with some pretty well-known musicians in the country, rock, and folk music scenes and that usually meant guitar, but, again, it all came down to using the appropriate instrument for the job. In the recording studio, I almost always played guitar or bass and sang lead or backup depending on the project.

It's all about making music-- it's not a competition-- what's best, guitar or uke. In the end, guitar can enhance ukulele and ukulele can enhance guitar. It's all about making music.

Yup, same here. I play ukulele, guitar, bass, piano/keys, accordion, some drums and percussion, strum stick, a little dulcimer, tin whistle and love them all. But that said, i concentrate on the Guitar and Uke the most. Play what you like, they are just paints on your palette, colors in your crayon box, tools in your tool box. Use them all!

This is a really interesting thread.... many, many years ago, I had to choose an instrument to study as second instrument, at teacher-training college. I chose guitar, knowing it would be useful for playing in class. I never had the time to practise as much as I should have, and never ever "made proper friends" with it, though I learned some very basic finger-picking and a few chords to strum some simple songs. My first encounter with the uke, 35 years later, was love at first sight.... "I love that sound and I know I can get to grips with that!" and my guitar still sits hardly touched in the corner of our spare room. However, my daughter dislikes uke and wanted a guitar - I got her one and sat with her at Christmas, teaching her three basic chords to strum her first tune... and I was already much more comfortable with the guitar myself than I had ever felt before, through transference of skills from uke to guitar...... one day I may pick my guitar up again in earnest, and when I do I know I will get on with it much better than I did - but I still love my ukes - and now have 9 including 3 banjo-ukes....... the guitar still feels big and unwieldy in comparison, and the sound too deep and complex right now. Personal preferences - nothing wrong with that AT ALL. But one day - I'll pick it up and whizz along with it - I just know it....

I have to agree with those who have said that playing music is the goal that many of us have - not necessarily elevating one instrument above the other. Would someone seriously suggest that an orchestra eliminate the brass section, or the woodwinds, or percussion, or strings? Of course not. Different styles of music demand certain instruments - some more, and some less. I am always amused by the purists that worship the ukulele (or insert instrument of your choice), but their heroes are often accompanied by other instruments, such as a guitar and or a bass or cello, because as others have said you sometimes need those base notes in a song.

As a teen I got my start on a trumpet in the school band. I played the guitar (badly) in a small rock band, and dabbled in piano and saxophone. They all seemed like cool instruments to me and all added something to the mix. I put them all away for almost 40 years, which I now regret. One day, about 4 years ago I saw an inexpensive Kala tenor in a music shop, while my son was shopping for guitar strings. It was so inexpensive and seemingly easy to play, I just had to have it. It lead me to make a lot of new ukulele friends and jam along with them for the first time in many decades. It was fun. I eventually acquired a handful of ukuleles, but always yearned for more bass and different sounds to accompany myself on my recordings, so I bought a baritone, a guitar, and finally an Ashbory bass, and even a drum machine. I'd probably buy a whole orchestra full of instruments if I thought I could learn to play them all and my budget permitted. I am not even sure why I make recordings in the first place. Its not like many people, other than my mother who put up with my trumpet practicing, listen to them, or that they are very good, but that's another topic for another day.

I must admit that I like the fullness of sound that a guitar can make. Because it can lay down a decent bass line, plus chords, it seems more complete to me than the uke. Unfortunately, I can play my tenor ukulele a lot better than the guitar, so I usually reach for it first. And, after-all, the uke did bring me back to the pleasure of playing music.

In the end, its all about making music that sounds good to your ears, whatever instruments that takes.

Guitar dominated world? I get it, but....
In some musical spheres, we are said to live in a piano-dominated world. But, there would be no bands, orchestras, quartets, ensembles,.. if everybody played only the piano.

Here, here! Agree completely. I just hate "instrument snobbery", regardless of the instrument. Music, musical instruments, it's all good.

I like that most people are just in to music and there are many different instruments to play. I do not see any competition between a guitar, an ukulele, a mandolin, a banjo, etc. I never felt the need to justify or defend what instrument I play. It's all good.

Yeah a few things resonating here (pardon the pun). I've had a couple of cracks at guitar over the last 20-30 years (I'm early 50's) and for whatever reason couldn't get brain and hands into it. Then one of my kids started with guitar, then the other one, I still didn't get it but I wanted in somehow. Started with Uke which I really enjoy but sometime last year I started to want something richer, like the OP I guess...started thinking about baritone ukes, tenor guitars etc. I picked up my boy's classical guitar one day and started noodling around just making uke shapes, then learned some guitar chords and some simple progressions and songs that I liked...it started to come much easier because Uke had broken the hoodoo. I bought a big old dreadnought from a friend of a friend and I'm finding my way around that...it's a lot less forgiving than my ukes but I'm enjoy the early learning...and my uke playing is coming along faster and I'm enjoying it more because my hands are getting stronger and stretching more from guitar. So I for me they complement each other, it's all good.