Tenor to baritone

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Franky1

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Hi guys I have been playing for 6months now with a Tenor low g, coming along niclely, in my opinion not rushing or anything but I wanted for a lower sounding uke for my ears , so bought a pono baritone, lovely sound it is.
So now the question I have heard that you have to transpose the chords ,well I have tried this and it seems to me that all have to do is follow the chord tabs for my tenor and everything is fine , ok the names to the chords change ie g =c but it plays the same context am I right here or am going somewhere different?
Cheers guys
 
If we are talking common tunings, then the tenor is commonly tuned GCEA and the Baritone DGBE. So the Baritone is lower in natural pitch at the nut. What that means is that the 'shape' of (say) a C chord on a Tenor played in the same shape on a Baritone will play a different chord for the same finger placement ( a G in fact). Same for all the chords. The 'shape' of a G on a tenor played on a Bari will give you a D and so on.

in short the 'shapes' are the same, but they play lower chords.

But bear in mind that if you are playing from a song sheet that simply says to 'play a G' or 'play a C' or any other - if you make that chord on a tenor or a baritone, it makes the same chord. A G is a G is a G etc. Only the finger placement changes.
 
Thanks for you info guys, but dont know if I have got it in my head... if I say ok, I use the baritone DGBE but follow the tabs I have for the tenor GCEA I,m ok but I,ll be a 5th lower in tone thats all. SO why should I learn the new chords of the baritone when I can just use what I know from the tenor.. I,m getting there just a little slow.
Thanks guys
 
d
Franky1 said:
Thanks for you info guys, but dont know if I have got it in my head... if I say ok, I use the baritone DGBE but follow the tabs I have for the tenor GCEA I,m ok but I,ll be a 5th lower in tone thats all. SO why should I learn the new chords of the baritone when I can just use what I know from the tenor.. I,m getting there just a little slow.
Thanks guys
Click to expand...
Because if you play with others and all use the same sheet music, they will be in one key and you will be in another. If you never play with anyone ekse, then it doesn't matter.

Another alternative is to get a capo and use it on the baritone as necessary.
 
Got it thanks I dont play with others so I can play my tenor tabs on the baritone and it does not make any difference, I thought that, when I have experimented with this it,s only the chord names that change same shapes and if I do play with others
I just use the capo on the 5th fret .......
Thanks
 
I play my baritone in GCEA. No problem. However, I never play with anyone else. One man band, always key of C.
 
Franky1 said:
SO why should I learn the new chords of the baritone when I can just use what I know from the tenor
Click to expand...

Psst, that's exactly what I do. I have ukes tuned in C, Bb, A (oops, not anymore, just sold that one), and G tuning. I play them all as if they were a normal C tuned uke. I'd rather transpose the music to play with others than try to remember 4 or 5 names for the same chord shape.
 
Soprano and Baritone are the only two sizes I play, the Soprano in gCEA tuning and the Baritone in DGBE tuning. Even my tiny brain can handle two sets of chord shapes to remember.
The easiest way to do so is the 'flat-rule-order' mentioned above.

BEADGCF, or 'Ben Eats Another Dozen Good Chicken Fingers'.

Just pick the next shape in the list to transpose. You want to play an E chord on your baritone? Look up the E in BEADGCF. The letter after the E is an A. To play an E chord on your baritone you can use the A chord shape you know from your tenor. It's that simple, same goes for minor chords etcetera. It took me a couple of weeks to get used to it, now it just comes natural.
 
Thanks rodney I have tried this and it does not work, the princible works though , by any chance you have your tuning at ADF#B the princible works from that tuning to baritone but not from GCEA in which I am now working on , great advice though ........
While im here thanks to all the rest of the advice I have recieved from you guys anymore tricks would be welcome
Thanks
 
Rodney: That's a cool mnemonic.

Franky1: it does work, you're probably just going the wrong direction

Ubulele: cool trick too.

It's all the Circle of Fifths folks. Just different ways of thinking about it.
 
Last edited:
Oh boy....should of never read this post. My wife is gonna kill me when I buy a baritone! I just purchased my eleventh uke this week!
 
Ive got it now from using info here, and a rotating circle of fifths chart ,so what I found is, what ever is at the top of the chart I move 1space to the right and I have the chord, yah, the C is a G on so on
Thanks
Guys
 
Using the 5th chart I can even find the minor cords as well ......:)
 
moetrout said:
Oh boy....should of never read this post. My wife is gonna kill me when I buy a baritone! I just purchased my eleventh uke this week!
Click to expand...

11 ukuleles in one week! No wonder she is upset!

I have to wait until next year, but I think a pono baritone is calling my name!
 
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