Beginning Baritone Player Questions

Recstar24

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Hello,

I am expecting a new baritone in a few weeks. The UAS curiosity was strong and I bit :) I would love to hear from other baritone players your thoughts on below:

1) tuning and strings - EBGD with hi or low D, wound vs. non-wound, brands that offer baritone strings (less than soprano concert tenor that is for sure)

2) type of music you play on baritone vs what you normally play on soprano/concert/tenor

3) resources both online and books for music and tab specifically for baritone
 
Check out humblebaritonics.blogspot.com for videos and tips. Personally, I play jazz and blues stuff on the baritone. Mostly, I use GHS baritone strings; two wound, two black nylon...linear DGBE.
Works fine.
 
I guess my question is whether or not you have ever played guitar? If you have then playing a baritone in low D is just like riding a bike.

The chord "shapes" are the same as the guitar which are the "c" tuned ukulele, but just in a different key. This is both good and bad. The good is being able to play every chord you can play now (except long stretch ones). The bad is that D chord you play is now called an A, and that G chord is now a D.

For me the recent acquisition of a baritone has fit as am easier to play 4 string guitar than a deeper tone ukulele. Since I came from a guitar this may be more natural for me. It is an old Harmony with a 19" scale.

I would probably have a tougher time with high D tuning. Right now I think the strings are an incorrect Aquila Nylgut concert of soprano with only a single wound low D, but they seem to work well.

Have fun!

John
 
Playing a baritone is great fun (like all other sizes). I use Living Water Strings, high d, all unwound.
 
I have experimented quite a bit with MANY different strings and tunings on my baris. Some things for you to think about...do you hate that squeak sound that you get on a wound string? I used to, then I was less bothered by it, and currently I prefer no wound strings. When I used wound, linear (low g), I liked Savarez classical guitar strings (corium dg, reg be). When I used fluorocarb I liked Living water but found that the low G was awfully thick and I didn't want to widen the nut slot, so I usually stayed reentrant (high g). I guess if you have several baris ( I only have 2 right now) you could go ahead and widen the nut slot and you could always repair/replace the nut if you went back to a skinnier string. I wasn't willing to do that. I find the reentrant dGBE tuning still plenty deep, mellow and guitary, even tho I played linear for years. I have one Bari w Southcoast linear gcea, which is also nice. No one can tell you what you will like, you just have to experiment, but that's fun and SAS is waaaay cheaper than UAS.
 
Well done Ryan, baritone is a nice change of pace for a deeper mellower sound. That being said I like to tune them up a step or two, personal preferance. I have both mine with a wound 4th and 3rd and florocarbon 2nd and 1st string. I have tried Martin, D'addario Titanium and Worth browns. Believe it or not Dirk says you can use HML -RW if you are tuned up to Bb. I am digging E A C# F# tuning with the D'addario wounds from the Titanium set then pairing them with Oasis warm 2nd and 1st strings.:)

I play mostly classic rock which suites the deep resonant guitar tone. Enjoy it..........What did you order, don't keep secrets from uncle DuD.

Two tips, you can just go ahead and play any strumming song as if it were tuned GCEA using the same chords, it just sounds deeper. I have Ultimate Guitar app and if I want to play a song in the proper key and not as I did above here is what I do. Pull up the song and hit +5 on the transposing button. Now it will have a C chord indicated which I will play but it is really a G chord on the DGBE tumed baritone. This way I don't have to remember that a baritone G chord is 0003 I just play the C chord as I know it and it's a G. I will learn them a some point but for now this works.
 
Dave,



5:36 in. Myrtle with the tightest silkiest 5A POC top.

I'm a decent guitarist, so the chord shapes and how they are transposed I'm fine with.

I love wound strings, the Bari is currently strung worth all Flouro hi D and I think I'll play with it that way before experimenting.
 
Wow Ryan you don't mess around when you buy a "beginners baritone". I know you love your other Les Stansell ukuleles and the baritone will certainly make you happy.

I didn't know you played guitar, I knew you came from violin, baritone will be a snap for you then. Sorry about the big piece regarding chords and ways of getting around transposing, that was for someone that has no clue.......like me :eek:
 
I find the soprano (or C tuned instrument) and baritone can be complimentary, and if you can't easily play a tune on one, it is easy on the other. Because one is C focuses and the other is G focused, together you get to cover a lot of popular music. So having the pair on hand is useful for all your tunes. I don't have soprano tunes or baritone tunes, I try to play it on both for a musical challenge. If you keep working with both you will learn to pick which is best for a particular arrangement.

That is my mindset as well, and as a music teacher, I teach my kids both uke and guitar concurrently as depending on the song and key, certain songs are just a little easier on one or the other. I definitely plan on using both in a complimentary style, especially with my uke club, where I can bring both and switch between the two depending on song and style.

With that said, I think the baritone is a different enough instrument from your standard sop/concert/tenor where I am under the belief that there may be resources out there which really highlight the differences between the two.
 
I've been using my butler music lu21b exclusively for finger picking. Originally I had bought a set of worth browns and used them to tune cuatro-C but I never took to that tuning.

I've been playing mostly low-g tenor sheets, in general tabs. I also tuned mine down to CFAD for lower string tension and a bit more mellow sound (a suggestion I saw from booli). I have the stock aquila strings on it still, but had to replace 'E' with one from the worth brown set.

Thinking about it, in my opinion the difference is more about reentrant vs linear tuning than it is about size and scale of the ukulele, although the bari scale doesn't allow for nearly the stretch a soprano does.
 
In my view, the baritone ukulele and soprano/concert/tenor are so similar that they should hardly be considered different instruments requiring different learning and musical arrangements.

If you play a song you typically play on your soprano on a baritone, it'll be the same thing, except in a lower pitched tuning.

I find the baritone tuning to be more versatile than GCEA tuning. The baritone is my "main" and the soprano/concert/tenor are supplementary.
 
In my view, the baritone ukulele and soprano/concert/tenor are so similar that they should hardly be considered different instruments requiring different learning and musical arrangements.

If you play a song you typically play on your soprano on a baritone, it'll be the same thing, except in a lower pitched tuning.

I find the baritone tuning to be more versatile than GCEA tuning. The baritone is my "main" and the soprano/concert/tenor are supplementary.

In my situation, I won't be just playing the the same songs with the same shapes, hence pitched lower. I will be keeping the songs in the same key, so the baritone will be using different shapes.

One thing I noticed about my Bari players in my club is I love their sound up the neck. When I play up the neck with them the sound at times gets lost in the mix. A baritone up the neck really sounds nice.

So in my situation, I hope to use the baritone in a way that highlights it's different transposition as well as character and sound.
 
Update: My Bari was initially tuned linear G and while nice sounding it really didn't seem to ring as nicely as I would have thought, and remained mostly in played. A week or so ago I strung her up with southcoast HML-WB tuned Linear B-flat and holy smokes the thing is now really singing! It's been my number one player since then and B-flat is a cool sounding and versatile key to play in as well!

 
Tune your Bari to DGBE, same as guitar. It's kinda standard tuning and you can use EVERY guitar book you come across.
I use Aquila ( misspelled ? ) Nygut strings
I play flamenco, Gershwin and other ballads.
I own a Kamaka and a Pono.
Happy playing
 
Mine is DGBE, and I have Guadalupe custom strings on it. They are nylon wound on B & E, silver wound on D & G. I've always secretly loved the "squeak" of guitar music, so having my ukulele go "squeak" is a thrill. And they are pink and purple, what's not to love?

Recstar, your baritone is gorgeous and so is your playing. I love the fun rendition of Chopsticks in your medley!
 
I use Aquila Nylgut strings.
I tune my Pono to DGBE, as a guitar. I play flamenco, which was a little difficult due to the fact no one could offer any help about playing it with 4 strings and I play old slow ballads.
I have purchased books for info but have the found the internet much more useful.
 
B flat?

Are the standard baritone strings? So what are the open notes low to high?


Update: My Bari was initially tuned linear G and while nice sounding it really didn't seem to ring as nicely as I would have thought, and remained mostly in played. A week or so ago I strung her up with southcoast HML-WB tuned Linear B-flat and holy smokes the thing is now really singing! It's been my number one player since then and B-flat is a cool sounding and versatile key to play in as well!

 
B flat turning would be (f - Bb - d - g).

I'm currently using A tuning on my baritone (e - a - c# - f#).

You might check out this very helpful posting from Dirk at Southcoast:

http://www.southcoastukes.com/004.htm
 
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