Baritone Questions

Laidback1 · Mar 25, 2016

Just bought a new Ohana BK35 (solid mahogany baritone). For the money $299, it's a really good Uke. I'm primarily a guitar player and the Standard Baritone tuning DGBE comes in handy for transitioning my playing to the Ukulele; however, was wondering how do most people tune the Baritone? Standard or gCEA (or GCEA)? What tuning are the available online lessons typically done in. Is there an advantage of one tuning over the other?

Finally, can anyone recommend some good lessons for Baritone either online or DVD?

Sorry for all the questions, just trying to get a good start.

Mark

70sSanO · Mar 25, 2016

I tune my baritone to DGBE, just like a guitar because it reminds me of a guitar when I play it. I probably would never tune it to C. For C tuning I use a tenor or concert ukulele.

John

PhilUSAFRet · Mar 25, 2016

I'm of the opinion that the only reason most people tune a baritone to GCEA or gCEA is that they do not know guitar tuning and want to be able to play it like their other uke sizes. Other than that, I'm not aware of any advantage to doing that tone wise unless you just want it to sound more uke like and less guitar like.

Down Up Dick · Mar 25, 2016

My Kala baritone is tuned to DGBD (to use with slide); I love it's deep sound. I haven't done much with the slide yet though because I've been busy with other stuff.

I mostly like open tuning, but some chords take some gittin' usta. I usually fingerpick the baritone though.

ld:

JackLuis · Mar 25, 2016

I just got a baritone a few weeks ago and liked the tuning. I have since experimented with retuning a tenor dGBE and found that very interesting. I played a couple of OS baritones up at the store, one linear and one re-entrant and liked the re-entrant for strumming. It had more of a Uke sound.

I've learned Baritone chord forms are not that hard to remember, seeing they are just Club tuning down a fourth. G=D A=E, etc. Even an old dog like me can learn new tricks.

Last night I was trying to shift "50 ways to leave your Lover" to Uke and realized that if I ignore the 5 and 6 strings, I could play the guitar chords that came with the song, on my G tuned axes. Now I'm just a strummer so there may be some differences but it isn't much.

kissing · Mar 25, 2016

Dgbe would be the common tuning and purpose of the baritone. Tuning it gcea is a handy option if you feel like regular ukulele tuning.

As for teaching materials, is it really necessary?
Baritone is like guitar, and is like ukulele. Anything that applies to guitar and uke applies to baritone ukulele

EmmaQ · Mar 25, 2016

I love baritone but have gotten frustrated with it since I prefer Fingerstyle and I don't have enough knowledge to take the tabs of a Fingerstyle guitar piece and fingerpick it with only 4 strings. Any help or advice out there?

kissing · Mar 26, 2016

Any fingerstyle that applies to Ukulele applies to Baritone Ukulele.

Baritone isn't some new separate instrument. It's just a bigger ukulele transposed down a few pitches.
There's no one single method for it either. You can play it how ever way you like.

Ukulele Eddie · Mar 26, 2016

I like my baritones set up for linear G tuning. I believe this is more common for the baritone, though some people certainly set them up re-entrant G.

EmmaQ · Mar 26, 2016

To Kissing,
I play my baritone frequently, often fingerpicking pieces on it that I also play on my concert. That's no problem. I'm talking about finding the tabs for a cool guitar song, tabs written for 6 strings, and I don't know how to handle on the baritone those 2 strings that are missing, so to speak. There's no 5th and 6th strings for bass notes.

kissing · Mar 26, 2016

EmmaQ said:
To Kissing,
I play my baritone frequently, often fingerpicking pieces on it that I also play on my concert. That's no problem. I'm talking about finding the tabs for a cool guitar song, tabs written for 6 strings, and I don't know how to handle on the baritone those 2 strings that are missing, so to speak. There's no 5th and 6th strings for bass notes.

Basically you would ignore the 5th and 6th string - a baritone ukulele simply doesn't have them.
Sometimes you will have to adjust it a bit so it works on baritone ukulele. Usually the melodic parts of instrumentals are played on the first 4 strings, with the 5th and 6th being there for bass rhythm.

You'll have to use your own ears and modify slightly if needed.

That being said, by the same logic, all guitar tabs work on a regular ukulele with GCEA tuning (low-G) in the same way it would for a baritone ukulele.
You will just be playing it at a slightly higher pitch.

When it comes to a playability perspective, ukuleles are just 4-stringed guitars.

There's no magical method book that reconciles guitars with baritone ukuleles. You just need to appreciate they are similar instruments and a lot of things cross over.
Is a baritone ukulele a "lesser" instrument than guitar? I wouldn't say so - some things just work much better with 4 strings than 6.

FiL · Mar 26, 2016

I do't much care for the lose tension of DGBE tuning on a baritone, so I tune mine up to EAC#F#. With a capo on the third fret I can play all the standard ukulele chords I know, and if a song is too high for me to sing, I can capo down a little to find the right key.

- FiL

Laidback1 · Mar 27, 2016

Down Up Dick said:
My Kala baritone is tuned to DGBD (to use with slide); I love it's deep sound. I haven't done much with the slide yet though because I've been busy with other stuff.

I mostly like open tuning, but some chords take some gittin' usta. I usually fingerpick the baritone though. ld:

what kind of strings are you using for slide work?

Down Up Dick · Mar 27, 2016

All my strings are Aquila, but, as I said before, I haven't done much except a little noodling with it. I'm busy working on my banjos and trying to get back to my other (wind) instruments.

Never enough time.

ld:

Camsuke · Mar 27, 2016

EmmaQ said:
I love baritone but have gotten frustrated with it since I prefer Fingerstyle and I don't have enough knowledge to take the tabs of a Fingerstyle guitar piece and fingerpick it with only 4 strings. Any help or advice out there?

Hi Emma,

A simple way to start adapting fingerstyle guitar pieces for Low G or DGBE ukulele is to use a guitar tab which is arranged for Dropped D (DADGBE) this will adapt quite easily because the guitar D chord is the same shape as the ukulele G chord. It makes it a lot easier to find those extra 2 bass string notes.
If you send me a guitar tab you'd like to adapt, I'll walk you through the process. Just drop me a PM.

EmmaQ · Mar 27, 2016

Thanks Campbell! I appreciate your offer a lot. I'll PM you soon with a tab for the dropped d tuning.

EmmaQ · Mar 28, 2016

Campbell, I "think" I just sent you a PM; I haven't done this enough to know for sure that I'm sending a PM correctly. Let me know either way. Thanks.

Braga2966 · Mar 28, 2016

Camsuke said:
Hi Emma,

A simple way to start adapting fingerstyle guitar pieces for Low G or DGBE ukulele is to use a guitar tab which is arranged for Dropped D (DADGBE) this will adapt quite easily because the guitar D chord is the same shape as the ukulele G chord. It makes it a lot easier to find those extra 2 bass string notes.
If you send me a guitar tab you'd like to adapt, I'll walk you through the process. Just drop me a PM.

How easy is it to find dropped D tuning tabs? Ultimate guitar app or a way of going about it?

I'm about to own a baritone and I was wondering in the mean time how can I practice on my tenor in a way that makes my transition to the baritone smoother? Do I start to rename the chords I play?

Down Up Dick · Mar 28, 2016

Braga2966 said:
How easy is it to find dropped D tuning tabs? Ultimate guitar app or a way of going about it?

I'm about to own a baritone and I was wondering in the mean time how can I practice on my tenor in a way that makes my transition to the baritone smoother? Do I start to rename the chords I play?

That's what I do, Braga. Irish Tenor Banjo is tuned Lo-G DAE, but my banjolele is tuned to Lo-C GDA. Both are tuned in fifths. Anyway, I play the banjolele in Lo-C GDA, but, in my mind, I call it Lo-G DAE. Since I'm playing solo, it doesn't make any difference what I call it.

So, play your tenor and think of it as being tuned to Lo-DGBE. You can even use baritone tabs.

ld:

Strumdaddy · Mar 28, 2016

Laidback1 said:
Finally, can anyone recommend some good lessons for Baritone either online or DVD?

Sorry for all the questions, just trying to get a good start.

Mark

I'm not sure about "lessons" for baritone uke as such... but I'd recommend playing lots of songs you know and love to get the juices flowing.
Dr Uke has a vast array of great songs, and most have chords in baritone shapes (just click on the "BAR" bit)
http://www.doctoruke.com/songs.html
And don't be worried about asking questions - it's a pretty good way of finding out what you don't already know...
Many happy strummings...

Baritone Questions

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