Joao Frazao 5 string ukulele

ukulelinh · Aug 30, 2016

Hi folks,
there is this amazing uke player named Joao Frazao who plays a 5 strings ukulele, not a doubled G-string but a real 5th string. Have anyone seen such ukulele before? I think a 5 strings uke would be the perfect "guitarlele". 6 strings is too much to handle

Here's a link to Joao Frazao: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVwaYzNNMWc

and another:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKimYv5xwQs

southcoastukes · Aug 31, 2016

Thanks for the links - Joao's an excellent player!

Leave it to the Portuguese to come up with something like this. They have a true 5-string instrument (not double course 4th), the Rajao, that was the rhythm accompaniment to the Machete. It existed in Hawaii for a very brief time before morphing into the Ukulele and the Taropatch.

Rajao tuning was reentrant: d' g' c' e' a', but though I may be mistaken, Joao appears to have dropped the 5th string, and maybe the 4th. I can't tell how far (he plays very fast).

Dropping those strings puts the instrument outside the parameters for fully resonant tuning, so it wouldn't be an optimal choice for an acoustic instrument, except on a Baritone (where it could be great!). But all your links show him playing amplified - of course that presents no acoustic problems.

There are luthiers in Portugal who still build Rajaos. If you want a true acoustic 5-course, just track down one of those and tune it in the traditional style. If you want lower 5th and 4th string notes, you could still get a Rajao and then just amplify it.

ukulelinh · Sep 1, 2016

southcoastukes said:
Thanks for the links - Joao's an excellent player!

Leave it to the Portuguese to come up with something like this. They have a true 5-string instrument (not double course 4th), the Rajao, that was the rhythm accompaniment to the Machete. It existed in Hawaii for a very brief time before morphing into the Ukulele and the Taropatch.

Rajao tuning was reentrant: d' g' c' e' a', but though I may be mistaken, Joao appears to have dropped the 5th string, and maybe the 4th. I can't tell how far (he plays very fast).

Dropping those strings puts the instrument outside the parameters for fully resonant tuning, so it wouldn't be an optimal choice for an acoustic instrument, except on a Baritone (where it could be great!). But all your links show him playing amplified - of course that presents no acoustic problems.

There are luthiers in Portugal who still build Rajaos. If you want a true acoustic 5-course, just track down one of those and tune it in the traditional style. If you want lower 5th and 4th string notes, you could still get a Rajao and then just amplify it.

Thank you for the info. I didn't know about the Rajao. Thanks a lot!

southcoastukes · Sep 19, 2016

Must have had brain freeze!

Also the Vihuela (Mexicana, not the ancient European pre-guitar). Here's "El Zombie" doing a tutorial on progessions and transcriptions:

The reentrant tuning on these is very similar to what we offer for guileles. Our tuning is e a d' g b e' while with the Vihuela it's all plain strings and the tuning is a d' g' b e' .

Joao Frazao 5 string ukulele

ukulelinh

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southcoastukes

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ukulelinh

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