Easy Keys on Uke and Acoustic Guitar

zztush · Oct 7, 2016

image url

The above figure shows the easy keys on ukulele and guitar. C (red circle) is the easiest key on our ukulele, and F and G are also easy keys. I've explained it in previous thread. On the other hand, E is the most easy key on acoustic guitar according to GONTITTI who is acoustic guitar duo in Japan. C, G, D, and A are also often used keys. They say that "#" keys are easy to play on acoustic guitar.
Apparently we can not directly compare between red and green because the sources are different. But this may explain one of the reason why uke easier is.

Croaky Keith · Oct 7, 2016

If we count in A & D , which are quite easy, you will notice our keys are rotated anti clockwise by one, compared to guitar.

stevejfc · Oct 7, 2016

I guess it depends on the tuning............I suspect that you are comparing traditional tunings.

Rllink · Oct 7, 2016

Well, considering that those three keys are also where I sing the best, it works. But as far as easier, what makes them easier?

jollyboy · Oct 7, 2016

Rllink said:
Well, considering that those three keys are also where I sing the best, it works. But as far as easier, what makes them easier?

Presumably cos you get a preponderance of easily formed basic chords in those keys (on a standard tuned uke). And on that basis I agree with uke1950 that you could include A and D. A D chord might be slightly (but really only slightly) trickier to form but since your I-IV-V progression in D is D-G-A I would say that makes it a pretty user-friendly key to play in.

Rllink · Oct 7, 2016

jollyboy said:
Presumably cos you get a preponderance of easily formed basic chords in those keys (on a standard tuned uke). And on that basis I agree with uke1950 that you could include A and D. A D chord might be slightly (but really only slightly) trickier to form but since your I-IV-V progression in D is D-G-A I would say that makes it a pretty user-friendly key to play in.

I agree with D. For me it depends a lot on the song, but I have a few in my playlist that are in the key of D. It works for me particularly in songs with a slower tempo.

zztush · Oct 7, 2016

Rllink said:
Well, considering that those three keys are also where I sing the best, it

works. But as far as easier, what makes them easier?

They are easily formed basic chord as jollyboy said, and I explain it in Which key is easy to play? thread.

C, F and G major scales and their relative minor scales (Am, Dm and Em) take advantage of ukulele's open strings. In guitar, there are two E strings (1st and 6th). E major scale and its relative minor scale (C#m) should take most advantage of guitar's open strings.

I really prefer ukulele's key advantage than guitar's advantage. It is more simple and bright to me and it is related to ukulele sound to me.

kypfer · Oct 8, 2016

To paraphrase that well-known movie star ... " easy is as easy does" ... six sharps sounds very similar to the Klingon translation of "get a capo"

Easy Keys on Uke and Acoustic Guitar

zztush

Well-known member

Croaky Keith

Well-known member

stevejfc

Well-known member

Rllink

Well-known member

jollyboy

Well-known member

Rllink

Well-known member

zztush

Well-known member

kypfer

Well-known member

Similar threads