Alternate tunings

BluesPreacher · Oct 11, 2016

Someone mentioned alternate tunings in another thread about frailing on the uke. I messed around a little on my soprano.

I tuned it in 5ths like my mandolin. Interesting, especially with the 4th string up an octave. I'll be back into that some other time.

For now, my fave alternate tuning is to drop the 1st string from A to G. Playing the blues in C works great in that tuning.

Also, I had fun playing the guitar intro to the Herman's Hermits song "Stop, Stop, Stop" in that tuning.

Other alt tunings you like?

Down Up Dick · Oct 11, 2016

The dropped A tuning is called "open" tuning. I use open tuning on my banjos and some of my Ukes.

ld:

kypfer · Oct 11, 2016

Lute Tuning: GBEA, was mentioned recently, http://forum.ukuleleunderground.com/showthread.php?122605-Lute-tuning-for-the-Uke-with-chord-sheet along with a TAB for a waltz in that tuning, but I must admit I've not got around to trying it yet ... it's "on the list"

I keep instruments both in high and low G tunings (the low G's don't get used so much) as well in 5th's, a pineapple soprano tuned like a mandolin and a baritone tuned an octave lower ... that's my tenor banjo "substitute" 'till I can justify the purchase of a second full-size banjo!

eatmyuke · Oct 12, 2016

i really like tuning the high G to a F, alows me to play some really fluid fingerpicking

SteveZ · Oct 12, 2016

Sopranos are (to me, anyway) a bit limited in ability to go too low or too high. I do fifths tuning (or close to it) on everything.

For sopranos (except banjo uke) I found I cannot get GDAE to respond well at all. The E comes out out a bit screechy and has a
tendency to snap easily. Found that I had to use 20-lb test mono fishing line to have a durable E string.

CGDA is slmost as interesting. Finding a soprano low-C string that isn't the size of a shoelace in diameter has not been easy. So, have gone "high C reentrant" when I tried it on a standard soprano. Have had luck with low-C on banjo-uke using the Aquila 31U concert strings.

JonThysell · Oct 12, 2016

SteveZ said:
Sopranos are (to me, anyway) a bit limited in ability to go too low or too high. I do fifths tuning (or close to it) on everything.

For sopranos (except banjo uke) I found I cannot get GDAE to respond well at all. The E comes out out a bit screechy and has a
tendency to snap easily. Found that I had to use 20-lb test mono fishing line to have a durable E string.

CGDA is slmost as interesting. Finding a soprano low-C string that isn't the size of a shoelace in diameter has not been easy. So, have gone "high C reentrant" when I tried it on a standard soprano. Have had luck with low-C on banjo-uke using the Aquila 31U concert strings.

For CGDA on the soprano, it seems all you need to do is swap the g/c strings from a regular set and drop the e down to d. Or are the octaves wrong?

TheCraftedCow · Oct 12, 2016

No one else uses F C F A/f C F A or f C F a ?

SteveZ · Oct 12, 2016

JonThysell said:
For CGDA on the soprano, it seems all you need to do is swap the g/c strings from a regular set and drop the e down to d. Or are the octaves wrong?

Standard CGDA is C3-G3-D4-A4.
Standard GCEA is G4-C4-E4-A4.
Low-G GCEA is G3-C4-E4-A4.

To get CGDA from a uke set, the closest one can get using a commercially-packaged set of uke strings is with a low-G set. However, what one gets using all four strings is "re-entrant C" CGDA as C4-G3-D4-A4. So, to get standard CGDA requires acquiring another string which can produce C3 and use the G3, E4 and A4 from a low-G string set.

Aquila does make a CGDA set (#31U) for concert ukes. I use this set routinely for tenor ukes and now on a soprano banjo-uke. I've been disappointed with this string set on a standard soprano, because the C3 string sounds too "thumpy" and not of decent sound quality due to insufficient tension. Yet, for whatever reason the C3 string works well and tensions decently on the soprano banjo-uke.

So, for my Flea soprano, it's tuned "re-entrant C" CGDA and my soprano banjo-uke is at standard CGDA.

Nickie · Oct 13, 2016

ubulele said:
My interest in 5ths tuning is to be better able to play fiddle tunes, so yes, for my purposes the octaves are wrong. You really can't get linear 5ths tuning without special strings due to its wider pitch span. But if you want to use mandolin chord shapes, the high 4th doesn't matter as much (as when switching between standard linear and reentrant uke tunings). It does affect the sound and spread of each chord, but not the resulting type/name of the chord. There are some other advantages to 5ths tuning in terms of scale patterns, but since the 4th string would be an octave higher in the switched-string scenario, that disrupts the utility of the more consistent patterns on the lower strings.

I once went through the exercise of comparing various common regular tunings (4ths, 5ths, major and minor 3rds, moving the 3rd interval to the top or bottom string pair…), looking for impact on scale patterns and (more importantly, to me) flexibility in forming a wide assortment of chords. The endeavor reinforced for me the particular "magic" of the standard uke tuning patterns: the largest number of possible chords, the fewest number of devolved chords, the most manageable fingerings, and the most number of shifting positions and chord voicings per octave, most evenly spaced. Consequently, I need a compelling reason to play with a tuning other than standard, 5ths or open tunings. I've toyed with finding a "better" tuning for melodic slide—one richer in cross-string dyad intervals, exploiting the possibilities of angling the slide—but so far it's mostly a thought experiment in the nascent stage.

I am nowhere near advanced enough to have a clue here, but I think what you mean is our 8 string tenor cannot be tuned to mandolin tuning???

JonThysell · Oct 13, 2016

Have you looked at Southcoast string sets? It looks like they don't carry 5th tuning strings anymore, but they have some good info here: http://www.southcoastukes.com/021.htm

kypfer · Oct 13, 2016

Nickie said:
I am nowhere near advanced enough to have a clue here, but I think what you mean is our 8 string tenor cannot be tuned to mandolin tuning???

The theoretical limitation here may be the proximity of two nylon strings to each other ... they may buzz against themselves ... other than that simply finding a set of strings should be your only hurdle.

Given the scale length of a tenor, you may want to look at tuning it lower than a mandolin, CGDA, for example, to keep the string tensions within reasonable limits, then you'll just need to decide to go for unison or octave pairs (could be interesting).

Rather than buying too many strings to start with, I think I'd set it up as a four-string instrument initially, just to see how I get on with it, then double up if I liked it ... YMMV

kypfer · Oct 13, 2016

ubulele said:
My interest in 5ths tuning is to be better able to play fiddle tunes ...

I once went through the exercise of comparing various common regular tunings (4ths, 5ths, major and minor 3rds, moving the 3rd interval to the top or bottom string pair…), looking for impact on scale patterns and (more importantly, to me) flexibility in forming a wide assortment of chords. The endeavor reinforced for me the particular "magic" of the standard uke tuning patterns: the largest number of possible chords, the fewest number of devolved chords, the most manageable fingerings, and the most number of shifting positions and chord voicings per octave, most evenly spaced. Consequently, I need a compelling reason to play with a tuning other than standard, 5ths or open tunings. I've toyed with finding a "better" tuning for melodic slide—one richer in cross-string dyad intervals, exploiting the possibilities of angling the slide—but so far it's mostly a thought experiment in the nascent stage.

This is interesting, to me, 'cos I'm currently at the other end of the spectrum, so to speak, familiarising myself with some of the myriad of 5-string banjo tunings ... a world where it often seems the instrument is re-tuned for every other fiddle tune, just to get all the notes for that tune easily available

C tuning, G tuning, Chicago tuning, double C, Mountain Minor, double D, Sawmill ... I'll get there eventually :music:

mrStones · Oct 13, 2016

TheCraftedCow said:
No one else uses F C F A/f C F A or f C F a ?

Wow that's interesting. Never though about the open F. Need to try it. Do you have by any chance any chord sheet ?

SteveZ · Oct 13, 2016

Nickie said:
I am nowhere near advanced enough to have a clue here, but I think what you mean is our 8 string tenor cannot be tuned to mandolin tuning???

On the contrary. My 8-string is tuned like an octave mandolin (cCgGdDaA) and I love it that way.

Going regular mandolin (gGdDaAeE) is tougher, mainly because of the E string. That string is quite thin and I've found (the hard way) that mono fishing line is about the only thing strong enough to hold the requisite tension without snapping. For that reason I've stayed with the CGDA approach.

kypfer · Oct 30, 2016

BluesPreacher said:
Someone mentioned alternate tunings in another thread about frailing on the uke. I messed around a little on my soprano.

I tuned it in 5ths like my mandolin.

Other alt tunings you like?

Just been fiddling around this evening ... restrung/retuned my balalaika (about the same size as a tenor ukulele but just three strings) with nylon strings to AEa ... a 5th then a 4th, inspired by the DAd tuning used on stick dulcimers (strumsticks) ... works quite well

There's a host of tab's out there in interweb-land for strumsticks and I've been toying with the idea of either buying one or trying to make one ... the next decision may be based on whether I feel my woodworking skills are up to the job

If you've got a passing interest in the concept of a strumstick, maybe you'd like to re-string/re-tune a ukulele and give it a whirl :music:

Alternate tunings

BluesPreacher

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Down Up Dick

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kypfer

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eatmyuke

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SteveZ

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JonThysell

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TheCraftedCow

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SteveZ

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Nickie

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JonThysell

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kypfer

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kypfer

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mrStones

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SteveZ

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kypfer

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