I never cared for baritone ukuleles until.....

Nickie

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Today I met a relatively new uker, who brought his bari with him to our rehearsal, just o show it to me.
He had a very pretty Kala bari. He had strung it up GCEA. He let me strum it a few times, and pick it a little.
My hands were very tired from lots of playing (and I had shut my hand in the backyard gate yesterday) and WOW.
I loved it. The Kala had a better tone than any bari I'd ever held. But the clincher was the tuning.
GCEA sounded so wonderful, I wanted to keep it!
Has anyone else done this, and did you like it?
 
Haven't tried mine in GCEA, but I do have mine re-entrant and absolutely LOVE it that way.

It's amazing with campanella, because it sustains forever. Everything is so rich and connected.

Only problem is stretching my fingers. I'm working on it. They DO stretch. Slowly... LOL!
 
Yes and yes....

same here

also baris in FIFTHS tunings, CGDA and GDAE, big difference in tone compared to DGBE or GCEA tunings, with ALL NEW chord fingerings to learn for fifths tunings, but I have no trouble with that.

ALL chord shapes are symmetrical and movable everywhere in fifths tunings :)
 
Yes I have done this in the past and as you say Nickie it sounds wonderful. It is basically like comparing the sound of a soprano to a tenor. The larger body will be deeper and fuller sounding with more resonance and sustain. It is a super super tenor of sorts
 
No, i never tried GCEA. I really like the lower tones the best, and that's why I bought my Kala baritone. I had a chance to trade my Gold Tone concert banjolele in for a GT baritone banjolele, but I opted for a tenor instead. I could kick myself.

I only play my concert ukes, once in a while, for singing accompaniment. My baritone fingerstyle is comin' along. :eek:ld:
 
Love the sound tone of baritones, deep & rich with lots of sustain, more like guitar than a traditional uke, but without having the extra strings, bulk & weight.

I think a good combination is baritones & concert sized ukes, best of both worlds. :)
 
ubulele, for once I understand all that you're saying and agree with you.

uke1950, good post. I agree with you too. :eek:ld:
 
If some bugger broke into our place and took everything, I just hope they'd leave
a soprano and a baritone behind.
Glad you discovered the baritone, Nickie.
Bout bloody time, woman!
 
I keep one tuned low GCEA, one low DGBE, and one high dGBE. Love them all, and their various tones and uses.
 
My fifths-tuned GDAE bari is my go-to instrument these days; the octave mandolin tuning puts it only a third above guitar range. Some claim the baritone body is too small for that, but I say "balderdash". ;) I'd like to get another some day to experiment with cello tuning. Love the low tones and sustain the most!

bratsche
 
I've heard of fifths tuning before, I think fiddles are tuned in fifths, no? I see the notes you all tune them in, but I don't get it. Obviously, the chords must be different from gCEA, but where do you find sheet music and chord charts for this? It all seems very confusing.
 
I just read whatever treble clef sheet music, but it sounds an octave lower. Yes, a violin is tuned GDAE also, as is mandolin. As for chord charts, I don't use them and couldn't decipher them anyhow, but octave mandolin ones would probably work fine. Or just mandolin, but the baritone uke scale is quite longer, so you'd want to use different fingerings. Booli will probably chime in with more insights on chords. I just make mine up accordingly. ;)

bratsche
 
I've heard of fifths tuning before, I think fiddles are tuned in fifths, no? I see the notes you all tune them in, but I don't get it. Obviously, the chords must be different from gCEA, but where do you find sheet music and chord charts for this? It all seems very confusing.

Yes, the fingerings are different, as are the scale intervals...

There are a few sites that have a PDF that you can download that shows ALL of the chords for MANDOLIN, which is GDAE, and also any melody lines written for Violin will work too since as bratsche said violin is also GDAE.

Also, there are PDF files of ALL the chords for CGDA tuning, which is used for viola, mandola, some cello, and ALSO tenor guitar, which are all tuned to CGDA.

I will try to find the links in my bookmarks and share them here.

The cool thing about fifths tuning is that ANY chord 'shape' can be moved ANYWHERE on the neck, as well as any chord that might be using only 3 fretted strings, you can use a chord shape on the GDA strings, and on the same fret move it down to use the DAE strings and right there you are a fifth higher in chord name.

Also, figuring out the difference of Major vs. Minor chords only requires you to alter the '3rd' tone of the chord triad by 2 frets, and this works all over the fretboard...

I am just learning the 7th and Diminshed chords, and after that looking at 9th chords...

Once you know the 'shape', then all you need is the fret position to name the chord

This is easier to me than the modified-fourths tuning used on ukulele and guitar.

I want to restring and retune my Cordoba Mini (bari scale classical guitar) in fifths tuning (F1-C2-G2-D3-A3-E4), but I am still researching which strings to get for the right tension that will intonate properly. I want to see how this works on 6-strings, and am expecting it to open a whole new world of playing and songwriting for me...

Apologies for the digression to the original topic of this thread. :)
 
Ubulele, true, I might need a brain specialist, but not because of my fifths preferences. (Yep, I saw that, before you edited it out! :p ) And when I can't stretch enough, I let my fingers do the walking, sorta like the old Yellow Pages commercials. ;) But this post should help explain how I fell into this online ukulele club, quite by happy accident.

bratsche
 
The ukulele is a great gateway instrument, that is almost a cliche now. It is entirely natural to learn how to play a ukulele and open your mind to the wider world of music. Its like a whole universe, full of wonderful stars and planets, and a few black holes, to visit. Moving on to a different instrument is a nice way to try something new that has some exciting risks, but none of the risks are dangerous to your health or well being. Another instrument to look at is the simple tin whistle, it costs very little and can be a gateway to the parallel world of wind instruments which can sound amazing, but also can be very helpful with things to do with breathing.
I found owning a baritone in DGBE and other ukes in GCEA to be very helpful in learning how to transpose and do some other musical things without actually having to spend hours and hours studying just transposing or the other things. The learning is almost a natural extension of learning to play the baritone. I have also found that if you have both GCEA and DGBE tunings available, you can easily play almost every melody written on one of them in the first five frets.
When I fitted GCEA strings to my baritone, I did not like the tension and took the strings off after a few days and went back to DGBE on the baritone.

I had the same experience on a Baritone. GCEA was too tight/ sounded too high. DGBE linear sounds just a little bit too low/too floppy (but better than GCEA imo).
I'm sure Dirk/Southcoast can give a better explanation, but I think Bb tuning is right in the sweet spot for a baritone (I believe linear on the baritone).
I've gotten rid of all my bigger ukes and just have soprano's and concert's, but I could be tempted for a baritone just for the uniquely different sound of it. I do kind of miss it.
 
I have a Hora (Romanian) solid mahogany baritone uke tuned GCEA (Living Water strings). It was the first baritone I got and I was intimidated by the different tuning .... and, YES, I know - same chord shapes but different names! (I was young and foolish; it must have been at least a year ago!) Now I have ...er, two or three more (?) baritones, all tuned "properly", and I have to say that I am beginning to prefer baritones to more traditional ukes. I must admit, though, that when I come to play something which uke I pick up depends on which one has the easier chord shapes for the song ... sorry!!!
 
I've heard of fifths tuning before, I think fiddles are tuned in fifths, no? I see the notes you all tune them in, but I don't get it. Obviously, the chords must be different from gCEA, but where do you find sheet music and chord charts for this? It all seems very confusing.

Our ukulele is 4ths tuning. It has 4 frets for 1st position. It designed for our 4 fingers (i, m r and p in the photo). Hence we don't need extra move of left hand within this position. On the other hand, 5ths tuning has 5 frets for 1st position. Pinkey may be bit busy in this tuning. But it gains more notes in 4 strings. 4ths is very good for chord play. 5ths is very good for melody.

 
I keep my baritone around to remind myself that I really don't want a guitar. I like the sound, but can't quite do the stretch.
 
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