Transition from uke to guitalele

I just received my new Yamaha GL1 in the mail today. I’m looking for some advice in a strategy to make the transition. I play a tenor ukulele currently. I mostly finger pick versus strum, kind of a ( hybrid Travis pick style) or chord melody style and also pick arpeggios. I play the piano but I do not play the guitar.

In the first 10 minutes of playing, I see the following 2 main challenges;

1) learning to effectively incorporate the 2 bass strings

2) the strings are much closer together than I have been used to.

I’m seeking advice on what folks think the best methods of practice will be, scales, arpeggios...... what else ?

I’d like to improve playing up the neck a little on both my uke and this guitalele.

I’d appreciate any advice anyone would like to share.

I have not played guitalele yet but I play guitar, so I think you have two ways to approach it. 1) Think uke, but learn the notes on the two lower strings and try to add in some bass notes when picking, or figure out how you would add a bass note to each chord if playing chord melody. 2) Forget uke and learn guitar chords/music because those are the shapes you will be using, even though the key will be different. Guitaleles are tuned A to A rather than E to E (guitar) so it will sound a 4th higher. So the finger position for a guitar E chord will be an A chord on a Guitalele. C will become F, D will become G, etc. I don't know how much music is written specifically for the guitalele, but any guitar tabs will work- it will just sound a 4th higher.

In terms of the strings being closer together, that's just practice and muscle memory. Eventually you'll be able to go back and forth easily. I'd stay in the first position on the guitalele until you feel more comfortable with it.

Ya, I get the guitar shape thing but then start to over think it. I was watching some guitar tutorials from a guy I really like on utube. I started to think too much, “should I be playing his guitar c or my c” and then my head hurt.

So I had a glass of wine.

Plenty of fun to be had, thanks for the advice. I think I’m going for guitar shapes .