tunings...i am lost

newtouke

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hello people!

first of all i have to say that i am an absolute newbie to the ukulele.
for a long time already i wanted to learn that thing and somehow
it now happened that i got one ;)

that was 3 days ago.

well the past 3 days i did, besides eating, nothing else but trying to
get familiar with my ukulele and learn the basics.

but the more info i find on the web the more i think that there is no
need to learn how to read notes. i see most people leerned by simply
learning chords and tabs?

and that tunings confuse me so much.
my uke is tuned A D F# B but now i read that most people play G C E A

are they basicly the same "order" just in different pitch?
now what is better to start with?
what is better at all?
do i need new strings if i want to change my tuning?

oh well. id be happy about any answer. i searched the forums but didnt
find anything about these two tunings.

thank you in advance
 
Hello and welcome!

but the more info i find on the web the more i think that there is no
need to learn how to read notes. i see most people leerned by simply
learning chords and tabs?

There is no need to learn how to read notes, but it sure doesn't hurt.

my uke is tuned A D F# B but now i read that most people play G C E A

are they basicly the same "order" just in different pitch?

Both tunings share the exact same intervals between the strings.

now what is better to start with?
what is better at all?

Neither is "better" than the other, but most tabs are written with g C E A in mind.

do i need new strings if i want to change my tuning?

You don't need new strings. Simply go to:

http://www.get-tuned.com/ukulele_tuner.php

And tune your ukulele with the pitches provided in the link.
 
ha you are great, thank you for the quick reply :)

so you say the two tunings have the same intervalls...
means one can play lets say some G C E A tab with A D F# B and it wouldnt sound weird? (sorry if that is a stupid question)

about the notes...actually i really think about learning them.
but if is not needed i think i will just look at tabs and chords first
and do the less fun part later on *g*

thanks again for the quick reply and for the link!
 
ha you are great, thank you for the quick reply :)

so you say the two tunings have the same intervalls...
means one can play lets say some G C E A tab with A D F# B and it wouldnt sound weird? (sorry if that is a stupid question)

That is not a stupid question. It wouldn't sound weird at all. It would sound pretty much the same, just a little higher. If you tried to play along with the recording of the song, it wouldn't work, though.

about the notes...actually i really think about learning them.
but if is not needed i think i will just look at tabs and chords first
and do the less fun part later on *g*

thanks again for the quick reply and for the link!

Who says learning how to read notes isn't fun? :p

Actually, a great way to learn a little about reading notes is to take a look at Dominator's tabs site. Dominator is a member here at UU, and he has generously devoted countless hours to tab out some of the most popular ukulele songs.

All of his tabs have the musical notation included, right on top of the tabs. So when you're playing the tabs, you can see what notes they actually are.

Here's the link:
http://dominator.ukeland.com/index2.shtml
 
and again...big thanks, i bow before you :)

i already tuned my uke to g C E A and i have to say i like it better

so and now i will check out dominator's page

oh and i have to say that you seem to have a real nice community here,
from what i read people are quite nice to each other, i am not used to that from other forums

thank you again for you help!
 
You're welcome, Newt. We are pretty nice to each other here. Isn't it sickening? ;)

See you around.
 
a that was cool ive been playing for three years and it never dawnd on me to try diffent tunning
 
Another thing to bear in mind about being tuned a step up is that if and when you play with somebody else, all your chords and notes are going to be a step up too.
(The "C" chord shape is actually a "D". A "G" shape is an "A" An "F" = "G" etc...)

It'll be something to keep track of so everybody's playing the same chords in the same key when jamming.
 
I also have this problem, rather than enjoying the beautiful sounds i am always paranoid my uke isnt tuned proberly.

pitchpipe to me is frekin useless so i started tuning with a piano keys middle C , then GEA next to it.

:eek: i think i tuned it wrong.

when i press the key C, i press and hold it a while and wait for the vibrations to stop (vibration length). Then i tune my uke depending on the length of the key vibration.

another problem is, is the G string suppose to sound exactly the same as the 3rd fret E string, or is it suppose to sound only similar in terms of the vibration legnth

it is hard to distinquish the keyboard sound to that of the uke

this seriously keeps me up at night, knowing i am playing my uke wrong :uhoh:
 
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