Half a step down tuning

FrankBungle

FrankBungle

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lately i'm starting to like to tune my ukulele half a step down.
i play guitar like that (former metalhead ;)) and i wanted to try it out on the uke too...well i feel like the sound got richer and deeper and, differentely from guitar, sustain increased.
sometimes i miss a little bit of the ukulele brightness, but so far i'm really liking it.

i play a kala acacia tenor with savarez alliance strings.

what do you guys think about tuning your uke this way?
 
I would say that unless you have a reason for tuning lower, what's the point? The sustain will decrease very slightly, as will the volume.

The main reason for doing it would be if you were playing with other instruments in an unusual key. For instance, if the piece was in the key of Gb major (or F# major), you could tune your uke half a step down and play in G. It could also make a high song slightly easier to sing.
 
Aloha Frankbungle,
I do that to many ukes I have...mostly ones that have shortcomings...I listen for that certain pitch...and try to keep in the range of the my dogs have fleas...for me a tuner cannot
do what I want..my ears will find the correcrt pitch for me..it improves the playabilty and comfort of the high tension strings, makes it in my voice range, and sometimes I don't even notice
any loss of brightness.. as most times I am not in the 440 hz.. you could say drop or alternative tuning...even when I drop the G string an octave or the A string for slack key..
and you're right I used to slack it for guitar too...Hope it helps..Good Luck and experiment...and listen for that certain pitch...MM Stan
 
Ken Middleton said:
I would say that unless you have a reason for tuning lower, what's the point? The sustain will decrease very slightly, as will the volume.
Click to expand...

i did it, like i do on my acoustic guitars to use higher gauge strings, because i switched from aquila strings to savarez alliance and i like the sound of them but i don't like the playability...too much tension for me, my hands get tired too soon.
i was expecting sustain to decrease but it didn't happen and so far i like the new sound better.

by the way i really like to play your songs (and to listen to them of course). i like your taste for arrangements.

to mm stan:
i will try to listen to that certain pitch. thank you!
 
I've done this for the 'performance' uke I use at a gig I have every other (odd) Sunday after church.

I feel more comfortable in that slightly lower singing register.

Of course, when I play with others I use an ukulele which is tuned like theirs, G-C-E-A.

Keep uke'in',
 
Friend of mine who plays a Kamaka HF-3 drops his tuning half step also. Only bad part about is when you're jamming with friends, you'll have to re-tune or use a capo. Whatever works for ya!
 
I down tune my guitar as it changes the sound, deeper and more resoant. I may lose some volume but I take the richer tone over the volume. As long as I don't play with others, I'm totally fine.

I haven't done that on ukulele but one day, I just might.

I use alternate tunings on guitar a lot (different from down tuning). Again I haven't experimented it on ukulele much but I might do that out of curiosity.

Anyway, do whatever makes you happy!

Cheers
Chief
 
For a few years I tuned my tenor to Bb instead of C. I think that every ukulele has a sweet spot where the string tension and pitch come together and sometimes it is not when tuned to C. So I understand the richness you are taking about. Keep in mind my tenors have an 18 inch scale length so they have more tension than normal.

But I will echo the comments of others, it is tough to play with others as you are always transposing. I even bought a capo, but I hated using it.

So I have now tuned them to C and have, in my mind, found a compromise with the strings I use. Put me on a desert isle and no tuner and I would be lke Stan, except his island is hardly a desert, and I'd tune to where it sounded the best... which probably would not be C.

John
 
too bad i never had the chance to jam with any other uke player...it ain't that popular as an instrument here.
i jammed with some guitar players and of course from now on...they will have to down tune half a step!

the only problem for now is my girlfriend voice...maybe i should change her too. :)
 
Last edited:
I recently received the Victoria Vox Original Songbook for 'Ukulele, Vol. 1, and many of her songs are written/played in F#-B-D#-G# tuning.
 
casarole45 said:
yeah, i used to tune half step down to as I had a uke I prefered the sound of and tension like it.
Click to expand...

That is a very good point. Our ears get used to the sound of certain keys. Take the key of C, for instance. It is the most used key on the ukulele. Even Jake plays in C a lot, because he can do a great deal with it. Tune down one semitone and you would be playing in the key of B, a key our ears are not so used to hearing.
 
When I'm playing by myself I like to tune it down a minor third ( E-A-C#-F#). Really mellow and means I'm not squawking to sing along :p
 
Ken Middleton said:
I would say that unless you have a reason for tuning lower, what's the point? The sustain will decrease very slightly, as will the volume.

The main reason for doing it would be if you were playing with other instruments in an unusual key. For instance, if the piece was in the key of Gb major (or F# major), you could tune your uke half a step down and play in G. It could also make a high song slightly easier to sing.
Click to expand...

Actually, Ken, you're one of the last people on earth I'd ever contradict on anything regarding uke...except...I've actually seen where decreasing tension on an acoustic uke increased sustain (or, to be more accurate, increasing tension decreased sustain). I tried a very heavy set of fluorocarbons on one of my ukes and it absolutely killed both tone and sustain. This surprised the bejabbers out of me because I've played guitar for years and have always been firmly in the "thicker is better" camp when it came to strings. But, at some point it seems that too much tension can really kill the sustain and tone and apparently ukes, being smaller bodied, are more susceptible to this than guitars.

Come to think of it, I've also seen the same thing on my Kala acacia pocket uke. With Martin M600 strings, tune it CFAD and it's happy as a lark, tune it DGBE and it is completely stifled.

So, if the OP was using pretty heavy strings to begin with then I can see where tuning down might increase sustain.

John
 
I down tune alot of my ukes to B or I have one lower..it's basically for soloing and you will stand out..hee hee if you want to...
loosing the strings will give it a deeper resonation and a little more substain.. and warmer and richer tone..some like the looser
tension for playabiity and comfort..and bending...enrich youur style and try it... fun always to learn different techniques and styles..
Happy Strumming..MM Stan
 
I beat on my uke so I tune it to D. One time I tried tuning 1 step down to Bb. Man those strings were so loose for me I got tangled up in them and tripped.;)

If you like it go for it! Post a sound byte for us.
 
OldePhart said:
Actually, Ken, you're one of the last people on earth I'd ever contradict on anything regarding uke...
Click to expand...

No, you are certainly right John. Tighten a string too much and it becomes almost completely rigid with no sustain at all. I was speaking really of normal strings at normal pitch. If they are slackened off too much, they become less audible and have less sustain (at least that can be heard).

I used to tune my tenors to Bb. There were several reasons. One was because it meant I could use the same chord shapes as a guitar with a capo on 3. the main reason though, was because of the different mood you get. Bb is a "darker" key than C. A few 20th Century composers even ascribed colours to the different keys.
 
I have 2 concerts and 2 tenors that I play daily and they're ALL tune differently so I can find my vocal comfort range for any key the song is written in. Of course when I play with others, I retune to them. I especially like E A C# F# on my Vineyard tenor, absolutely beautiful voice out of it with comfortable string tension, this is what I use the most and loving it.
So use any tuning you want when playing by yourself, it's your uke and your ears......................BO.................
 
i'll see what happens in the next days...i think it takes time to decide what sound you like the most. that's why i almost quit playing the electric guitar...i was tired of always changing equipment to obtain the sound i wanted.
an unplugged acoustic instrument instead has a certain sound that you may like or not...but then we decide to change strings or tuning or anything else and the problems are back again.

i guess that it depends a lot on our mood...it is probably impossible to find our definitve sound.
 
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