Uke Tunings- Alternate to GCEA, open, weird, fun, different..

Do you use non-standard tunings?

  • Quite Frequently.

    Votes: 8 23.5%
  • Ocassionally.

    Votes: 8 23.5%
  • Never, no interest.

    Votes: 8 23.5%
  • I'm interested, but not yet

    Votes: 10 29.4%
  • It's cheating, so no, never.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • I hate polls, why oh why do I even click a button...

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    34

Neal

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Anyone use different tunings? I have a friend, Jon Prown, that likes to drop the G to F, I favor F tuning (FCFA). Any other tunings out there you folks are using?
 
I have used the B flat tuning some. Even in re entrant tuning, it sounds mellow, as the c chord doesn't have the high c in the basic chord. There is one song I am learning where I tune the C string down to B. It works much better that way. I also use the capo on a Baritone to get lower tunings than my standard uke without changing chord shapes or re tuning the strings.

A lot of possibilities on these instruments!

Tom
 
I use open C or open C7 on my resonator with the slide.
 
I actually voted No interest but I would be interested if I owned a tenor or baritone ukulele, I only have sopranos right now.
 
Couple guys here use open C, if you could when responding, type down the string sequence you use. I'm not familiar with open C on the uke, use it on guitar, but that's for another thread. Any examples, feel free to post, I'd like to hear you, but if you have an example of some open tunings you haven't done, please feel free to direct us or embed.

Open tunings are pretty interesting.

Greenway, I use soprano and mezzo soprano exclusively, and love the F tuning for these.

OldePhart, slide on a uke? Love to hear it, was never much successful at coaxing any tone out of nylon strings myself..
 
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Back in the early '80s, I messed around a little with alternate tunings. I have one old song where I tune the G string to A so I can mostly leave that string open while I make chords on the other three strings.

I also tried using those little rubber bands that went on dental braces for a capo. It didn't work as a capo, but gave the strings an interesting muted sound. I wrote a song around that sound that I have long since forgotten.
 
A guy at the beach showed me an E-something tuning. You take the A and C strings down a half step for GBEG#. It's really cool. If I was going to pursue an alternate tuning, that would be the one.
 
A guy at the beach showed me an E-something tuning. You take the A and C strings down a half step for GBEG#. It's really cool. If I was going to pursue an alternate tuning, that would be the one.
I will report back on this one. Interesting, and thanks much.
 
Couple guys here use open C, if you could when responding, type down the string sequence you use. I'm not familiar with open C on the uke, use it on guitar, but that's for another thread. Any examples, feel free to post, I'd like to hear you, but if you have an example of some open tunings you haven't done, please feel free to direct us or embed.

Open tunings are pretty interesting.

Greenway, I use soprano and mezzo soprano exclusively, and love the F tuning for these.

OldePhart, slide on a uke? Love to hear it, was never much successful at coaxing any tone out of nylon strings myself..

Well, I'm not much of a slide player. Assuming that I get to the point that people don't run for the hills at first sight of a slide on my finger I'll post something. :)

Open C is GCEG - i.e. tune the first string down a full step. Open C7 is GCEBb - i.e. tune the first string up a half step.
 
Well, I'm not much of a slide player. Assuming that I get to the point that people don't run for the hills at first sight of a slide on my finger I'll post something. :)

Open C is GCEG - i.e. tune the first string down a full step. Open C7 is GCEBb - i.e. tune the first string up a half step.
I collect interesting tunings, so thank you for these. Not being a musician, I really can't tell you how to make a chord, or build one, so it's great if you guys put them down so I can... STEAL them! ;)

And I promise I won't run at your uke slide playing. Promise. I play a great amount of slide on 2 Nationals I use, and have a small fortune invested in bottlenecks... but again, I just can't pull any tone from nylon strings to make it interesting for me. But I really enjoy others, there was a fella a while back that was doing some interesting stuff slide-wise on youtube, but he's gone on or back to guitar apparently.
 
I've recently tuned several ukes to something other than gCEA. I keep my Martin SO in D tuning and recently raised my Kala thinline tenor to D with a low A and will tune down the first string to A 4th string and have open D to play slack key uke.

I purchased an Ohana Rosewood/Cedar Top Soprano and was unimpressed until I had someone adjust the action and decided to tune it up to D a few weeks ago and now it's a keeper.

I'm also working on "Ev'ryone Says I Love You" and I tuned my Ernest Instruments Ceegar Box uke down to Bb.

Regards,
Ray
 
I've recently tuned several ukes to something other than gCEA. I keep my Martin SO in D tuning and recently raised my Kala thinline tenor to D with a low A and will tune down the first string to A 4th string and have open D to play slack key uke.

I purchased an Ohana Rosewood/Cedar Top Soprano and was unimpressed until I had someone adjust the action and decided to tune it up to D a few weeks ago and now it's a keeper.

I'm also working on "Ev'ryone Says I Love You" and I tuned my Ernest Instruments Ceegar Box uke down to Bb.

Regards,
Ray

Please feel free to let us in on the string by string tuning!

Guitars, it's a given, someone's going to drop the D, or for the Hawaiian folks, there's all manner of slack-key tunings. 'Ukulele, not so much. It's time to divulge our secrets, and not just keep them within our 'ohana.
 
I'm a big fan of dropped tuning...of course I find the best tuning to fit a particular uke.. Love the richer deeper sounds..
 
Please feel free to let us in on the string by string tuning!

reentrant D tuning - aDF#B (reentrant C tuning up a whole step)

Open D tuning for slack key - ADF#A (The A on string 4 is an octave lower than the reentrant a.) Open C up a whole step.

reentrant Bb tuning - f-Bb-D-G (reentrant C tuning down a whole step)

Regards,
Ray
 
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