ukulele tuning GCEA ?

I just bought a soprano ukulele yesterday, my very first, Aria ACU-250, solid mahogamy top , back and sides. Look brand new to me.
I have never played ukulele previously but knew how it is tuned: gCEA.
At first, I figured out the C , F, G chords myself (as I played other instruments, guitar and mandolin included, and pretty good at music theory).

Then after strumming for a few minutes, I realized that if I replace the g string by a G string (one octave lower), the tuning interval is exactly as the high 4 strings of a guitar which is: forth, major third and forth. From this "discovery", I can play a lot of solo songs on my new ukelele as I normally would do on a guitar. To play in the proper key, I simply shift to the correct position for that key.
Is GCEA tuning OK for a soprano ukulele ? (this includes replacing g string with a thicker string tuned as G).

Of course, the "g" string has a reason to be there, I will find some songs for finger picking where the "g" string is properly used the way it is intended. PLEASE RECOMMEND some free tabs or music sheets for some of these songs. Thank you.

most people use low G on a larger uke. the small body size of a soprano usually cannot do justice to the lower notes.imo, the larger the uke the better low G sounds. no harm in trying though ,just don't cut it right away so you can reuse itif it doesn't work out. if you like it, great.

I think there are quite a few folks here who have their soprano slung with low G, so I would expect you shouldn't have any trouble at all.

How funny--I just got a copy of Pekeleo's book and was surprised to see it was all low G tuning (GCEA) and I have mine tuned re-entrant High g. Either I have to use a capo on the fifth fret of the baritone I own, or I have to change out the high g to a Low G. He says in this book that a soprano may not be able to sound good on a low G. So now I have to debate if to change out the high G string to play his book, which has some pretty Hawaiian tunes like the "hapa haole" Tiny Bubbles.

I found another thread about "high G or low G". Lots of info there, so other people have thought about it and done it.
As this is only my second day on ukulele, I will leave it at high G for now.

Gwynedd said:

How funny--I just got a copy of Pekeleo's book and was surprised to see it was all low G tuning (GCEA) and I have mine tuned re-entrant High g. Either I have to use a capo on the fifth fret of the baritone I own, or I have to change out the high g to a Low G. He says in this book that a soprano may not be able to sound good on a low G. So now I have to debate if to change out the high G string to play his book, which has some pretty Hawaiian tunes like the "hapa haole" Tiny Bubbles.

Click to expand...

Did you get book #1 or #2 please.? They both look like treasures.

Hi kkmm from one new to uke guitarist to another. I originally started out with a Tanglewood tenor ukulele and, like you, was unsure about the high g string so I restrung it with low G Aquilas. To be honest, I wasn't sure I'd done the right thing as the low G seemed to dominate the sound but after playing in a bit it seemed to settle down. Some advice from the forum said that, at first, I should try sticking with re entrant stringing.

Well, a little bit of UAS set in and I decided to give the Tanglewood to my nephew for his birthday and I got myself an Ohana concert uke (I'm a bit of a solid wood instrument snob I'm afraid ). I kept the re entrant stringing as advised and I'm really pleased I did. The ukulele really has a unique sound, it's not a midget guitar. In fact I find myself looking at some You Tube clips and am finding that I really don't like ukes that sound like guitars. That high g really does give something special to the instrument and I'd say stick with it; it'll grow on you. That being said, in time I will get another uke and string it with a low G as it's nice to have variety but for now I'm a re entrant convert.

That said, as you found, it's not that difficult to learn ukulele chords and after playing the guitar the uke really is a doddle with its slim neck and only 4 strings. So my advice would be forget all about the guitar for now and play your uke as what it is. Last night I played my guitar for the first time in 3 weeks having concentrated solely on ukulele in that time. It was a bit like coming back from a fly-drive holiday when you get back into a stick shift after driving an automatic for 2 or 3 weeks, it took a bit of getting used to! LOL

My son has a concert neck Kala soprano tuned low g and it sounds amazing.

Hi steelarts,
thanks for the advise. I will certainly stick with the low g for a while to "discover" the uke. I had no trouble to switch between guitar and mandolin, both have different tuning. My mind and my fingers just adapt automatically to the instrument at hand.
I am looking for "uke" specific songs to develop my "uke" skills.