Conflicting Information

Dorothy

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I was taking care of a friends bunny on the weekend. On their piano was a "teach yourself ukulele" book.

This caught my eyes, so I took a quick look through it.

It's tuned to a different setting than what I was told to tune to. I use GCEA, and this used ??F#? (can't remember what the rest of it was, wrote it down ... threw out the paper). What it showed as how to play a G is how I know to play an F.

At that point I put the book back and said to my daughter "hope they didn't pick that up for me".

Now I'm starting to think that maybe their youngest daughter wants to learn ... and we'd be playing the same thing, only differently ... which could be confusing for her. Must call and ask about it I guess :)

Why can't everyone just play the same things the same way??
 
The ADF#B is a common alternate tuning for the ukulele-- in fact, it is often called Canadian Tuning or Canadian School Tuning (couldn't help but notice that you are in Canada). It is commonly used in Canadian schools to teach ukulele. But it's in no way unique to Canada; it's also very commonly used in the UK. George Formby typically used ADF#B, and his acolytes use it, too, to get his bright chirpy tone.

I still think that in today's world, GCEA is more common. But as you observed, all the intervals are the same in ADF#B-- so all your chord shapes still work, they're just different chords.
 
ADF#B was very common in the 'golden age' of ukulele in the 20s and 30s. The sound is brighter and harder. Some like it, but I prefer GCEA. You could achieve the same tuning by putting a capo at the second fret.
 
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