Baritone Ukulele

mollski

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i love the sound and look of these ,would they be ok to start on has a begginner?thanks
 
The baritone uke's longer neck demands a little more finger strength and agility than its smaller cousins, but not so much more that it should put you off. If you like the deep mellowness of the baritone uke, go for it!

I'd recommend if you start with a baritone uke that you invest in a uke capo as well (Shubb makes nice ones). With a capo on the fifth fret, a baritone is tuned exactly like a concert uke and has comparable neck length. That way, you can take advantage of all the online uke resources out there.

Viva la baritone!!!
 
Also make sure you get one with a High D (the top string should be thinner than the third string) if you really want that Ukulele sound. Mine came with a low D - bass string and it was too "guitar-like" - and you couldn't take advantage of the Capo at 5th Fret idea above - a set of new strings with a High D put that right!
 
I'll always stick up for the baritones. Our band's rhythm guitarist also switches off to a baritone uke from time to time, and I've always thought they're an interesting and lovely instrument that sort of bridges the worlds of guitar and uke.
 
As was pointed out to me you just need to keep practicing to make some of the stretches.

The key thing to remember perhaps is that although the finger shapes are the same as on a soprano, concert and tenor you will actually be memorising different names for these chord shapes so if you move to the smaller ukes further down the line you'll have to learn new names. This isn't in itself a problem just so long as you're aware of it, especially if you are looking to join a group and play with others using smaller ukes.

I say go for it :)
 
Start with whatever holds your interest more, then keep expanding.
There is no right versus wrong size to start with.
 
Started on a concert two years ago and recently got a baritone. Love the difference and have been experimenting with a capo as you have suggested. Played strung DGBE does the capo on the fifth fret give me gCEA? Anyway sounds great. Playing the two ukes has broadened my experience.
 
Started on a concert two years ago and recently got a baritone. Love the difference and have been experimenting with a capo as you have suggested. Played strung DGBE does the capo on the fifth fret give me gCEA? Anyway sounds great. Playing the two ukes has broadened my experience.

That's right---fifth fret capo gives you gCEA.
 
That's right---fifth fret capo gives you gCEA.
If its really DGBE, fifth fret would give GCEA, that does sound different then gCEA.
If you would have dGBE (High D the top string should be thinner than the third string) then you would be right that Capo five ends up being gCEA.
 
If its really DGBE, fifth fret would give GCEA, that does sound different then gCEA.
If you would have dGBE (High D the top string should be thinner than the third string) then you would be right that Capo five ends up being gCEA.

Hi xommen! I don't understand the rules for upper case and lower case letters when discussing tunings. (I gave up trying to understand a recent thread on the topic; it seemed like every third post had a new set of rules governing dGBE, DGBE, gCEA, and GCEA.) Using only upper case letters, my baritone uke has standard tuning, DGBE (the lowest pitch is D). Capo on the fifth fret gives the same tuning as a soprano/concert/tenor uke tuned GCEA (the lowest pitch is G).

I recommend the standard tuning for baritone ukulele, especially for beginners. (Of course, I encourage and support experienced players in any and all tuning and/or strings experimentation.)
 
I also got a headache trying to find the logic on that thread. It just seems to me so much easier to use small case like Xommen has done there to represent a thinner string that is out of step with the chunkier ones in capital letters. It is visually obvious to me that that represent re-entrant tuning. . Some of the arguments on the other thread were truly tortuous!
 
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