My Guitar Grew!

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RedViolin

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So after playing the ukulele for two days now, I forgot about my guitar. I opened the guitar case and I when I picked it up, I realized how big and heavy the guitar was. When I tried fingering basic chords, my fingers refused to cooperate. I had to actually look at my fingerboard to finger a D chord -.- but after warming up I soon got used to the six string super baritone otherwise known as the guitar :)

Any tips of how to get use to switching back and forth?
 
Ha! Six string super-baritone made me laugh.

There is a great way to get used to it....put the guitar in the closet (like mine) and buy 12 more ukuleles.....problem solved!
 
Try switching from a guitar to a 5-string banjo to an ukulele all the time, lol... Eventually you get them all sorted out.
 
Ha! I did this just today myself. I picked up my acoustic and it felt gigantic in my hands. I had to actually think about chord shapes. Really weird feeling. :)
 
Just sell the guitar now. You can fit SO many more ukes in that spaces!!!

Seriously, I don't know. I have to adjust every time I switch between tenor and concert, or concert and soprano. I try to play two sizes each time I practice, even if one of them is just for a short time. Don't know if that's helping at all.
 
RedViolin said:
So after playing the ukulele for two days now, I forgot about my guitar. I opened the guitar case and I when I picked it up, I realized how big and heavy the guitar was. When I tried fingering basic chords, my fingers refused to cooperate. I had to actually look at my fingerboard to finger a D chord -.- but after warming up I soon got used to the six string super baritone otherwise known as the guitar :)

Any tips of how to get use to switching back and forth?
Click to expand...

I've actually not touched my guitar since getting my ukes, except to fill up the humidifier in the dreadnought case. And when you do play, think of that D chord as a G then you won't need to look at the fretboard. :)

The only real tip is to keep doing it. You've got to retrain your muscle memory to relate to those different sizes.
 
I have a Taylor 314ce (smaller body than a dreadnaught) - when I play it now (which is sadly not often) I feel like I'm hugging a refrigerator...

John
 
I recently had this experience too after fixing a friend's acoustic guitar. I can't find a comfortable position to play it, and I certainly can't get the B major barre chord to work! Those fat guitar chords sound really good, I must admit, but I'll take a baritone for finger-picking any day.
 
Guitars are to ukuleles as maggots are to flies.
 
quit thinking about it and let the muscle memory work! That, and practice. I am just glad that I got my dads old 3/4 size 1936 Kalamazoo, it's like a uke on steriods. :)
 
Thank the lord you don't play the harp.
 
I realised there is only one chord that got me confused, and that is D on the guitar vs G on the uke. That is the reason I play G on the uke by barring the three strings on the bottom with my pointing finger on 2 and adding the middle finger on 3 for the second string form below. It sounds the same, it just looks different.
 
I was a drummer, not a guitarist, before picking up the uke. But I could find my way around a guitar, too, for most of my life. When I started playing uke, I was amazed at how hypnotically rhythmical it could be, and I have always approached it as a percussion instrument, rather than a stringed one.

One night, without my uke around and after a bit of coaxing, I made the bad decision to pick up someone's guitar at a party and try to apply that same technique. I'm really sorry I did this for the first time in front of people because it was a train wreck. As another poster said, it felt like I was holding a refrigerator in my arms. I just couldn't get anything to happen, like one of those horrible dreams where your instrument turns into an elephant or a pail of water.

To this day, I can't make a guitar rock the way my uke does, and I think that goes back to the "percussion" theory. A guitar is clearly a stringed instrument that requires discipline and concentration. A uke, like a drum, is something you can wail away at and beat on mercilessly and it still sounds surprisingly musical.

I think you need to start thinking of your uke and your guitar as two totally different instruments. Don't expect them to be interchangeable.
 
Last edited:
I really know how to kill a thread with my drumming posts, don't I? Sorry, guys. I'll go back to the Bicycling Forums now!
 
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