Lyle Ritz / John King on Soprano Uke?

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westcoast

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You really want a tenor Uke, probably low g for their stuff... Well worth it though.
 
Olarte said:
You really want a tenor Uke, probably low g for their stuff... Well worth it though.
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As has been stated, John King played a soprano uke not a tenor. IMO the true uke sound comes from a soprano or concert, not a tenor or baritone.
 
I'm very familiar wirth Lyle's books and have been playing them for five yrs.. You get down pretty low on the neck, 10th and 12th occasionally. I agree with Olarte: tenor. For me with small hands, Lyle's arrangements get cramped on my concert. Great books, great man, great player.
 


John gets up there. Stretches easier on sop.
 
I don't agree that instrumental pieces are easier to play or sound better on a tenor uke. Each to their own, but for me the soprano is the native language of the ukulele.
 
coolkayaker1 said:


John gets up there. Stretches easier on sop.
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John is playing an Earnest Instruments Stradelele in this video. Built by Joel Eckhaus. It's a concert. I think Joel modeled it after a Baroque guitar.
 
hmgberg said:
John is playing an Earnest Instruments Stradelele in this video. Built by Joel Eckhaus. It's a concert. I think Joel modeled it after a Baroque guitar.
Click to expand...

Wow, interesting. Thanks, Jon. Good info.

Here's Benny Chong--typically a baritone player--banging one out on the sop, and using the entire fretboard, I might add. Good question by original poster.
 
John King always, or almost always (not 100% sure) played soprano. I have big hands, and definitely prefer his arrangements on smaller ukuleles. Lyle Ritz did play a tenor. I play a concert, and don't imagine his stuff would be too bad on soprano. Just develop your finger scrunching capabilities. ;)
 
Thanks, I'll try the Lyle Ritz book - the kinds of tunes in that book are a little bit more what I'd like to learn. I'm going to be traveling so working out the tunes on a soprano seems like a good exercise in the evenings.
 
Don't give up on playing classical music on the ukulele! John King's arrangements are quite challenging because of his complete devotion to the "campanella" style which demands that each note play on a different string to maximize the resonance and "ringing" sound. There are more books of classical music arranged by Rob MacKillop, Jamie Holding, Tony Mizen, and others that will allow you to learn fingerstyle uke while playing some really beautiful music. Give it a try! Incidentally there are quite a few tabs for classical arrangements that are free on the web. It is worth the effort.
 
Wow, thanks...it gives me goosebumps to watch John King videos....
all I know is, one of my friends has a LoPrinzi, one of two built for John, and it's a soprano....
 
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I am in the midst of playing pieces from both, and I personally find the jazz more 'fun' to play, but when I actually master (relatively speaking) one of John King's pieces I feel a greater sense of accomplishment, because it seems technically more difficult, particularly with some of the weird fingering in order to keep the campanella going. But yeah as others have said, you need Low-G for the Ritz and high-G for John King's, if'n you wanna play the pieces as arranged/tabbed.
 
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