Can guitar and ukulele live in harmony?

BlindRabbit

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Hi all,
My friend plays fingerstyle Ukulele and I play fingerpicking nylon guitar, it would be great if we could play together but I'm just not sure if the two can work together.

I'm a bit lacking inspiration for how to tastefully combine the two, the guitar is very high in volume compared to its smaller relation.

If you have any links or videos of arrangements of the two working together I'd like to know.
 
does an oboe go with a sousaphone? :) Absolutely, guitar and uke sound great together. Uke and accordion sound good too. As does tin whistle with uke... the list goes on...

It's all about the arrangement really. Nice video example Meljoe!
 
in that video i can't help but notice that the guy has noticeably smaller hands than she does.
 
We have them in our bluegrass jam every week, and if it works in a bluegrass jam it can work with any kind of music you play. The uke really does add a lot to the jam. Strumming it just fills in the rhythm more completely. Playing lead works very well also you just have to be confident ( not hesitant ) in the song you are playing, and the uke comes out clearly. :music:
 
I say only if the guitar gets washed, thrown in the dryer and shrunk, then loses it's 2 top strings in the process.

It would then be perfect. ;)
 
I say only if the guitar gets washed, thrown in the dryer and shrunk, then loses it's 2 top strings in the process.

It would then be perfect. ;)
Duets with the same instrument can be very nice. But there is also something to be said for duets with instruments that aren't the same. Guitar and uke have different ranges which I think complement each other well.

Used to have a neighbor who was a classically trained French horn player. He would play along with the ice cream trucks when they passed by. Once he had an accordion player over and they played some sort of ethnic sounding (Klezmer?) music together. It was rather odd, but somehow it strangely kinda worked.
 
Someone needs to write an "Ebony and Ivory" type song for ukulele and guitar. And, of course, make a video. :)
 
Nylon string guitar is a great match for a Uke. If you keep the guitar arrangement in that instruments lower range, the Uke's high pitch will complement it nicely, and still be heard over the guitar.

Also, they can live in harmony as different brushes for any musical artist who can play both.

:)
 
But what is a guitar? Other than a big ukulele?

I play both, sometimes after a quick switch I find myself doing cross connect stuff, like on the uke, do stuff like try to put a finger on the non existant low E when I am playing a C, aka Guitar G-shape.

Also on guitar I now have much better strumming patterns.

I did buy a low end, but nice, Cordoba Classical C3M this weekend at the Ohio Guitar Show. That is fun. It's truly is a giant ukulele. :)
 
It's all about the arrangement really.

/thread.

To the OP, you need to find a tonal area where what you play augments and works with the uke (and vice versa). I regularly play uke with two acoustic guitars, and once we figured out where each of us fits in the mix, it was golden.
 
If the ukulele and guitar can't go together, two of the cofounders of this site better quite playing duets together. As others have said, if you are both playing the same thing, one of you is not necessary. My ukulele group always sounds better when a guitarist or a bassist we know joins us. They don't try to duplicate what we are playing on the ukes. Instead, they generally fill in rhythm parts or do some solo picking or improv, then we do the same when they are soloing. It makes for a much fuller sound, and helps break the monotony of a bunch of ukes playing the same thing in unison. You can use a guitar as a bass with the ukulele. Its an octave higher than the bass, but a lot lower than the uke, so it sounds good. Often our guitar playing friend will emphasize the bass notes in the chords and dampen the treble quite a bit.

One of the easiest examples to study is Bluegrass. Each instrument takes turns soloing while the others provide rhythm or accent notes. Most other music is the same way, just not quite as obvious.
 
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Yeserree ! Bob !!!! :)
 
Hi all,
My friend plays fingerstyle Ukulele and I play fingerpicking nylon guitar, it would be great if we could play together but I'm just not sure if the two can work together.

I'm a bit lacking inspiration for how to tastefully combine the two, the guitar is very high in volume compared to its smaller relation.

If you have any links or videos of arrangements of the two working together I'd like to know.

they sure can. The magnetic fields do it all the time just fine.
 
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