CFAD Baritone tuning

I recently bought a baritone ukulele and as an experiment I tuned it down two half steps to CFAD. I just love how it sounds so rich and mellow, and I'm not sure I want to tune it back to the standard DGBE.

Do any of you use this tuning?

The challenge I'm facing now is how to learn chords. I printed out a chord chart and shifted all the chord names two half steps (A is now G, C is now Bb, etc). This seems to work pretty well for open chords, though a few sound a little odd with the low C. I want to learn chords further up the neck, but I can't find any charts or other helpful information.

OR, do I just learn the chords and play as if it was tuned to DGBE and capo the 2nd fret if I play with or accompany other people? This would keep me on the same page with other players somewhat, and I would be able to teach/learn chord fingerings.

I'd appreciate some advice on how to approach alternate tuning, because I'm starting to get frustrated and ready to tune it back up, though I don't really want to...

Thanks!

Tenacious V said:

I recently bought a baritone ukulele and as an experiment I tuned it down two half steps to CFAD. I just love how it sounds so rich and mellow, and I'm not sure I want to tune it back to the standard DGBE.

Do any of you use this tuning?

The challenge I'm facing now is how to learn chords. I printed out a chord chart and shifted all the chord names two half steps (A is now G, C is now Bb, etc). This seems to work pretty well for open chords, though a few sound a little odd with the low C. I want to learn chords further up the neck, but I can't find any charts or other helpful information.

OR, do I just learn the chords and play as if it was tuned to DGBE and capo the 2nd fret if I play with or accompany other people? This would keep me on the same page with other players somewhat, and I would be able to teach/learn chord fingerings.

I'd appreciate some advice on how to approach alternate tuning, because I'm starting to get frustrated and ready to tune it back up, though I don't really want to...

Thanks!

Click to expand...

I haven't tried but it seems a big majority of people on this forum just don't like DGBE tuning. Peronally i find it to be a really nice mellow tuning. When played right (especially kimo hussey) the relaxing island sounds of the uke can really be drawn out of the baritone but with an even more subdued mellow jazzy tone.

Tenacious V said:

I recently bought a baritone ukulele and as an experiment I tuned it down two half steps to CFAD. I just love how it sounds so rich and mellow, and I'm not sure I want to tune it back to the standard DGBE.

Do any of you use this tuning?

The challenge I'm facing now is how to learn chords. I printed out a chord chart and shifted all the chord names two half steps (A is now G, C is now Bb, etc). This seems to work pretty well for open chords, though a few sound a little odd with the low C. I want to learn chords further up the neck, but I can't find any charts or other helpful information.

OR, do I just learn the chords and play as if it was tuned to DGBE and capo the 2nd fret if I play with or accompany other people? This would keep me on the same page with other players somewhat, and I would be able to teach/learn chord fingerings.

I'd appreciate some advice on how to approach alternate tuning, because I'm starting to get frustrated and ready to tune it back up, though I don't really want to...

Thanks!

Click to expand...

I have a uke here tuned to Bb instead of C that I normally use when a song is to high for my singing capabilities. I also have one tuned to D for that same purpose when a song turn out to low. So in both cases I'm using my normal chord shapes. I think that works best, as else you have to remember what instrument you are playing, and what that shape turns out to be. Just remember that if you leave a song in it's original key you will have to sing a whole note lower, that might not be as easy as you might think .

xommen said:

I have a uke here tuned to Bb instead of C that I normally use when a song is to high for my singing capabilities. I also have one tuned to D for that same purpose when a song turn out to low. So in both cases I'm using my normal chord shapes. I think that works best, as else you have to remember what instrument you are playing, and what that shape turns out to be. Just remember that if you leave a song in it's original key you will have to sing a whole note lower, that might not be as easy as you might think .

Click to expand...

I find baritone uke actually its standard tuning the easiest to sing along with for most males voices.
Soprano and standard ukes (depending on what song) can be more difficult.

I use an Android app called Chord! I highly recommend it. You can create your own tunings like this and then build out the chords and review scales etc. I also use the reverse chord lookup a lot. Very useful if you have an android smart device. A 7 inch tablet is ideal for this purpose. It works for any strings instrument and has a ton of preset tunings already loaded.

I just tried it. Sounded a little too dark, but that could be attributable to the old strings on the Ohana

Tenacious V said:

OR, do I just learn the chords and play as if it was tuned to DGBE and capo the 2nd fret if I play with or accompany other people?

Click to expand...

This. Actually I treat all my ukes as if they are in GCEA tuning regardless of the real tuning or capo position. (Right now I have EAC#F#, dGBE, and fBbDG - not a GCEA in sight!) I find it easier to transpose the music than learn different chord shapes for each uke/capo.

Jim Hanks said:

This. Actually I treat all my ukes as if they are in GCEA tuning regardless of the real tuning or capo position. (Right now I have EAC#F#, dGBE, and fBbDG - not a GCEA in sight!) I find it easier to transpose the music than learn different chord shapes for each uke/capo.

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This this ^. Find out what tuning works best and just do your typical old GCEA standard chord shapes. It'll sound good. Personally I like trying to tune baritones 'up' a couple steps. I am a little hesitant to go up 1.5 (or 3 however you calculate it) to get to Bb tuning.

Yup I use all kinds of alternate tunings, even on guitars, like other said its easier if you keep the strings the same distance from each other that way you can use the same shapes. Although its fun to learn new tunings and the new shapes that come with the new tunings

igorthebarbarian said:

. Personally I like trying to tune baritones 'up' a couple steps. I am a little hesitant to go up 1.5 (or 3 however you calculate it) to get to Bb tuning.

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Bb is on my tenors but Southcoast has strings for baritone Bb. The A tuning is my Bruko bari with Living Water "custom" bari strings (they're the same gauges as the tenor set).

Thanks Jim. I have not yet picked up any Southcoast strings. I think that will be my next purchase. I like the Bb tuning that I have on my Mainland Tenor right now. I just have Worth Clear Mediums tuned down to Bb and I really like that. It's easier on the fingers and sounds more mellow/ not so chirpy.

Jim Hanks said:

Bb is on my tenors but Southcoast has strings for baritone Bb. The A tuning is my Bruko bari with Living Water "custom" bari strings (they're the same gauges as the tenor set).

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iamesperambient said:

...a big majority of people on this forum just don't like DGBE tuning...

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You have stats to prove that assertion? And what sort of demographics back it up? Was this a poll with a post (one I obviously missed) and how many people does it represent out of the whole UU membership? Was the response qualified by anything (such as whether they owned a baritone uke)?

I'm looking forward to the data.

Me, I play tenor guitar and baritone (as wella s tenor uke), tuned DGBE and dGBE. Love the lower range for some songs. I've tried GCEA on a bari and think it's a waste of fluorocarbon. But that's my personal preference.

If you're playing mostly by yourself, tune to whatever key you want.

I play one bari dGBE (generally for strumming accompaniment with the uke group I'm in) and one bari DGBD (for finger-picking and slack-key). I mirror that with gcea and low-g gceg on smaller ukes. I generally don't like strumming with a low 4th string, but need it for slack-key songs. When playing chords, sometimes I think just in terms of shapes, sometimes in terms of actual chord names, sometimes with the wrong names. As long as you're consistent and transpose every chord in a song uniformly, you'll be fine.

Unless you're playing songs with dozens of different chords, or crazy jazz stuff, as long as you know some movable shapes for major, minor, and 7th chords, having ukes in different tunings is only slightly more work than having them all in one tuning. Most songs have just a few chords - take a minute before you start the song and figure out just the few shapes you'll need for that song. Rinse and repeat for the next song.

You don't need to memorize every chord in every shape for a tuning to actually play in that tuning, as long as the relative intervals between each string are the same as a tuning that you already know some shapes for.

Thanks all, for the input. I have since tuned back up to DGBE. I do like the lower tuning of CFAD, but it just didn't have as much volume and 'punch' to it. My daughter also plays a baritone and we're able to share chords without having to worry about capo's and such.