Tips for playing baritone with other ukes?

JonThysell

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I've been playing more and more baritone these days, but I've recently joined a uke group that plays exclusively concerts and tenors. They play a mixtures of slow and fast songs with different strumming patterns. I don't like the sound of my low d worths strumming along with the others, esp. the fast strums. I've taken to playing a high-d bari, but would like to not divide my practice between the two.

Anyone have any tips for accompanying smaller ukes with a low-d bari that blends well at different speeds?
 
Well, I see you jhave 2 baritones, so why not restring one to Bb(and use a capo) or C and play as a tenor. Southcoast makes these strings. Becomes a super tenor.
 
I agree with ralphk. I have SouthCoast Light Linear Non-Wound strings on one of my baritones. Tuned GCEA. It's nice to have 2 baris with a completely different sound. One DGBE & the other GCEA. I'm just a flatpicker who plays at home to amuse myself, but this combination would work for you. As ralphk said: a super tenor.
 
Hmm, just a thought, but how about trying a different strumming pattern than the others that accentuates the bottom end of the bari. Kind of a bass player kind of role? So if they're doing a fast eighth note strum, you do a quarter note or even half note strum.
 
Sometimes a swing guitar strum ( boom chunk) is a nice complement. You could try picking the melody using the lower notes they don't have, some thing that fills out the song totally. You could try playing the chords fuller, hit it once and let it sustain. That may sound good on some songs. A couple of us at club bring Baris and they really add to a room of GCEA tuned ukes. I did notice the complement is not so pronounced when played with low G tenors. I'd rather play my Bari with a reentrant tuned soprano/concert.
 
Do any of them play with low G? I've read that low G sounds better with guitar and as a baritone is basically half a guitar.... well it might sound nice played with low G ukes. Just a thought!
 
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