Baritone?

Oct-King

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Hey Everyone,

I'll be purchasing my first uke in a few days. I've never played before but have been playing clawhammer banjo for the last year or so. I'd like to buy a baritone ukulele but I understand it's tuned differently than a tenor. It seems most of on-line lessons are for soprano through tenor ukulele's. My question is this; Would it be wiser to purchase a tenor over the baritone to begin with?

Thanks
 
I have a friend who purchased a baritone as his first uke. It wasn't long after that he bought a tenor and the baritone never gets touched. He went quickly from baritone to tenor for the reason you listed, most songs and instrutional material on the web is for the other three sizes tuned in C.

I came from guitar and thought I wanted a baritone, started with a tenor and I am so glad I did.
 
You have opened a can of weeds.

Baritone is tuned like the top four strings of a guitar. Standard ukulele tuning is a fifth higher. If you bring a baritone to a gathering of uke players and they pass out chord sheets you will either need to transpose or put a capo on the fifth fret which can create plenty of problems. Also baritone is usually tuned in a linear tuning like a guitar, with the fourth string being the lowest tone, whereas most ukes are tuned reentrant where the lowest note is the third string. If you want to apply your claw hammer to the uke, you'll want to use reentrant tuning.

Baritones are a bit divisive. Some people love them. Even though I also play guitar I really don't care much for baritone. It's too big to be comfortable as a uke, and the sound is relatively muddy. A guitar has a longer neck, thus more tension on the strings, thus the same chords are less muddy. The baritone uke is kind of a bastard instrument. You might love it, which would be great, but I think most of us here on UU would advise starting on something other than baritone.
 
Hey Everyone,

My question is this; Would it be wiser to purchase a tenor over the baritone to begin with?

Thanks

YES! If you want that ukulele experience, get a tenor.
 
To complicate things,a lot of bari player use different tunings,and Aquila
make a set of strings to give g-C-E-A tuning,so you can play along with
sopranos,concerts and tenors,but still sound a touch 'deeper'!
 
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I'm on the other side of the fence compared to the previous posters.

I LOVE MY BARITONE!!!

I started with a soprano and quickly moved up through all the sizes of uke (UAS is a wonderful thing). Yes, if you're going to play with others it can can cause some confusion but if you're playing on your own then the chord shapes will all be the same just with different names. Your best bet, if possible is to pop into a local music shop that stocks all the different sizes and try them out. See what feels best to you. Don't be swayed by derogatory comments like "baritone uke is a kind of bastard instrument" If it feels right to you then it's the right instrument. You can get many different types of string tunings for baritone even re-entrant so you don't need to worry on that front. Good luck which ever way you choose to go. ;)
 
Hey Everyone,

I'll be purchasing my first uke in a few days. I've never played before but have been playing clawhammer banjo for the last year or so. I'd like to buy a baritone ukulele but I understand it's tuned differently than a tenor. It seems most of on-line lessons are for soprano through tenor ukulele's. My question is this; Would it be wiser to purchase a tenor over the baritone to begin with?

Thanks

The intervals are the same, but baritone is 5 semi tones lower than smaller ukes.
All your chord shapes will be the same just the name changes. A C major on soprano-tenor
would be a G major on a baritone. I actually have seen a lot of websites for uke
http://www.ukulele-tabs.com/
http://www.doctoruke.com/songs.html
both have baritone uke and smaller uke versions of the songs.

I have a baritone and tenor i both play them a lot but i'd say my baritone gets a little more attention
i love its mellow sound, and i have it strung currently in dGBE (standard G but with a high D instead of low
and i love it! however my electric baritone is in linear G).
I also started on guitar but have been playing uke for over a decade now so the baritone is like
a perfect middle ground for me. Also keep in mind with special string sets, (aquila makes them, living water makes customs etc)
you can actually string and tune a baritone uke like a tenor (gcea) but i prefer G tuning i think it really brings out its true voice
especially with a re-entrant G set up.
 
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Hey Everyone,

I'll be purchasing my first uke in a few days. I've never played before but have been playing clawhammer banjo for the last year or so. I'd like to buy a baritone ukulele but I understand it's tuned differently than a tenor. It seems most of on-line lessons are for soprano through tenor ukulele's. My question is this; Would it be wiser to purchase a tenor over the baritone to begin with?


Thanks



buy a baritone and ken middletons living water strings for re-entrant G (dGBE / high d baritone)
i think you will find its great for the clawhammer style.
 
A baritone uke (with standard tuning) can be played like a tenor/concert/soprano uke by using a capo at the fifth fret. It sounds great.
 
A baritone uke (with standard tuning) can be played like a tenor/concert/soprano uke by using a capo at the fifth fret. It sounds great.

That also works i have done that too, i just find the capo gets in the way than again my guitar capo is very larger maybe with a uke specific capo it would be easier.
I do find reentrant G dGBE to be the best tuning on a baritone though.
 
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