Guitar to Uke; transposing chords; venting

[Milesaway71]

Well here it is ... and Kernneltime (sorry spelling) did a thread as well but I missed this when I first saw it here.
Actually dismissed it thinking this is for kids and can't be you know, custome made. This morning I did some browsing and found these guys at Tyde are serious. Good guys good ukes. While not a performance level, its exactly what its called .... I want that.
Tyde Learner

SOLD FS: Tyde "The Learner" Tenor

This is such a cool and unique ukulele that I hoped might get the kids interested, but it turns out I'm the only one who has used it. Since it's just not getting used enough compared to my other ukes, I'm putting it up for sale so someone else can take advantage. The front and back are a nice...

forum.ukuleleunderground.com

 

[SweetWaterBlue]

I think the official policy of UkuleleUnderground.com is to try to play popular songs in their original key. That way, if you are playing along to the original recording or jamming with friends playing different instruments, you will always be in tune with them. Transposing to make the chords more familiar or easier to play often causes more problems than benefits. Most of the play-along and tutorial videos on the website are in the original key.

Since I usually sing songs I play, and sometimes perform them out with my band, I almost never worry about the original key. Instead, we usually try to find the best key for our voices. Trying to perform a song in a key that is too high or low for your voice usually doesn't sound very good. Nothing makes me cringe as much as YouTubers trying to perform a song in a key that doesn't first their voice. There are also times when I will change the key of a song to fit the instrument I am playing (uke, guitar, mandolin). Some keys are just easier to play on some instruments, especially for solos.

 

[Rllink]

I treat the guitar and the ukulele as two completely different instruments and I think of them that way. As soon as I try to translate one into the other I'm lost. It just destroys the continuity. My head has to be into the one I'm playing. Like speaking two languages.

 

[ripock]

I treat the guitar and the ukulele as two completely different instruments and I think of them that way. As soon as I try to translate one into the other I'm lost. It just destroys the continuity. My head has to be into the one I'm playing. Like speaking two languages.

I appreciate that Weltanschauung and your raison d'etre for coming to that conclusion

 

[SweetWaterBlue]

I treat the guitar and the ukulele as two completely different instruments and I think of them that way. As soon as I try to translate one into the other I'm lost. It just destroys the continuity. My head has to be into the one I'm playing. Like speaking two languages.

It does get confusing at times. Hate it when it happens in public and I can't remember how to play a chord and have to try to remember which instrument I am on lol

 

[gustophersmob]

[...] to the 5 fret and beyond.

I read that in Buzz Lightyear's voice.

 

[Oldscruggsfan]

We know the standard uke scale/tuning (gcea) puts it on the 5th fret of a guitar. Basic chord forms, for the average guitar strummer, get grooved into memory: G, C, F, D, E, B, A, etc etc... How many millions of guitar strummers do this. We memorize chord forms, learn basic progressions.
In the 60's on my side of the street there was no strong impetus to be a musical scholar. The era of 3-chord I IV V7 songs, some minors thrown in and away you go! ie La Bamba, Louie Louie, Gloria... some blues, then Bob Dylan folk era.
From age 15 to 20, I spent hours almost every day, struggling with getting my guitar playing decent enough to keep up with my musical friends. None of us really studied music.
Don't get me wrong; I love it. With easily available chord charts, memorized solo bits, I can play about a dozen "standards" ... "my versions"

This is probably just spitting into the wind, but to this day, after 20 years of focusing exclusively on the 4 strings, a G chord, or any basic chord form, gets referenced through my guitar history.
In my mind there is a mental default to overcome when "learning" songs...which turns out to be "standards" from my parents generation ... especially when Jazz is thrown into the mix. Progressions and chords.

As stubborn as I am, I suppose a musical mentor, or counselor, would be nice... bottom line; It Is What It Is.

I feel your pain, but through a lens with five strings. Everything you described applies to my banjo journey that began in 1978.

Some UU member recently commented that they shudder to think of learning musical scales on a conventional stringed instrument rather than on a piano. Though I've never touched a piano, I've come to understand the reasoning behind that comment. I suppose it's natural to think in terms of how you learned things the first time. When I consider the scale and which of the notes / chords have only one interval between them, it doesn't come naturally to me that those are B-to-C and E-to-F. The image my little brain conjures is capo placement and 4-string barring for A through G on that banjo fret board. "Aha!" says my little brain as I mentally review that image. "Capo-ing to play in the keys of B and C was at the 4th and 5th frets, and barres for E and F are at 9 and 10. All other chords are two frets apart, A+2 =B, C+2=D, and so on."

 

[casualmusic]

I treat the guitar and the ukulele as two completely different instruments and I think of them that way. As soon as I try to translate one into the other I'm lost. It just destroys the continuity. My head has to be into the one I'm playing. Like speaking two languages.

Moi aussi.

I’ll always be too slow to translate on the fly.

Savvy players taught me to memorize the I, IV, V chord patterns for each easy key: C, A, G, E, D, F. Then learn the minor chords ii, iii, vi when needed by songs.

Same as spoken languages where it’s much faster to visualize an object and speak it in the language. Example I won’t bother to think ‘horse’ in English before translating to ‘cheval’ in French or ‘caballo’ in Spanish.

Cheers.

 

[Oldscruggsfan]

One guitar concept we learned back in the day was "moveable" chords so we could play up the neck. I guess this made it easy for me when I picked up the uke since I had already been sliding chords up the neck to the 5 fret and beyond.

Same here. On banjo, it was the F shape, D shape and bars.