Icelander53
Well-known member
How many have moved into playing other instruments since taking up the uke? What do you play now? I'd like to explore some instruments that are tuned to the same GCEA as my ukes. Are there any?
Not sure the ukulele "inspired" me to take up another instrument ... certainly, having taken to the ukulele (and acquired several, as one does) I re-strung one soprano with a set of Aquila 5th's, tuned to GDAE, to have a quiet practice alternative to the mandolin I'd taken up subsequent to the ukulele. I've now got a baritone ukulele tuned GDAE, but an octave lower, which is effectively acting as a "substitute" tenor banjo ... so maybe one day I'll convince myself I really need a tenor banjo, so at that point I'll be able to say the ukulele inspired me
On a slightly different tack, I'd be wary about choosing another instrument that uses the same chord shapes as a ukulele if you're really looking for something "different". Many many years ago, having finally convinced myself I was a least partially competent on a guitar, I bought a 6-string banjo. It was strung like a guitar so it had to be easy, right? NOPE ... I just ended up playing the same stuff I was already playing, in the same styles that I was using on the guitar, simply because I'd convinced myself I didn't want/need to learn anything new/different.
What I really wanted/needed was a 5-string banjo and a few months off the guitar to learn something completely different ... but I didn't realise that then. 30-odd years later I finally got my 5-string banjo, eventually spent rather more than "a few months" coming to terms with it, but I can now pick up a banjo and have it sound like a banjo, which was what I wanted in the first place.
My point is ... eventually you all cry ... don't restrict yourself by "not wanting to learn anything new" when "something new" is what you really want
As always, YMMV, but enjoy the journey
As I played with numerous stringings and tunings on guitars and banjos, I learned that each tuning turns an axe INTO A NEW INSTRUMENT! That's one reason I'm now accumulating soprano (and maybe concert) ukes.On a slightly different tack, I'd be wary about choosing another instrument that uses the same chord shapes as a ukulele if you're really looking for something "different".
Get a chromatic and pretend you're a Harmonicat. (One of these days I'll master RHAPSODY IN BLUE on a chromatic, yes I will.) Or get a tremolo harmonica and pretend you're a Cajun accordian. Mouth organs are a whole new world with surprising technologies. Fun fun fun.I think I'll learn harmonica and I can pretend I'm Bob D.