Hi guys I started off with a low g tenor uku and was great fun learning but now I have moved to a baritone . So what you may ask,well I thought I could learn the new baritone,,(named) chords ,I can, but find I like playing the tenor chords more on the bari instead of bari chords ,then I think, I really should play and tranpose the chords for the bari but the gcea chords just sound right. I dont play in groups or anything like that so I am going round in circles in my head . There is no question to this post really just thought I would post .just for thoughts.........
As the string intervals are the same, the same finger positions work on both - that's why "the gcea chords just sound right".
Fingering 0003 gives a C chord on gcea and a G chord on dgbe. Ukulele size/scale does not matter at all.
Always keep in mind that a chord is only a group of notes in certain defined intervals - and completely independent of the instrument. A C major chord contains always the same notes (C E G), no matter whether you play it on an ukulele, balalaika, piano, trumpet, flute, ...
Just the "method" of creating these defined notes differs between instruments - you use different finger positions depending on the instrument resp. individual tuning of the strings. This is what you see on all the different ukulele chord charts: the finger positions.
Put a capo in fifth fret of your bari or use gcea strings and you could even play together with others without relearning bari fingerings.
I have a bafitone a I just use the standard chord shapes as if I were playing my tenor. You might have heard of people "changing the key" of a song, usually to suite there voice. Here we a changing the key 5 steps you suite our fingering
If we were playing with others then yes we would need to play the "baritone chords" to be in the same key as them. We aren't so...........just have at it and have fun, sounds good anyways doesn't it.
Here is a great use of current technology. Download the app "Ultimate Guitar Tabs & Chords" and choose a song you are familiar with. There is a transposing function in the top right hand corner, transpose +5. Now it might state to form a C chord, but in fact you are forming a "baritone" G chord. It has done the transposing for you, now just use the fingering you already know for "C" and you are playing the proper "baritone" G. Yes it is cheating in a way but I can sleep at night if that is worst thing I do today.
This is what I've done, since I'm primarily a tenor player, and dont play bari in public or with others (yet). Took me a long time to let go of my 'guitar brain' and create a 'uke brain' and get accustomed to re-entrant GCEA...now that I am quite comfortable with the 'uke brain', I just play the same exact chord shapes on the baritone, knowing full well that I am down a fifth in the key of G instead of C on shorter scales.
If I need to actually NAME the bari chords, I just call upon my 'guitar brain' and they're automagically there for me.
Try playing the baritone shapes on the tenor. First get your fingers used to the baritone neck and fretboard. Then have a look at the baritone chord shapes. You don't have to learn everything at once and you have time.
Keep in mind that the 'shapes' from baritone vs. tenor, concert, soprano etc are all the SAME since the string tuning intervals are all the same, as has been said previously it's only the KEY that changes. This holds true as long as you are using the modified-fourths tuning we know from the standard for uke and guitar.
Similarly, if you keep the same chord shapes but are in fifths tuning on different instrument it will also change the key. I have a tenor uke in CGDA and a baritone in GDAE (a fifth lower), and if I play the SAME chord shapes in the same fret positions, I change keys, but using MOVABLE chord shapes, on the fifths-tuned baritone, I can just start as if the first fret was the fifth fret (or use a capo) and I'm again back in the same key as the tuning of CGDA on the tenor.
Thanks for your thoughts guys I think I will carry on reading tabs for the gcea tuning ,nother thought ,if I was fingerpicking from the gcea tabs, thats going to sound a little weird isn't it? On the bari ... I have tried it to be fair and I do feel there is something not quite right somewhere ,maybe just my playing eh..
Shouldn't sound weirder than playing with gcea fingerings - unless you try tabs for re-entrant ("high g/d") tuning on an uke with linear ("low g/d") tuning
