Please allow me to introduce myself...

Stormin1155

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Hello! I'm Norm. I am neither a ukulele owner or player, but I work on them, hence my presence here. I am a guitar tech/luthier with my own shop in Des Moines, IA. With the explosion of the popularity of ukes in the past few years, I'm seeing more and more of them in my shop. Right now I have three, and just finished up a couple. I do everything from routine string changes and setups to full restorations of antique instruments.

I frequent numerous guitar forums, and consider it part of my ongoing education. I learn a lot from other members and occasionally am able to share what I know with others. I look forward to participating in discussions and learning more about ukes at this forum.

...and I am seriously considering getting a uke of my own... probably a tenor, but I'll probably cheat and tune it like a guitar.
 
Welcome...but I thought you were going to say you're a man of wealth & fame! :D

No need to tune like a guitar, chord shapes are the same, just in a different key.

Yes, - to the OP, if you put a capo on the 5th fret of your guitar and ignore the 5th & 6th strings and only play the 'bottom' four (bottom as in closest to your feet) you have a low-G or LINEAR GCEA tuned uke, and all the chord shapes are the same but different NAMES, for everything except a baritone uke.

Baritone uke is same everything as guitar but shorter scale length and also without the 5th & 6th strings, and in same key and tuning as normal EADGBE guitar, all chords are same shapes and same names, just 2 less strings.
 
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Welcome...but I thought you were going to say you're a man of wealth & fame! :D

Ditto!

Welcome to the forums!!
 
Welcome Norm. I played guitar for almost 50 years, then about 4 1/2 years ago I started on the ukulele. It didn't take me long at all to get uke chords, certainly my experience forming chords helped tremendously. I actually prefer high G because it sounds less like a guitar. If I want to sound like a guitar, I'll play a guitar, but since taking up the uke, I haven't touched my guitars and don't miss them at all.


8 tenor cutaway ukes, 3 acoustic bass ukes, 8 solid body bass ukes, 8 mini electric bass guitars

• Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children's hospital music therapy programs. http://.www.theukc.org
• Member The CC Strummers: https://www.youtube.com/user/CCStrummers/videos
 
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Welcome...but I thought you were going to say you're a man of wealth & fame! :D

You took the words out of my mouth and beat me to the punch!

Woohoo!
 
Welcome...but I thought you were going to say you're a man of wealth & fame! :D

No need to tune like a guitar, chord shapes are the same, just in a different key.


I may not be wealthy or famous, but I am richly blessed.


Yes, - to the OP, if you put a capo on the 5th fret of your guitar and ignore the 5th & 6th strings and only play the 'bottom' four (bottom as in closest to your feet) you have a low-G or LINEAR GCEA tuned uke, and all the chord shapes are the same but different NAMES, for everything except a baritone uke.

Baritone uke is same everything as guitar but shorter scale length and also without the 5th & 6th strings, and in same key and tuning as normal EADGBE guitar, all chords are same shapes and same names, just 2 less strings.

Welcome Norm. I played guitar for almost 50 years, then about 4 1/2 years ago I started on the ukulele. It didn't take me long at all to get uke chords, certainly my experience forming chords helped tremendously. I actually prefer high G because it sounds less like a guitar. If I want to sound like a guitar, I'll play a guitar, but since taking up the uke, I haven't touched my guitars and don't miss them at all.


One of the beauties of the uke is it's simplicity.... having to transpose chord shapes.... "well let's see.... the G chord is fingered like a D chord..." ...way to complicated for this old mind.

Thanks to all for the warm welcome!
 
Glad you are here :)

...One of the beauties of the uke is it's simplicity.... having to transpose chord shapes.... "well let's see.... the G chord is fingered like a D chord..." ...way to complicated for this old mind...

If you dont want to think about transposing - then try a BARITONE uke.

All chords are same shape and same name as guitar, with two less strings, so simpler than guitar.

Easy-peasy!

A baritone uke is just as valid an instrument as the other sizes that are tuned differently, and anybody that says otherwise is likely just woefully misinformed. There are LOTS of baritone players here on UU. :)
 
You can certainly tune a tenor to DGBE. It worked well enough for Lyle Ritz.
 
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