What Key Am I In?

I think that GCEA is an open tuning in the key of C. But on my Baritone I have it tuned to DGBE—what open key am I in? If I were to play the baritone with same chords shapes that I play on GCEA—am I going up or down a key(s)? I obviously get confused by keys.

Martinlover said:

I think that GCEA is an open tuning in the key of C. But on my Baritone I have it tuned to DGBE—what open key am I in? If I were to play the baritone with same chords shapes that I play on GCEA—am I going up or down a key(s)? I obviously get confused by keys.

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You are not in an open key tuning. It means usually that all strings played will produce a 3 note chord, usually major. Slide guitar players use that technique. Normally it is restrictive.

Ukulele tuning is a fourth above classical guitar tuning, so if you know circle of fifths, the chords in ukule tuning are the same as baritones with a one less sharp in key signatures.

While this can maybe be helpful, it is not so much to me. Having played years with guitar and only one year ukulele. And knowing now all diatonic chords in all 12 keys with uke. I find that I have to remember if I play with my classical guitar turned into a baritone, removed the base strings. And chords or melody are put in front of me, I have to remember and think like a guitar, the chords and fingerboard notes.

There is no automatic mind transposition. One or at least has to know the chord names as heart. Things like knowing what a 1 4 5 major chords are and then 2 3 6 minor chords are a transposing aid. But for myself that wont help if I want to play from a sheet music, I just can't do that automatically. My brain does not function that way.

Hope this helps

EDIT:
If your mind gets blocked. Of course knowing where the root is in baritone vs normal uke fingerboard helps, but anyways, you can check always with:
https://ukebuddy.com/ukulele-chords

Martinlover said:

I think that GCEA is an open tuning in the key of C. But on my Baritone I have it tuned to DGBE—what open key am I in? If I were to play the baritone with same chords shapes that I play on GCEA—am I going up or down a key(s)? I obviously get confused by keys.

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The bari is tuned a 4th lower than standard. If GCEA is the key of C... then DGBE is the key of G. Whenever you get lost on the bari, remember the open notes on each string and that will help you get oriented. Maybe it helps to know if you put a capo on the bari at the 5th fret you'd have GCEA tuning.

I've been playing GCEA for 30 years and got a baritone as a lark a couple of years ago. Except for the most common chords, I still need to transpose in my head and I feel no ambition to learn otherwise. My rule is this:

If the GCEA chord sheet says to play a "G major" chord, I count up 4 (G-A-B-C) and play the chord my fingers believe to be a "C major." If I am going in the other direction -- if I am playing a chord on the bari and my fingers think it's an F but I know it really isn't -- then I count up 5 (F-G-A-B-C) to figure out I'm actually playing a C. I need to do this when I'm playing and somebody asks me what key I'm in. Thus:

Standard to bari: Up 4
Bari to standard: Up 5

(You could count down, but I recite the alphabet faster when I'm not going backwards!) Don't think of keys as "higher" or "lower" -- there's a key of G in every octave. When you transpose from the key of C to G, you could go either up or down (within the limits of the pitch on your instrument and/or your singing range). Pitches go up and down; keys do not.

Open strings on a Baritone tuned DGBE is a G6 chord which is five semi-tones lower than the usual concert GCEA tuning C6 chord.

acmespaceship said:

Don't think of keys as "higher" or "lower" -- there's a key of G in every octave. When you transpose from the key of C to G, you could go either up or down (within the limits of the pitch on your instrument and/or your singing range). Pitches go up and down; keys do not.

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Thanks. This is helpful. I am not a musician so it’s hard to ask my questions without knowing the terminology.
When I jam with my Baritone, or tenor, and my guitar friends we all seem to sound fine together because we are playing in the same key. I think I got it. When I play up or down the neck on the baritone alone though I don’t know where I am.

jimavery said:

Open strings on a Baritone tuned DGBE is a G6 chord which is five semi-tones lower than the usual concert GCEA tuning C6 chord.

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Thanks for this.