Does learning the ukulele first help in learning of the guitar easier in the future?

I originally got into ukulele thinking it would make an easier transition to guitar than trying to start from scratch, but I'm enjoying the uke so much that I don't know if I'll ever bother going back to guitar. Been thinking about maybe getting a guilele next year though.
 
I started with ukulele as a kid back in the early '60s. As someone mentioned, then the Beatles arrived on our shore and everything changed. I transposed my ukulele chords to a guitar and never looked back until a year ago, when arthritis was making the guitar playing difficult. Switched to baritone ukulele and and love it.
As for the original question, yes definitely, ukulele skills can transition to the guitar.
 
ukuleleprorobin said:
If we learn and master the ukulele first, will the knowledge help in learning the guitar easier in the future?
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Yes, it'll make it easier.

However, you must like the uke as much or more than the guitar for this path to work. Learning requires a lot of practice. If you don't like the instrument, you won't make the time to practice it.
 
Like others on this thread, I did it the other way round; I abandoned guitar after many years and took up the ukulele! But as has also been pointed out, lots of useful things will transfer over when/if you make the switch, such as tuning, set-up,strumming,fingering etc. The only thing that strikes me about your question is this; if you fancy the guitar,why not start with one? Why go 'via ukulele' as it were?
 
Started with guitar, but enjoy the ukulele more. I do have the guitalele, a six string ukulele that would be the same as a capoed guitar at the fifth fret. A taro patch which is an eight string, and the charango from Bolivia which is a ten stringer. If you are curious about exotics the best reference for them is www.atlasofpluckedinstruments.com Both the guitar and ukulele have their pros and cons, just have to work with them to see what works.
 
I teach Guitar and Uke at a local music school. I have an older student who had never played an instrument before. He started with Tenor Uke and then decided he'd like to try Guitar as well. He's making good progress and greatly enjoying both. I believe learning either one makes it easier to learn the other. By the way, I also play (but not as well) Bass, Mandola, and Tenor Banjo as well as Chromatic Harmonica and Pan Flute. It's all good!
 
Yes but of course, if your goal is guitar, you'd be better spent putting that time into guitar. Coming from uke to guitar the major hurdles are string spacing, fret width, extra strings and sore finger tips and more difficult chord shapes. I'm sure it helps somewhat but you will still be frustrated as heck when you switch to guitar....maybe even more so because you will be used to the quick gains you achieved on the uke and expect the same on guitar...ie, its still not an easy transition. I'm not sure I gained much from starting uke first except the joy of playing uke. Then again, everyone's different, YMMV.
 
ukuleleprorobin said:
If we learn and master the ukulele first, will the knowledge help in learning the guitar easier in the future?
Click to expand...
I really dislike these questions. I always read them as "I really want to learn this great instrument so should I learn this easy but crappy instrument first"?

If you want to learn the guitar why don't you just learn the guitar?
 
BBegall said:
I really dislike these questions. I always read them as "I really want to learn this great instrument so should I learn this easy but crappy instrument first"?

If you want to learn the guitar why don't you just learn the guitar?
Click to expand...
I found guitar really hard to wrap my brain (and fingers) around every time I tried to learn it. Then I discovered that I could play stuff on the ukulele like you can with a classical guitar, and I thought I'd give that a try. So I'm playing ukulele now. I didn't learn the ukulele because it's a crappy instrument that's like a guitar, I decided to try to learn to play ukulele because I discovered that it's not dissimilar to playing guitar, I can play classical music on it, and the ukulele seems a little easier than a guitar to get started on (IMO). Plus it's a comfortable size, and sounds beautiful. The guitar sounds beautiful too, and it might be nice to learn how to play that, too, one day. Heck, I'd love to learn to play banjo too, but I'll stick with dedicating my focus on one instrument for now, lol.
 
ploverwing said:
I found guitar really hard to wrap my brain (and fingers) around every time I tried to learn it. Then I discovered that I could play stuff on the ukulele like you can with a classical guitar, and I thought I'd give that a try. So I'm playing ukulele now. I didn't learn the ukulele because it's a crappy instrument that's like a guitar, I decided to try to learn to play ukulele because I discovered that it's not dissimilar to playing guitar, I can play classical music on it, and the ukulele seems a little easier than a guitar to get started on (IMO). Plus it's a comfortable size, and sounds beautiful. The guitar sounds beautiful too, and it might be nice to learn how to play that, too, one day. Heck, I'd love to learn to play banjo too, but I'll stick with dedicating my focus on one instrument for now, lol.
Click to expand...
Honestly, for me it’s the same instrument. To play both to an advanced level you need to understand music theory, scales, modes, improv, theories like CAGE.
The only difference in the above is two strings and larger spacing.

this presents a problem at the start as it’s physically more demanding to play chords on a guitar. However, its not really difficult.

the more advanced level concepts and what makes the difference to your playing is exactly the same. I learnt guitar first and then Uke. I could solo on the guitar after learning Uke as I never learnt theory/scales before on the guitar and transferred everything I learnt to the guitar.
 
When I was a kid I played the baritone uke ... then I tried the guitar ... I was very intimidated by the two extra strings ... it took some getting use to.👽
 
I started on the piano accordion when I was 7 or 8. I found that this made learning the guitar much easier when I was 15 or 16. The guitar made learning the mouth harp and mandolin easier and all of these instruments made the banjo easier.
Some of the skills that you learn on any musical instrument are transferable to another instrument. Of course there are skills that are not transferable and new skills that you will have to learn, but many skills are transferable.
 
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