Baritone Ukulele?

[Down Up Dick]

What classical music do you play, John? I’ve been playing Bach’s Cello Suite on my Cello Banjo. It’s been a struggle though because of my poor memory. I like Bach a lot, but I have a classical fake book that I use too. I also play some classical pieces by ear. I usta play them on my flute or other instruments.

I usually stay with Baroque or Classical periods.

[John boy]

I've learned a few so far, including "Gymnopedie #1" by Erik Satie, and "As When The Dove (Laments Her Love)" by Handel. I'm working on "The Girl With The Flaxen Hair" by Debussy. It's very challenging to take one of these pieces and adapt it to uke, but it sure is fun, and I feel it helps keep my aging brain working. Good mental exercise! Very impressive that you play the flute, too.

[Down Up Dick]

I’ve heard “Gymnopedie #1”.

I agree that working on challenging pieces is akin to solving difficult puzzles or figuring out why your hobby car won’t run correctly. Unfortunately, stuff gets more difficult to figger out as we age, but it is certainly good for us to keep trying.

What other kind of music do you play? I like folk music a lot, and good, rousing gospel music. I like Jazz too, but I don’t play it.

[John boy]

Well, let's see. I play some jazz standards, and some popular movie/Broadway show tunes. I'm a big rhythm 'n blues fan, though I haven't tried to play that on ukulele yet. I also play bass, and sometimes do so in a big band that plays Basie, Ellington, etc. Thanks for asking.

[LarryS]

Tenor guitar is tuned EADG with steel strings

[Down Up Dick]

I guess so, if one wants an Irish tuning.

[mds725]

I love playing baritone ukuleles, and my brain, after a long adjustment period, can now readily recall the different names for chord shapes in both tenor ukulele and baritone ukulele tuning. I can switch from one to the other with only occasional mess-ups.

Baritone ukulele led me to tenor guitars because I really like the sound of steel strings. I now own a few tenor guitars, but I also own two steel string (19 inch scale) baritone ukuleles, one built by Rick Turner and one built by Mike Pereira. I also have a nylon string baritone ukulele tuned GCEA one octave below tenor ukulele for an even deeper than baritone tuning voice, and I have been considering restringing one of my steel string baritones GCEA one octave below tenor ukulele to see if it retains the crispness of steel strings when tuned that low.

[Davoravo]

Keen to hear a result of your low octave GCEA experiment, i have been considering this for a tenor guitar as this would mean i could return my tenor ukulele to linear GCEA tuning from its current re-entrant dGBE tuning (d4 g3 b3 e4) and be consistent.

I suspect steel would sound better as i presume nylon is a bit muddy on a ukulele at that pitch.

[Down Up Dick]

I was findin’ that I couldn’t seem to find tenor guitar music that I wanted. But, much to my embarrassment, I suddenly realized, checked and found out that I can play baritone uke music on my TG, so now I have music to play.

An old dog CAN be taught new tricks; it just takes a bit longer.

[Davoravo]

In the original tuning CGDA you can also play viola music, although violinists always hog the good parts