Taking up the guitar next week.

I thought I would put the announcement here. I'll post my progress in the guitar sub forum, provided there is progress to report. I am going to give it a go, but playing the ukulele will always be my priority. We will have to see how it goes. I'm not trying to say that there is nothing more that I can learn on the ukulele, because I think that learning is a never ending process, regardless, but I'm doing what I set out to do with the ukulele and right now is just more of the same thing, and I don't want to branch off into stuff that doesn't interest me. The guitar would fit better into my journey. So my wife has an old dreadnought and I dug it out of the basement. I've had several ukulele gigs and such up until this weekend and I haven't wanted to concentrate on something else. But now I'm done until later this spring. So no pressing ukulele performances. I'm kind of excited. I'm going linear.

It will be interesting to see how hard you find it compared with our ukes. For one thing I think you'll find playing an F barre chord is harder than anything you ever have to do on a uke, and is traditionally the point at which a lot of guitar learners give up. An acoustic guitar is a lot harder to learn on than an electric, which is what I would always recommend for a learner, but it should be fun anyway. One suggestion is to check the string gauges. It's not uncommon to find dreads strung with "medium" gauge strings, that go from 0.013" to 0.056", and those are a challenge to play, let alone learn on. For learning I suggest at most lights (0.012 to 0.053") or even ultra lights (10s) or custom lights (11s). One company markets what they call their "Beginner Gauge" acoustic strings and they are 0.011" to 0.052" gauge.

Good luck with this journey. My vague memories of guitar from decades ago is that the G chord was never as comfortable as I would have liked, the barre F chord was really tough, and that my fingers still hurt from the thin steel strings that hurt even with callouses.

After playing uke for a while, I think you will find the transition to guitar easier than you may think. Sure the F barre chord is tricky for many folks, but you will probably find that you don't play in C nearly as often as ukers do. I most often play in G or A, and those chord families are easy. Good luck!

rainbow21 said:

my fingers still hurt from the thin steel strings that hurt even with callouses.

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Timely thread.

I'm about to go on a trip to a remote mountain cabin and one of the things provided is a guitar. Upon learning this last week I dusted off my Grandpa's old plywood Stella to see if it would be worth bringing a chord chart and tuner on the trip. The thing is so beat up and warped that it's barely playable. Last night I dreamt that my fingertips were all bleeding.

I got into uke after a failed attempt to teach myself guitar (on an electric - definitely easier to fret). I have to say things went better this time around and I've been having fun with the richer sound. But I don't expect to buy a guitar anytime soon (to my wife's obvious relief).

Good luck!

bunnyf said:

After playing uke for a while, I think you will find the transition to guitar easier than you may think. Sure the F barre chord is tricky for many folks, but you will probably find that you don't play in C nearly as often as ukers do. I most often play in G or A, and those chord families are easy. Good luck!

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Unless, of course, you end up jamming with your ukulele playing friends...

You will do well Rolli. There are so many chords that share the same shape but just a different name. On guitar D is shaped like a uke G, A is shaped like D, Am is Dm, Dm is Gm, etc.

It is a fun challenge and if you can get through the first month by learning some simple 3 and 4 chord songs you will be off to the races. Enjoy it, I certainly have, a good ukulele foundation really helps with learning guitar

Good luck with the guitar. The guitar is my preferred instrument, but I have recently taken up the ukulele. It has been a great break from guitar and I am finding that the experience with the guitar has helped with the ukulele. I am sure you will find the same - although the other way around.

Make sure your guitar is properly set up. I have all my guitars set up with very low action - the result is they play almost as easily as an electric guitar. That makes barre chords much easier to play.

Good luck. I just bought a classical guitar last weekend so am starting a similar journey. At least I get softer strings, but the wider neck (which I wanted) seems reaaalllllyyy wide, even though the string spacing seems tight compared to my baritone. So far I'm getting used to the extra strings and huge fret spacing. Won't be giving up the ukulele anytime soon though!

Enjoy, i second the good set up. I now have shoulder bursitis from too much tension and working hard against a high action. Wish i had spent a little more money when buying my first guitar, got an easier playing instrument and invested in a set up.

Guitar has a huge drop out rate and an easy playing instrument is so important. I am shopping for a nylon string instrument at the moment to make it that little but easier and more fum.

Also, you can avoid barre chords, F can be played by only strumming strings 2-5 and no barre although i prefer a 1-2 barre and strum 1-5.

A guitar F chord is not a basic shape. It is merely a barred E shape on the first fret, not unlike a ukulele Bb chord. The basic guitar chord shapes are C, A, G, E, D. While the actual chords are not the same as a ukulele, the shapes are the same. The only difference is having to fret the 5th and 6th string as needed.

If you can play a ukulele E chord you can play a guitar.

John

besley said:

It will be interesting to see how hard you find it compared with our ukes. For one thing I think you'll find playing an F barre chord is harder than anything you ever have to do on a uke, and is traditionally the point at which a lot of guitar learners give up. An acoustic guitar is a lot harder to learn on than an electric, which is what I would always recommend for a learner, but it should be fun anyway. One suggestion is to check the string gauges. It's not uncommon to find dreads strung with "medium" gauge strings, that go from 0.013" to 0.056", and those are a challenge to play, let alone learn on. For learning I suggest at most lights (0.012 to 0.053") or even ultra lights (10s) or custom lights (11s). One company markets what they call their "Beginner Gauge" acoustic strings and they are 0.011" to 0.052" gauge.

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Thanks for this. I'll pass the info on to some people I know who are just starting out learning guitar.

Perhaps a tenor guitar or a 00 to start with? A guitarlele?

Best of luck. Should be interesting trying to keep the chords with the same shapes apart.

Guitar is just a bigger ukulele with more strings. Ukulele is like a small guitar with less strings. Same same, I play both interchangeably.

I started playing guitar after retirement, and have been at it for more than a dozen years now. Here are a few suggestions for you to consider; the first two are to ease development of callouses.

1. Definitely use light strings, or even classical strings, though they will not drive a dreadnought very loudly (which may not be a problem when you're learning).

2. If you use steel strings tune them down a full step to reduce the tension while you're learning the chords and developing callouses. If you need to play with others, you can capo at the 2nd fret.

3. Capoing will reduce the finger stretch during the initial learning phase.

4. I would suggest not trying to learn on a dreadnought; get an inexpensive used classical guitar (have a guitar playing friend verify the action is not too large).

5. Find yourself an experienced teacher, at least for month or so, to help you avoid learning bad habits.

I hope you have fun with your new experience! I came to ukulele from guitar...Now I am back into guitar too after a break.
I will say, a dreadnought is going to seem huge after playing just uke. When I would play mostly uke then switch to a guitar it was always an odd experience. It can be easier in some ways though. You have a lot of room to work with. Then there is the full sound that you just can't get from an ukulele.

I know a lot of tips have been given here already...and I definitely agree with the good setup and lighter strings. I'm an experienced player and I have extra light strings on my acoustic right now. It has plenty of warmth still.

I would also like to offer this tip: Don't worry about playing all strings for every chord. Of course some chords don't use all six anyways. I just want to point out that partial chords on a guitar can still sound plenty rich and full. That tricky F chord people mention sounds just fine playing it only on the four highest strings...or maybe even four lowest if you choose.
As far as Barre chords go.. Definitely look into the major and minor chords, but keep in mind what I said above. Try those forms except only play the high four strings or low four strings only, while not even attempting to fret the full chord. You'll get how to work it out once you get into it. That alone opened up a whole world of playing for me on guitar. Power chords can be fun too, even on an acoustic. There's a ton of variety with guitars you can't get with an uke....
As you already know, uke will always be a special instrument though. I hope you have a great experience!

jer said:

I will say, a dreadnought is going to seem huge after playing just uke.

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HaHa! I’ll say it is. When I would pick up one of mine, which I rarely do anymore, I’d tell people it’s like holding a baby grand.

John

I have a dreadnought to thank for getting me into ukulele. I bought one in 2012 after not having a guitar for years and even then, I origially had a classical. Three years later, I got rid of the guitar and got a ukulele. And then another ukulele, and another ...

My new 3/4 size classical guitar is much less gigantic. I think I'll keep it unless I get GAS.

I'm moving myself out of the uke talk sub forum to the guitar sub forum. You all can carry on here if you want or come with me. Up to you. Thanks for all of the responses though.