Started the guitar yesterday.

Rllink

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I dug out my wife's old hippy dippy guitar in the basement, checked it over, tuned it up, found a nice chord chart that is not filled with obscure chords that I'll never play in real life, picked out some two and three chord songs that I'm familiar with so that I can start with, and I'm ready to go. The guitar is a Johnson Dreadnought and it has an active pickup installed in it. I'm sure that it isn't a high dollar unit. First of all, I searched it on the internet and it probably came from Sears, and second, my inlaws would not spend a lot of money on a musical instrument. It sounds nice enough. Before everyone starts telling me about setups, I know about setups, the action seems a little high compared to my ukuleles, but seems to be playable. So I'll just play it a bit and go from there. I'm excited.
 
Great to hear you are excited, that’s the most important part. Learning CAGED (those are the most popular chords) will open up zillions of songs for you:p
 
I got back into playing guitar regularly a few years ago thanks to the uke. Now playing lead in a bluegrass group and having a ball with it. Have had a couple customs built and a 00 almost done. Congrats RL and hope you'll find it as enjoyable as I am. On towards 61 years playing now.
 
It is going pretty good. I've learned C,F,G, and D chords. The F isn't that hard really. I heard a lot of, "wait til you to have to play F." Also G7 and C7. I found a half dozen songs in my ukulele set list that I like to sing that those chords will cover, so I'm off to the races. The stretch to reach the strings and the frets is a little awkward, but it is coming along. For those who say that they have to play this size ukulele or that because their hands are too small, don't take up the guitar. But it is doable, I just need to get used to it.
 
Hey Rolli, there are a lot of songs that use D, A & E those are very simple chords and really easy to transition from one to the other. I play probably 5 songs with just those three chords......like an expert......almost :biglaugh::biglaugh::biglaugh: Give them a try, nice to hear you are making good progress.
 
What ever you can play on a ukulele you can play on the guitar's first four strings. Plus you now have bass strings so you can add bass or use them for drones.
 
Go for it. I struggle mightily with barre chords (ie F) but generally cheat by just playing the DGBE strings. I play with a small group and they are all way better guitarists than me but, luckily, I can sing a little too. If the song gets too complicated I stop playing and concentrate on the vocals and leave the ''twiddly bits'' to the others. Lately I have downsized my full dreadnought Eko to a parlour guitar. I am the cemetery side of 69 and struggle with big bodies due to arthritic shoulders. A baritone uke is fun as well. Also, find it a challenge to play the guitar standing up.
 
I've started learning guitar since playing ukulele too. The extra two strings (or more to the point, not[i/] playing one or both of those extra strings some of the time) are causing some issues, but it's fun, and it's nice to learn something other than the uke, but that isn't so far removed from it.

I have a cheapish Strat-style with a humbucker in place of the bridge single coil, and a dinky little practice amp. I'm yet to actually play any songs, I'm just working on learning the CAGED chords (I got the guitar last year, and after struggling with the transition, pretty much gave it up until the last couple of weeks), but it's starting to feel like it's coming together a little.

Good luck Rllink!
 
This morning I had my grand daughter and we sang some songs while I played the guitar. Just two and three chord songs. It went well enough. My biggest problem right now is strumming. I want to strum it like a ukulele with just my fingers. I have that ukulele strum where you fan your fingers up and down over the strings. A pick is awkward still. Good news though, I do a couple of finger picking patterns on the uke that have lent themselves pretty well to the guitar. I just picked up the extra two string with little trouble. So ever upward. I'm slow, but I'm steady.

I had intended to concentrate on the guitar after my last gig with the ukulele in early January. But I picked up a couple more ukulele gigs in February and March, so I have to practice those songs now as well. So far it hasn't been a problem to switch back and forth. It is just like speaking more than one language, you just have to give your brain a moment or two to switch. You can't translate one to the other, if you do you are lost. Just play the guitar and forget about the ukulele. I tried at first to somehow treat four strings on the guitar like a ukulele as many suggest, thinking that it would be a shortcut to learning and make it easier, but it doesn't. I came quickly to the conclusion that a guitar is not a ukulele, it is a guitar. So I treat them as two totally different instruments and that has been working better.
 
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Just to catch everyone up. All of my ukulele gigs got cancelled so it has been back to guitar for the last couple of weeks. Plus I don't have to travel anywhere for anything which is a nice break. Things are going well. I bought a set of lower tension strings a while ago and I put them on yesterday. I sanded the saddle down a little to see how that works. I think is is a little easier to play, but not a whole lot. It just goes back to what I've always believed, a good setup isn't going to turn you into a good player, you still have to learn how to play it. But I believe there is a mental benefit to it all, if you believe it, it will manifest itself, so maybe it is easier. I also polished it up, oiled up the fretboard, and got the pickup working. That made me feel better about it to. Anyway, yesterday was mostly about maintenance, which is something that maybe I should have done first.

All in all, it is going well. A lot of my skills with the ukulele are transferring over to the guitar. It is just a matter of learning the chords and teaching my fingers to go where I want them to go and that is coming along. Everything else is universal. The guitar is just so huge and awkward comparatively. I'm hoping that when this virus thing is all over that I can do some busking and gigs with both the guitar and the ukulele. See how that works.
 
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Good to hear you are making steady progress. If this is something you are going to stick with you might consider a smaller guitar in the future. Either a 00 or 000 really is more comfortable and easier for me to play then my big Larrivee.

Your thread is a good and inspirational message to ukulele players that want to try guitar. So many skills transfer over well, if you’ve never experienced it you might not think so. Guitars are big and intimidating compared to the comfort zone of a ukulele.
 
Good to hear you are making steady progress. If this is something you are going to stick with you might consider a smaller guitar in the future. Either a 00 or 000 really is more comfortable and easier for me to play then my big Larrivee.

Your thread is a good and inspirational message to ukulele players that want to try guitar. So many skills transfer over well, if you’ve never experienced it you might not think so. Guitars are big and intimidating compared to the comfort zone of a ukulele.

Thanks for the response Dave. I appreciate your support. I've been looking at smaller guitars these last couple of weeks. Before the virus hit I was looking at a Yamaha parlor guitar at the local music store. Not seriously yet, but I liked it a lot. I want to play bluegrass and I have gotten the idea in my head that means dreadnought, but I don't know anything. I'm a long way from getting up with people and playing bluegrass anyway. In the mean time maybe a parlor guitar would be a step rather than a destination. I don't do things quickly, so we will have to see what happens down the road. Probably I'll get used to it.
 
Update, I bought a Taylor GS Mini guitar on Monday and it came yesterday. Thanks much to The Fret Shop in Huntsville, AL. They were great to work with. It is just a beautiful guitar and so much easier to play than my wife's old dreadaught.
 
Hey Rolli, there are a lot of songs that use D, A & E those are very simple chords and really easy to transition from one to the other. I play probably 5 songs with just those three chords......like an expert......almost :biglaugh::biglaugh::biglaugh: Give them a try, nice to hear you are making good progress.

Yeah, DUD1, you’re correct about those chords. They’re easy-peasy even for me. Thanks a lot. :eek:ld:
 
I love my gs mini. It’s a perfect size for me. I’ve played other larger guitars and they were just ok but not really as comfortable as the gs mini. It was a pretty easy transition from playing uke. I still play soprano uke sometimes and baritone but am playing a little more guitar and a lot more mandolin.
 
Update, I bought a Taylor GS Mini guitar on Monday and it came yesterday. Thanks much to The Fret Shop in Huntsville, AL. They were great to work with. It is just a beautiful guitar and so much easier to play than my wife's old dreadaught.

Congratulations Rolli, you know I really like the GS mini, small size with a big sound. Going from your dreadnought must feel like stepping off a battle ship and into a Porsche, ease of handling supreme.
 
I love my gs mini. It’s a perfect size for me. I’ve played other larger guitars and they were just ok but not really as comfortable as the gs mini. It was a pretty easy transition from playing uke. I still play soprano uke sometimes and baritone but am playing a little more guitar and a lot more mandolin.

Congratulations Rolli, you know I really like the GS mini, small size with a big sound. Going from your dreadnought must feel like stepping off a battle ship and into a Porsche, ease of handling supreme.

It is so much easier to play. I'm glad that I started out on that old cheap Johnson dreadnought with all of its foibles, as going to the Taylor is like getting punted through the goal posts of progress. I didn't know I had gotten this good. Just kidding about being good. But I feel like I'm making progress and the new guitar is a huge help. You guys are great to be so supportive to a guy learning guitar on a ukulele site. Just goes to show what kind of people come here.
 
The GS Mini is a nice piece of kit, a friend has one which I have played a couple of times. We are both vertically challenged so the Mini is a good fit :) If I didn't already have a surplus of instruments it would be on my to buy list.
Re. the transition from uke to guitar, I first bought a uke in 1968 learned the basics and progressed for a couple of years but ukes were seriously uncool for a late teen in the 60's.
An acquaintance who played guitar pointed out the similarity of the tuning intervals so I acquired a guitar. It was a struggle initially with not only 2 extra strings, but also the wider fret spacing, but I eased the transition by initially ignoring the two bass strings and playing uke chords, then bit by bit forced myself to use all strings. This probably took about a year for me to reach a reasonable standard. An unexpected bonus from this is that when playing with others I can create different "voicings" by playing 3 and 4 string chord inversions further up the neck while they play chords at the nut position.
By the way, I still play uke and am proud of the fact that I started before it became cool.

Vintage
 
A brief update. I love the Taylor GS Mini. Pretty much everything I need in a guitar right now. First thing, I am not in a hurry, so any progress is good. When I say that I'm progressing it means I'm progressing little by little steadily moving forward. I've gotten most of the major chords, sevenths, and minor chords in the keys that I like to sing in pretty much down and my fingers have toughened up considerably, which at first was slowing me down. I'm working on some more obscure chords that don't seem to be as obscure with guitar as with ukulele. I'm also developing some different and clever techniques, so those are fun to play around with. I'm also getting a bit better at going back and forth between guitar and ukulele. I haven't given up playing the ukulele.

Okay, before I end it for today, I started playing guitar thinking I wanted to play bluegrass. At this point, after giving some bluegrass music a shot I've decided that I just don't really like bluegrass. Which is fine. I'm exploring other roads and it is still exciting.
 
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GS mini is lovely, best guitar i have played in a shop but out of my price range. I have had the same experience as you, I started ukulele 3y ago, switching to guitar nearly 2 years ago. I have progressed little by little. At times i cant believe how much better i have got with regular practice but at others i see the long slow slope ahead stretching out to eternity. The best thing about having learned music as a child then picking up a new instrument as an adult that i do know that the path is one of slow progress, but as long as practice is regular there will always be progress.
 
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