New Uke Dude...

ewomack

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Hello, I have always had a secret desire to learn ukulele, but I have never followed up on it. Perhaps now is the time. I'm curious what others have to say about where I should start, so I'll share a tiny bit about myself.

I have played guitar, keyboards and some banjo. I have played in bands, played live, been in recording studios and I also play all for myself.

This feeling shivers over me, maybe correct, maybe not, that, since I've played guitar and banjo, that I will probably have a fairly easy time learning ukulele. Have others in a similar situation found that to be true? How much technique from other strummed instruments applies to ukulele?

In either case, and I know this is a big question, I'm looking for a good mid-to-upper-range ukulele to learn and play. Nothing too cheap, but nothing that costs thousands of dollars, either. Again, what has worked well for newcomers who want something above the budget range?

Thank you!
 
First thing to decide is what size you want to start with. Conventional wisdom says to go with tenor coming from guitar but that doesn't have to be the case. Have you tried any yet?

You'll get suggestions for online sellers like HMS, Uke Republic, Mims Ukes, and Mainland. As with anything, you can spend as much as you want, but I'd say $300-500 will get paid you a very good instrument and you don't even have to spend that much to get a well playing and sounding instrument if you get it from a reputable seller such as those I mentioned
 
Welcome to the UU Forum, ewomack. From personal experience, I would say yes, your previous musical experience will definitely reduce the learning curve of your ukulele journey. Your fretting and strumming skills from the guitar and banjo will be the most helpful. Your piano and band experience will inform the musicality aspect of playing uke. I predict this will be one of the most fun things you do in your life. After you’ve learned a few of the basic chords, be sure to find (or start) a local group of ukers to play with. The fun level will increase exponentially. :)

Jan
 
Welcome EWomack. Here's my story that will relate here. I played guitar for almost 50 years, bought a cheap ukulele because it looked like my Fender Telecaster, then a few weeks later I received a postcard from the Los Angeles Music Center for their yearly summer series play along, which I'd done for guitar, but this time was for ukulele. Since I had one, I joined. I learned the three mandatory chords, which were a breeze for me, but I did have difficulty forming the chords. I looked up ukes online and found out about the sizes, mine being a soprano. So I went to Sam Ash in Hollywood and bought a tenor for $185, and as Goldilocks said, it's just right.

Then I joined a group and happily succumbed to UAS (ukulele acquisition syndrome), collecting 16 ukes in the next year, most all under $200. Then I contacted Mim for a recommendation, which was for a Kala solid cedar top, acacia koa body, paduck binding, cutaway with electronics for $370. It quickly became my go to gig uke, then I culled down my collection to four of my nicest.

So yes, my guitar experience was very useful in learning uke, and I did learn a lesson that it's better to buy a good uke than a mediocre one that will ultimately be replaced by a good one. In my case, $370 is a nice midrange expenditure, but to someone else, $500-$600 might be considered midrange (I do recommend the Kala). The capper to the story is I never touched my four guitars again and gave them to my nephew.

This is Michael Kohan in Los Angeles, Beverly Grove near the Beverly Center
9 tenor cutaway ukes, 6 acoustic bass ukes, 12 solid body bass ukes, 14 mini electric bass guitars (Total: 41)

• Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children in hospital music therapy programs. www.theukc.org
• Member The CC Strummers: YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/CCStrummers/video, Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheCCStrummers
 
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Where are you located?
We all know the great local music stores that have a variety of ukuleles. Go there, play them, find the size that feels right.
C. F. G7. Three chords you can easily learn and play given your background. And figure out what works for you. Given your experience, you’ll know.
That said, Kala is a decent brand from which you can find an instrument that you like.
Cedar, spruce, mahogany... again, you are probably familiar with the various attributes.


Let us know where you are, we’ll point you to a store a a local Jam Group

Welcome
 
If you have been playing guitar for all these years, you can certainly play a ukulele.
 
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Welcome to UU, EWomack!

Wishing you lots of fun with your ukulele, whichever size you pick (or start with). My favourite size is tenor :)
 
Yes, Welcome!

This is a subject you can discuss ad infinitum.

These are very basic criteria:
Size, as in what size feels the most comfortable for you to play?
Size, as in what sound are you looking for? Soprano and Concert sizes will give you a more traditional Hawaiian sound with re-entant tuning. Tenor and Baritone will be deeper and lean towards a guitar-ish sound. Especially with linear (Low-G) tuning.
Materials: Solid wood body; Laminate body; Synthetic body. Solid wood top on a laminate, or synthetic body. (Some mfgs will use a term like: "All-Mahogany" in their descriptions. That usually means a laminate with a Mahogany layer for appearance. Solid wood is what to look for if you want a solid wood instrument. Koa and Mahogany are the most popular. But lots of other woods are nice as well.
Neck shape: "C" is a round shape, relatively thick. "D" is a shallower, rounded shape. And flatter or flattened necks that are shallower still.
Electric/Acoustic: Active, passive or microphone or combination. Solid or acoustic with pickup(s) installed.
I strongly advise that you buy from a dealer who will do a good setup to your taste.
You can get pretty good ukes for $300. I think if you are a guitar player, then you'll most likely want to look at around $500 to $1000 for some very nice ukuleles. Much above $1000 is overkill for your first uke. You'll do well to visit Barry Maz' gotaukulele.com, HMS' theukulelesite.com, UkeRepublic.com and other sites for good sound samples and reviews of ukes in different cost levels. Barry's site has a lot of excellent reviews that are very objective.

If you have nearby music stores that carry ukes visit them. That's the best way to determine what you like. But the selection may be limited and the strings that come on the ukes may not be the best sounding. They will also take several days to settle in.

Good luck, and happy hunting!
 
Thank you for the beautiful discussions! I'm leaning towards tenor as well.
 
With you guitar background, one thing you can do immediately before you splash out on a uke is to capo the 5th fret of a guitar and play the open chords you are familiar with (C, G, D, A etc). However, force yourself to learn what they transpose to. So for example, a G chord at the 5th fret is actually the same as a C chord without the Capo. A D at the 5th is a G no capo, an Em is an Am etc. Do this and you will hit the ground running when you get your uke as you will already know how to play a bunch of open chords in the 1st position on the uke.

Note: this only works for Soprano, Concert & Tenor ukuleles that are tuned to standard uke tuning of G, C, E, A. If you end up buying a baritone it will likely be tuned D, G, B, E which is the same as a the 1st four strings of a guitar so the above no longer hold true. However, I would encourage you NOT to get a Baritone for your 1st ukulele as it's too close to a guitar so you might not get the uke sound and experience that you desire.
 
I'm learning how to play Ukelele through videos, but your discussions and this forum has contributed so much for us beginners. Cheers!
 
Hello, I have always had a secret desire to learn ukulele, but I have never followed up on it. Perhaps now is the time. I'm curious what others have to say about where I should start, so I'll share a tiny bit about myself.

I have played guitar, keyboards and some banjo. I have played in bands, played live, been in recording studios and I also play all for myself.

This feeling shivers over me, maybe correct, maybe not, that, since I've played guitar and banjo, that I will probably have a fairly easy time learning ukulele. Have others in a similar situation found that to be true? How much technique from other strummed instruments applies to ukulele?

In either case, and I know this is a big question, I'm looking for a good mid-to-upper-range ukulele to learn and play. Nothing too cheap, but nothing that costs thousands of dollars, either. Again, what has worked well for newcomers who want something above the budget range?

Thank you!

Hi ! according to what you said, I'd highly recommend this ukulele to you: http://www.strong-wind.com/ukuleles...fessional-Aquila-Strings-Soprano-Ukulele.html (Free shipping worldwide + 20% off now with coupon code: smile2020) :):music:
 
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