Why Is a Tenor Ukulele Called a Tenor?

Ed1

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OK, I have way too much time on my hands lately which makes for idle thoughts and more questions . . .

The soprano, concert, and tenor ukuleles all have the same "voice range." They're all in the soprano range. (A low G could perhaps be called a mezzo soprano) So who decided - and when - that the tenor uke would be called a tenor uke?

I guess one could argue that size matters, and that the lower mid-range of a tenor uke gets more focus than the mid-mids of a soprano uke, but the pitch is still the same and doesn't go as low as a tenor voice.

I've done a quick search of the Interwebs with no help, nor did the unabridged dictionary of word origins help. So, if you have some thoughts on this, please add them. There must be some historical reason for this other than small, medium and large bodies - but maybe not.

Oh yeah, and why does Kamaka call its soprano standard? Perhaps I'll call Kamaka if no one here can answer this. Inquiring minds . . .

EDIT: See #29 for updates
 
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In music, timbre is the quality that makes a piano sound different than a guitar playing the same note. This is also the reason that although the different sized ukuleles all have the same range (as you've pointed out), they sound different. Hence the different names: soprano, tenor, baritone.
 
As we've read above, when Sam Kamaka first started building ukulele there was only on size, the standard or what we now call the soprano. Sam liked to experiment with different sizes and shapes of ukulele, an example being the pineapple that still exists today. One day a customer spotted one of Sam's prototype ukulele in the corner of the shop. It was much larger than the usual standard size, that at the time sold for $5. The customer pointed to it and said "how much fo' dat one?" to which Sam replied, "oh, that's a ten-er." And the name has been used ever since.
 
I don't know if the original ukuleles were of the same scale length and tuning as those we now call sopranos, but they were certainly small instruments of similar size. The larger sizes came later. Standard soprano tuning used to be a : D : F# : B - concert was g : C : E : A - tenor was lower still. Tuning all three sizes the same is a fairly recent development and, as I see it, a dumbing down. Tenors sound much better to me in lower tuning. Mine is f : Bb : D : G

John Colter
 
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Was it not Martin that started with the larger sizes with their Taropatch model. That had the concert size to accommodate more strings, and as the size was popular they released it with four strings as concert possibly with C tuning. History of tenor is not as well documented I think.
 
Musically, the concert scale uke would be called the alto. I don't know where the name concert came from. But if I call mine an alto uke, all I get are blank stares/
 
I’ll hazard a guess. I think the sizes of Ukuleles is based on their range of voice. Just like in a choir of different human voices. Although they call it a concert uke it has roughly the same range as an alto voice. Again, I’m only guessing.
 
Musically, the concert scale uke would be called the alto. I don't know where the name concert came from. But if I call mine an alto uke, all I get are blank stares/

I've seen the concert size referred to as alto before. It seems rare, but is an alternate name and fits the soprano/alto/tenor/baritone nomenclature.

Me, I play standard.
 
Hi Ed.

The story of ukulele instruments, music and culture is described in the wonderful book "The Ukulele: A History" (Univ of Hawaii Press c2012) written by Jim Tranquada (a descendant of Augusto Dias who was one of the three original Hawaii makers) and John King.

Chapter 7 page 126 says that in 1926 the Standardization Committee of the National Assoc of Musical Instruments and Musical Accessories Manufacturers established a standard for names and scale length of standard (soprano), concert and tenor ukuleles.


Lyon and Healey introduced a big ukulele (tenor size) in 1923 advertising that it was double the size and loudness of an ordinary ukulele.

The CF Martin company introduced a "louder" "concert ukulele" in 1925 and a tenor ukulele in 1928.

Schultz and Moenning introduced their concert ukulele in late 1925.


Cheers.
 
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I'm not quite sure about the story of Sam Kamaka, but what I've read is a combination of merlin and casualmusic's posts above.

The concert was supposed to have grown out of the Martin Taropatch; and what I have read is that it was called concert so as not to confuse buyers who might think the instrument has a different range than the soprano. That makes sense to me, as a singer, as altos and sopranos do not share the same range.

I'm not quite sure what happened with the tenor, as it too, shares the same range. Ukantor may have a point--perhaps early ones were tuned differently, or perhaps the tenor was just so much larger that it felt necessary to call it something else.

I will argue with one small point of Ukantor's post--I've been very interested in tuning and wrote about this on a Facebook group this evening. It's pretty clear that the original tuning--reentrant--of ukulele came from the rajão and was C6 as a result. The earliest ukulele method by Ka'ai (1910, and i have a PDF of the book) was in C6 tuning. D6 tuning seems to have developed after 1910, and by the 1920s, much of the Tin Pan Alley sheet music was printed in D6 tuning.

I'm not sure when things (for most people) came back to C6--perhaps it came with the standardized names of the instruments with the 1926 standardized committee mentioned by casualmusic?

It's all very interesting...

We all know about the Ravenscrag arriving in 1879, but the Ukulele Friend website has a museum with a do Espirito Santo ukulele dated from 1879. I thought the Madeiran workers were in the sugar fields for their mandatory five years before starting to make cabinets and then instruments. So I had always heard mid-1880s for the birth of the ukulele. It looks as if the instrument were created almost immediately.

Also of note: that instrument is made of a spruce top and rosewood back and sides (all laminate--JUST KIDDING), with a pin bridge and rope binding (and rosette). It is really quite amazing to see!

http://ukulelefriend.com/ukes/jose-do-espirito-santo-ukulele/
 
Anyone who is serious about truly mastering the ukulele will always aspire to eventually learn how to play the Standard Size well. All the other sizes are just stepping stones to the Standard. When Jake and others come off the road and end the need to sell tickets and records to interested bystanders, they will no doubt find a Standard size and begin the journey to refine their skills further to fully master the ukulele. A proper Standard with just 12 frets to work with, to be able to play any music. It is a rewarding challenge.

That was actually really inspiring! Thank you for saying that. Hmm...
 
That's a cool picture of first ukulele.


And speaking of time on our hands...


The book is available at:
uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/the-ukulele-a-history

And download at:
b-ok.cc/book/2479315/f7cba8


The book contains approx 180 pages of history, and 80 pages of footnotes/references that can be followed for more info.

It's cool to have a well researched book about ukulele history up to 2012.

I'm hoping for a 2nd edition to add all the stuff that's happenned in the last decade.

Newer topics might include ukulele club culture, uke festivals, uke festival artists, lyric/chord sheets, online resources, proliferation of uke makers, etc.


Cheers.
 
Anyone who is serious about truly mastering the ukulele will always aspire to eventually learn how to play the Standard Size well. All the other sizes are just stepping stones to the Standard. When Jake and others come off the road..., they will no doubt find a Standard size...

I'm serious about playing uke and have no interest what-so-ever in playing anything else. I even gave up the guitar after almost 50 years because I like tenor so much. I would also avoid speculating what Jake or others do when they go home, unless you know first hand.


This is Michael Kohan in Los Angeles, Beverly Grove near the Beverly Center
9 tenor cutaway ukes, 4 acoustic bass ukes, 12 solid body bass ukes, 14 mini electric bass guitars (Total: 39)

• 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
 
I would avoid taking Bill1's comment seriously. Tongue firmly in cheek, I suspect.

John C
 
Why?

Well they had to call it something!

:smileybounce:

Small - Medium - Large
Soprano - Concert - Tenor

Very Small - Sopranino
Extra Large - Baritone

Grossly Oversized - Guitar ;)
 
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I've seen the term "standard" used by others, not just Kamaka. For years, most ukuleles were sopranos, so they were the standard ukulele. I doubt they were even called sopranos because they didn't have to be differentiated from other ukes. About twenty years ago in Hawaii, and group of uke players told me about the different sizes, and they said that someone just had to apply a name to the concert and the tenor. No special reason for those names.
 
To make things even more confusing, Aaron Keim, of Beansprout Musical Instruments, makes an Alto Ukulele, with a 14.72” fret scale and a body between soprano and concert size.
 
Actually, the called them tenors because back in the 20’s and 30’s, they cost around ten or eleven dollars. ‘Elevenor” would sound too awkward, hence the name “tenor”.
Hope this helps!
 
This is a great forum! Thanks for the info, folks. Please keep it coming. Here are a few more thoughts.

1. The 1926 standardization wouldn't have happened in a vacuum, so to find why tenors are called tenors I'll be looking for something before that date. I'm guessing the association just standardized what the major players in ukulele making were calling their various sizes.

2. Calling a concert an alto makes about as much sense as calling a tenor a tenor since the pitch of all three sizes is usually the same. But since timbre is different, perhaps this is a case where size matters.

3. Thanks Chris for your info. I liked the museum at Ukulele Friend website.

4. Until I can get more info, I think I'll just go with badhabits' and lakesideglenn's explanation that originally, the price of the big one was a "ten-er"
 
Ed1 said, "the pitch of all three sizes is usually the same"

It is today. As noted above, it wasn't originally.

John Colter
 
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