Mike $
Well-known member
Why do you suppose they call it a concert instead of calling it an alto Uke?
Why do you suppose they call it a concert instead of calling it an alto Uke?
Tenor is a stupid naming...
Because it is in the same soprano range. The word concert means only size. The tenor means also only size, because it is tuned as a soprano or sometimes like an alto range. Tenor is a stupid naming, but I'm fine with soprano and concert.
The problem with tenors isn't their name. It's that most people are tuning them too high! :-0
P.S. I please don't jump all over me folks. I am (half) joking...I do personally like them tuned down, but fully believe people should tune any way they please.
Short, tall, grande, venti...
Short, tall, grande, venti...
Yep - Sort of. In Jim Tranquada and John King's great book " The 'Ukulele A History" :I think I read somewhere that it was marketed by Martin as being louder and thus better suited for concert halls (I may have imagined this and be completely wrong here).
Yep - Sort of. In Jim Tranquada and John King's great book " The 'Ukulele A History" :
Martin dominated the upper end of the mar-
ket with its Style 1, 2, and 3 mahogany ‘ukuleles retailing for $10, $15, and $25
respectively; a large order from Southern California Music Co. led it to introduce
koa models in 1919. The firm subsequently expanded its product line at both the
upper and lower ends, introducing the now-legendary 5-K model, “a select article
. . . with a finish like satin” and a steep $50 price tag, in late 1921 and the plain
all-mahogany Style 0 in January 1922. A larger concert ukulele was introduced in
1925 and an even larger tenor ukulele in 1928, the culmination of years of develop-
ment aimed at increasing the ukulele’s volume and tone, driven by the demands of
growing numbers of stage and radio performers. Lyon & Healy appears to have
introduced the tenor ukulele in 1923, advertising it as having “double the volume
of the ordinary ukulele. Schulz & Moenning, also of Chicago, also debuted what
it called a concert-size ukulele in the fall of 1925, “of unusually big tone and car-
rying power. The following year, the Standardization Committee of the national
Association of Musical Instrument and Accessories Manufacturers drafted a series
of specifications for ukulele, including string lengths—13 to 13.75 inches for
standard (soprano), 13.75 to 15.5 inches for concert, and 14.5 to 15.75 inches for
tenor.
short, tall, grande, venti...