Tenor or Baritone?

I see this a lot. I love playing baritone and don't want to have to play a much larger guitar with six strings. Some of the same folks who dislike baritones also don't see a place for low g tuning on ukuleles. They seem to view the ukulele in a very narrow focus.
 
I am very new to ukes and instruments so I wont give advice but will share what I am working with. To get started with uke playing I ended up buying a few Makala ukes to mess with the different tunings. I have a tenor and a baritone, and a second tenor on way. One tenor will be low-g the other high-g. To my untrained ear the Makala ukes sound great and my fellow beginner musician friends all agree they sound very good. I'm sure the more expensive solid wood ukes sound better but if you are a beginner like me you probably can't really tell the difference. Also with the money I saved with the cheaper ukes I bought several types of strings, song books, straps, wall racks, and a tuner/metronome. I am really happy that I got the inexpensive Makala ukes. I also am really enjoying learning the GCEA and DGBE tuning at the same time. I was concerned learning both would slow me down but I think its actually helping me learn the fingering faster.

FYI - Kala customer service is very good if you have any problems. My Makala baritone got lost in shipping and Kala customer service sent out a replacement with out any hassle.
 
If you end up getting a tenor ukulele and stringing it DGBE, playing that ukulele will help you to learn the different names for chord shapes in DGBE tuning (a C chord ahape in GCEA tuning is a G chord shape in DGBE tuning, for example), but it may not be a good audition for whether you would like a baritone. By virtue of its longer scale and larger body, a baritone in DGBE tuning is likely to sound more resonant and have more sustain than a tenor in the same DGBE tuning. To get the full "baritone experience," you really ought to get a baritone ukulele, even if you just buy an inexpensive one to see if you like it.
 
If you end up getting a tenor ukulele and stringing it DGBE, playing that ukulele will help you to learn the different names for chord shapes in DGBE tuning (a C chord ahape in GCEA tuning is a G chord shape in DGBE tuning, for example), but it may not be a good audition for whether you would like a baritone. By virtue of its longer scale and larger body, a baritone in DGBE tuning is likely to sound more resonant and have more sustain than a tenor in the same DGBE tuning. To get the full "baritone experience," you really ought to get a baritone ukulele, even if you just buy an inexpensive one to see if you like it.

I agree, nothing sounds like a baritone ukulele except a baritone ukulele. A tenor with DGBE strings doesn't come close.
 
I see this a lot. I love playing baritone and don't want to have to play a much larger guitar with six strings. Some of the same folks who dislike baritones also don't see a place for low g tuning on ukuleles. They seem to view the ukulele in a very narrow focus.

:agree: 100% :agree:
 
A quick related question please. I am enjoying baritone coming from guitar background. Much of the instruction material I find is GCEA. I play this on baritone and think in terms of baritone / guitar keys. This is fine except I can't use backing tracks, mp3's, etc with lessons. Capo 5 is arkward. Would one of the GCEA string sets now made for baritone get me in tune with concert /tenor material and if so, which do you like? I would only put one baritone in this tuning and transfer skills to regular baritone. Any thoughts?
Thanks, Jack
 
A quick related question please. I am enjoying baritone coming from guitar background. Much of the instruction material I find is GCEA. I play this on baritone and think in terms of baritone / guitar keys. This is fine except I can't use backing tracks, mp3's, etc with lessons. Capo 5 is arkward. Would one of the GCEA string sets now made for baritone get me in tune with concert /tenor material and if so, which do you like? I would only put one baritone in this tuning and transfer skills to regular baritone. Any thoughts?
Thanks, Jack

Not sure what you mean with skill, but the main skill you need is transposing in your head and when you can easily move chord shapes from one key to another without having to look them up then it doesn't really matter anymore if it is tenor or baritone tuning. The challenge is if you are using tabs, then your easy options are to use capo or just play in different key. Otherwise it may be a lot of work to move tab and keep the key.
 
I see this a lot. I love playing baritone and don't want to have to play a much larger guitar with six strings. Some of the same folks who dislike baritones also don't see a place for low g tuning on ukuleles. They seem to view the ukulele in a very narrow focus.

Well one of the things I love about ukes is their portability. But baritone uke is way too huge for me to haul around, may as well take the guitar.
 
Anyway, depending on what OP want to play, vocal range might indicate what would be smartest to play.
I disagree. Vocal range should be matched by key and is independent of instrument. For example, many songs in C are easy for women but strain the voice of men, who are often more comfortable to sing in keys of F or G. And the transposing of keys can easily be done on most instruments. What matters more is the timbre of voice where you want to avoid an overlap. So for example a bright female voice is better accompanied with a darker sounding baritone uke, whereas brighter concert or soprano ukes can be better complements to darker male voices.
 
Thanks for the replies, merlin 666. To be clear, I am just looking for a way to play along with youtube lessons for concert or tenor without using the capo. When I take the lesson, exercise, scale etc. to baritone, I'll think in terms of baritone keys. Maybe the easiest way is a inexpensive concert or tenor for practice purposes. All for solo entertainment at home (blues, early country and 50's rock n roll for this 78 year old).
 
I disagree. Vocal range should be matched by key and is independent of instrument. For example, many songs in C are easy for women but strain the voice of men, who are often more comfortable to sing in keys of F or G. And the transposing of keys can easily be done on most instruments. What matters more is the timbre of voice where you want to avoid an overlap. So for example a bright female voice is better accompanied with a darker sounding baritone uke, whereas brighter concert or soprano ukes can be better complements to darker male voices.

This makes perfect sense, though the high notes and keys dont stick together always.
My point was only valid if you want to sing verses and make chord melody instrumental breaks with the exact same key. In that case you would prefer the most active part your vocal range to match an area of the fret board on the A and E string that you are comfortable playing.

For many jazz standards, the lyrics are not that long. The lyrics are often repeated with half of them replaced by instrumentals the second time around. I like to attempt doing the same.
 
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