Welcome . . .

Greetings all. I figured it was about time to sign up, sign in, and say hey. I've been playing ukulele for over 20 years, buying and selling them almost as long. I've had a fair amount of experiences with various brands models and scales. My main ukes are early 60's Martin Tenor (with upgrades grover tuners and fishman under saddle pickup), Godin Sunburst Multiuke tenor, and a Mann EUT1 semi hollow electric tenor. Oh...and I'm kinda looking out for a Fanner Jazzy Baritone.
 
Just wanted to say hello and introduce myself. I am Jeff btw
Joined because I'm learning the new hobby
 
Hey Mike...I'm only a little less newbie than you, at least here, but I've been playing ukes almost 25 years now. AND, I've made dozens of dollars doing so!
 
Greetings! Probably should have posted here first rather than the Beginners forum but I was just so darned excited to share a thing I'd learned and wow, what a great lot of feedback that has generated, thank you all.

I live with my family on Vancouver Island (in Canada) on a smallholding in the Cowichan Valley. I'm new to ukulele, but used to play violin when I was younger, and piano (which I still play now and then) then picked up mandolin (since they're tuned the same as violin). I have no particular competence on any of these instruments. I have a thumb tendon issue that is exacerbated by using a pick and chords flummoxed me on the mandolin, but I really like the idea of playing a stringed instrument without a bow. A friend introduced me to ukulele, and I am delighted at how much easier it is to play than the mandolin! I can see that there is a lot of room for improvement (obviously, I'm a total uke noob), but unlike the mandolin or violin, achieving some competence on the ukulele doesn't feel as overwhelming to me, and I am loving picking up my uke and playing, and practicing exercises, and just trying to get to know the instrument better.

I have to say, learning ukulele with standard notation bends my brain a lot, especially with reentrant tuning. I'm constantly converting from violin to ukulele, lol. It's weird to have to relearn how to read notation. Thank goodness for tabs!

I picked up two starter ukes, both Kala KA-20s, one's a tenor, one's a concert; I've had the tenor restrung as low g, then restrung again to use fluorocarbon strings, plus I had a friend do setup on the tenor (although funny story: when I had the fluorocarbons put on, the nut came loose, so I had to do some luthiering myself, with guidance from my luthier friend, fixing that and seating the low g fluorocarbon better in the nut). I'll have to attend to the concert, too, restringing with fluorocarbons and getting someone to deal with setup, because now that I have the tenor singing beautifully, I find the concert less easy to make sing.

Thanks everyone for such a great resource, I really appreciate the wealth of information here, and the experiences shared by the membership. I'm so happy to be here!
 
Mahalo for the welcome! I am a beginner and really appreciate the space you have developed here for anyone to have an opportunity to progress with community support. New profile pic features "Mahi Pineapple," a project I built with an Ohana Ukuleles DIY Kit. I used this uke in a Uke Like The Pros beginner challenge.

Bird Garden YouTube Channel
 

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Welcome to UU savannaGre4nand a big hello from Chicago!
 
Welcome, savannaGre4n. Introduce yourself—where are you from, how did you get into ukuleles, and what kind of music do you play (or, like me, aspire to play)?
 
Hello! Professional musician/sound designer, recreational uke player. I started on a Kala u-bass (fretless!), and a few years later got a baritone uke (cheap lil Beaver Creek bari) to help with composing, and lately got a Kala tenor guitar (love it!), and definitively decided that 4 strings are more than enough for my brain as far as string instruments are concerned (I primarily play flutes and percussion). I use P4 tuning on both my bari and tenor guitar (C-F-Bb-Eb) because I started on the bass, so P4 is just more familar. I also play left-handed upside down, so my chord shapes are all weird, and the symmetry of all-fourths tuning makes most sense to me.

Looking forward to checking out the forum!
 
Welcome to UU, Baritonal!
Fellow flautist, though sometimes struggling to keep my instruments free from dust.
I don't think I've come across many uke players playing in fourths tuning. I suppose that on the bigger instruments chords are eadier than the more usual fifths tuning.
 
Welcome to UU, Baritonal!
Fellow flautist, though sometimes struggling to keep my instruments free from dust.
I don't think I've come across many uke players playing in fourths tuning. I suppose that on the bigger instruments chords are eadier than the more usual fifths tuning.
Hello Ms Bean! What sorts of flutes do you play? I mainly play bamboo flutes (Japanese shinobue, Chinese dongxiao, tiny bit of shakuhachi). I keep my instruments in a cabinet or drawers so they're not too dusty 😁

I use P4 tuning only because I got so used to the u-bass (that was all I played for 2 or 3 years), AND because I play left-handed upside down, the symmetry helps me with more consistent finger positions/chord shapes.
 
Hello Ms Bean! What sorts of flutes do you play? I mainly play bamboo flutes (Japanese shinobue, Chinese dongxiao, tiny bit of shakuhachi). I keep my instruments in a cabinet or drawers so they're not too dusty 😁

I use P4 tuning only because I got so used to the u-bass (that was all I played for 2 or 3 years), AND because I play left-handed upside down, the symmetry helps me with more consistent finger positions/chord shapes.
I play the standard concert flute, piccolo, alto in addition to the baroque flute. I do have a bamboo flute that I bought from an Oxfam shop a very long time ago. I can play some tunes on it, but it requires a lot of experimenal fingerings if I want to get a Western tonal result.
 
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