New to ukes....chords sound off?

theymademedoit · Jun 2, 2011

Hi all,
I finally took the plunge and bought my first uke!
I would like to think I now have a friend for life but I have a few concerns.
After playing guitar for a few years and seeing some of my mates play a uke I thought it was the next step for me.
Yesterday I bought a Lanikai ULU21C. I got a bargain on it considering it was a UK purchase.
Looks wise and size wise the concert is great.
It’s fitted with Aquila strings too so I had peace of mind there.
The guy in the shop threw in a Tanglewood tuner worth £15.
So as soon as I got it home I tuned up, whizzed online and downloaded a few song tabs and tried to play.
My first choice seemed easy….it was a song called Rise by Eddie Vedder (from Into the Wild soundtrack). There are 2 versions, I chose the simple to start with.
It consists of 3 chords – G, C and D.
The G sounds ok, but the C doesn’t sound like the next chord in the song (I can play this on a guitar and mandolin).
The same happened when I tried a couple of other songs, as in the chords don’t sound right.
I constantly re-tune so it’s not that.
I tried to check the intonation, which I thinks right apart from a couple were slightly out.

Any ideas? Or do I just need to get used to how hard to strum it etc?

I understand that the uke I bought isn’t the top dollar version, however I was led to believe it would do the job for a beginner/intermediate.

Thanks in advance.
Al

ItsAMeCasey · Jun 2, 2011

If you do play it on piano and guitar you could always transpose whatever chords you're playing to the key of G and it would sound correct. Or you can just take the chords straight from the piano/guitar and play them on the uke.. it should sound right. Hope this helps!

theymademedoit · Jun 2, 2011

ItsAMeCasey said:
If you do play it on piano and guitar you could always transpose whatever chords you're playing to the key of G and it would sound correct. Or you can just take the chords straight from the piano/guitar and play them on the uke.. it should sound right. Hope this helps!

Hi,
Thanks for the response.
I dont play the piano.
What I am concerned with is that I am getting decent song chords from the likes of Uke Hunt and they sound wrong....I am worried that my uke is a dud.....the comments on the sites regarding the chords are all positive.

Loupin' Flech · Jun 2, 2011

It sounds to me like you're using guitar finger positioning which won't work on ukes.Google ukulele chord charts for right positions.

theymademedoit · Jun 2, 2011

Loupin' Flech said:
It sounds to me like you're using guitar finger positioning which won't work on ukes.Google ukulele chord charts for right positions.

No not at all....the chords are clearly shown on the songs I am looking at.....see here as an example
http://ukulelehunt.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/risebasic.pdf
I am following the charts at the top!!!!

ItsAMeCasey · Jun 2, 2011

Oh I see what you mean now.. dead fret maybe? Idk, but if it's new it's possible that the stretch of the strings could be messing things up. When I restring my ukes things don't sound completely normal until I wear in the strings.. and sorry for misinterpreting your post lol, I thought you wrote that you played piano lol!

Loupin' Flech · Jun 2, 2011

Hmm..Sounded ok on my wee cheapo soprano..Is the tuner on the right setting?And you're tuned GCEA from the top string down?

theymademedoit · Jun 2, 2011

ItsAMeCasey said:
Oh I see what you mean now.. dead fret maybe? Idk, but if it's new it's possible that the stretch of the strings could be messing things up. When I restring my ukes things don't sound completely normal until I wear in the strings.. and sorry for misinterpreting your post lol, I thought you wrote that you played piano lol!

No probs....it could just be the strings....I will keep going and see how it goes!!!!

theymademedoit · Jun 2, 2011

Loupin' Flech said:
Hmm..Sounded ok on my wee cheapo soprano..Is the tuner on the right setting?And you're tuned GCEA from the top string down?

Its tuned to that....the tuner doesnt have any settings. All you do is strum and it shows green or red with the chord letter showing.

Loupin' Flech · Jun 2, 2011

That's a puzzler right enough..strange the 2nd chord sounds out,usually get at least halfway through a tune on new strings before it turns to custard...

theymademedoit · Jun 2, 2011

possibly tighten my screws in the tuning pegs?

PhilUSAFRet · Jun 2, 2011

theymademedoit said:
possibly tighten my screws in the tuning pegs?

That would be good. Have you checked the intonation? I have heard that some folks have had intonation problems with their Lanikai. We now have Lanikai represented on UU. Here's a UU post on the subject:

http://www.ukuleleunderground.com/forum/showthread.php?6415-What-is-intonation

mm stan · Jun 2, 2011

Aloha Al,
congratulations on the new Lanikai...Your new Aquila strings take a while to break in....a week or so...be patient..they are streching out..MM Stan

theymademedoit · Jun 2, 2011

mm stan said:
Aloha Al,
congratulations on the new Lanikai...Your new Aquila strings take a while to break in....a week or so...be patient..they are streching out..MM Stan

Cheers bro....I appreciate your help!
I am going camping these weekend so will take a song book and have a go!
Al

flacoclef · Jun 2, 2011

Could it be the voicings of the chords. Remember most times in uke the lowest note is not the root and sometimes one needs to hear the bass to "understand the chord". Or put in another way, one chord shape can be used for more than one chords. For example, I use the Bm to imply a Gmaj7. Hope this helps.

jjjj · Jun 2, 2011

I would go with the voicing being different, too.

You say that G sounds acceptable. On a uke a G is GBDG, where both Gs are the same. The standard C chord is CEGc where one of the Cs is an octave higher. As a test, try strumming only the GEC strings, or muting the A string (just lay a finger lightly on it, instead of actually pushing all the way to the fret).

Does the C sound more like you expect it to now?

theymademedoit · Jun 2, 2011

Interesting....I didnt know that.
I will report back once I get a chance to get acquainted with it more.

franck3d · Jun 2, 2011

Maybe this isn't your issue since you have experience playing guitar, but when I started playing ukulele, I tended to press the strings down much harder than I needed to for certain chords. Truth be told, I'm still fighting this tendency.
Good luck tracking it down!

mm stan · Jun 2, 2011

Aloha Al,
Check this tuner....out in the picture, it has it broken down in incriments for percise tunings..see in the picture and on the left of the tuner is the notes and right is octaves in incriments...of that note.
hope it helps..good luck..get a good tuner and it will be fast, percise and less hastle....http://www.metronomes.net/CherubChromaticMateWst-550C.htm this is a really good price..Stan

joep · Jun 2, 2011

Have one of your friends that already playing ukulele play it and see what happens.

New to ukes....chords sound off?

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