Quote:
Originally Posted by Dylan
...my wife...can read music and used to play clarinet in high school but we are looking for something easy to play...
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If your wife can read music and used to play clarinet in HS, I'm sure she has enough background to recognize common chord forms - major, minor, dominant seventh, etc. - when she hears them, and enough manual dexterity to be able to handle basic guitar chord/scale patterns with a little practice; that said, there's also a psychological factor - one that I didn't fully appreciate until my wife and I joined a seniors' uke group at the local community center - which, in spite of the reality of the situation, just makes some instruments seem "easier" to play. I say go with a nice tenor uke:
- It's small and "cute" enough not to be intimidating, and portable enough to take just about anywhere
- There's more space to get around on the fingerboard compared to a standard soprano uke, while still being small enough overall to handle easily
- The sound is "bigger" and fuller
- It can be set up with a low-G fourth string to extend the tonal range
- It blends very nicely with a standard 6-string guitar (speaking from experience here)
- It doesn't restrict her to barred "one-finger" major or minor chords (as an experienced musician I suspect she'll tire of that in a hurry), and the forms/fingerings are transferable to guitar when/if she decides to step up
A decent student tenor uke can be had for around $200; just as with guitars, you're starting to get into solid tops (and occasionally all-solid construction) once you get into this price range - and since both of you have musical experience I wouldn't recommend going with the lower-priced/poorer-sounding laminated instruments. FYI one of our regular posters runs a uke group, whose website provides some
excellent information - you might want to check them out before you take the plunge:
www.boiseukulelegroup.com
Happy shopping...
