Baritone uke / tenor guitar question?

[Jack R]

So I recently picked up a tenor guitar to try something new in addition to my acoustic 6 string guitars. I have it tuned dgbe (guitar) tuning. I'm interested in techniques to replace alternating bass in fingerpicking blues and also the occasional melody note on the 5th or 6th string. Any tips or direction to instruction would be appreciated.

Thanks, Jack

[casualmusic]

Hi Jack.

Apologies for the late reply. I'm catching up.

You can treat the four ukulele strings as bass strings during the bass part of the pattern and treble strings during the treble part of the pattern.

The important thing is the feel and texture rather than exact duplication of the six string guitar patterns.

This works because on both instruments all strings are separated by five/four semi tones. So alternating bass will work on any pair of strings.

Our hearing subconsciously expects to hear full chords and will automatically fill in missing notes when partial chords are played - example: two note power chords and double stops are understood as clearly as full 3 and 4 note chords.

You can get a bit more oomph by being aware of which strings carry the I, IV, V notes of basic chords. And thumbing the bass pattern and ringing the treble pattern as usual.

Feel free to reverse the sequence of the alternating bass notes, cluck the trebles and throw in a few quick treble triplets.

When playing with others I'll often up pick a few bars here and there to add texture and emphasis.

You can add more texture by finger walking some notes.

An example is hammer-on of the middle finger on the D-string of the C chord, the index finger on the B-string of the D chord, and even entire chords.

Other examples are walking the ring finger between D and G strings of the C chord, walking the ring finger amongst the C chord and C7 chord and Am chord when playing the C chord, using the ring finger to toggle between G and G7, using the ring finger to toggle between the major and 7th when playing bar chords in the E chord pattern, toggling the B string when playing bar chords in the À chord pattern.

I'll finish by saying that these are ideas and not gospel (some may be dead wrong because I'm a late beginner). When you experiment you'll figure out what works for you.

I've been playing a few years. Each week I
spent time playing baritone at ukulele playalongs led by strong rockabilly musicians, playing guitar at the bluegrass and old-time society, and learning bits and bobs from teachers and books.

Cheers.


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[Jack R]

CM

Thank you for your detailed reply to my question. I appreciate it.