Ukulele player.

[rllink]

I might as well start here. I've been on this site for a few weeks and haven't posted. I picked up the ukulele seven years ago. I never played a musical instrument before that, except the tonnet in fourth grade. So along the way I've done some coffee shop gigs, some busking, lots of open mic, played with a few groups, and accompanied my neighbors singing around the bon fire.

First and formost, I like to sing songs. It has never been about the ukulele, it has been about singing songs. This winter I dug out my wife's old guitar from the basement, where it has set on a shelf for forty years, and started learning to play it. Now I'm not out here trying to dazzle folks with my guitar playing virtuosity, I just want to sing songs and play the guitar. It is going well. My point in posting here, any advise that might help the transition would be greatly appreciated. So there we are, my first post on the guitar forum. Thanks all.

[blue]

The only help you need you may already know. It's that the uke has the same "tuning" as the 4 high strings on the guitar. It's just "capoed" up 4 or 5 frets. So all the chords you know "work" on the guitar. All the runs you know "work" on the guitar. You just need to get used to those 2 lower strings, and learn when to use them and when not to.

[casualmusic]

Originally Posted by rllink

So along the way I've done some coffee shop gigs, some busking, lots of open mic, played with a few groups, and accompanied my neighbors singing around the bon fire.

First and formost, I like to sing songs. It has never been about the ukulele, it has been about singing songs. This winter I dug out my wife's old guitar from the basement, where it has set on a shelf

... My point in posting here, any advise that might help the transition would be greatly appreciated. So there we are, my first post on the guitar forum. Thanks all.

Hi

The coolest things about guitars are the loudness to support more singers and the extra strings to insert bass drum rhythms.

Once I figured out how to add bass patterns it invited participation by bodhran players, soloing by other players and better coordination of singers.

You can find more info on guitar bass patterns by searching for folk/country alternating bass, boom chuck, walking bass. Or asking a guitar teacher for demo and lessons.

I suggest that to speed up progress you switch your ukulele playing to DGBE for a while to increase répétions, and avoid splitting focus between EADGBD and GCEA. Use a baritone or re-string a tenor.

And later for fun maybe go a step further and tune a banjo uke or banjo to DGBE: banjos need to be picked and the picking practice will sharpen your picking on guitar and ukulele.

Good people to practise with are bluegrass, old-time, folk, and Celtic music groups. They use simplified guitar techniques to support singalongs.

I found that learning each song in opposite keys (C and G, D and À, etc) taught me to hear the chord pattern and melody separately from the lyrics.

While learning chord patterns I'll usually sing the chord names instead of the word lyrics to tune out the distraction of recalling all that poetry.

I bought a pile of Chord Family cheat sheets to hand out to new players. For each key it lists related basic chords to facilitate learning, practising, jamming and transposing.

For example the basic chords for C are C, F, and G. The chords for G are G, C, D etc etc. This technique is generally known as the Nashville System invented for recording artists to coordinate temporary musicians hired for recording sessions.

And when using song sheets and sheet music I start by sifting away the fancy embellishments used by the performing artist, and find the basic simple patterns which are easier to learn, remember and demonstrate. Embellishments can improvised later if wanted.

Cheers.


.

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by casualmusic

...I suggest that to speed up progress you switch your ukulele playing to DGBE for a while to increase répétions, and avoid splitting focus between EADGBE and GCEA. Use a baritone or re-string a tenor.

And later for fun maybe go a step further and tune a banjo uke or banjo to DGBE: banjos need to be picked and the picking practice will sharpen your picking on guitar and ukulele...

A couple tips from my own experiences with the local senior center uke group:

• The fingerings for ukulele and guitar are identical for the top four strings - it's the respective chord names that are not - so when I'm working with converted guitar players making the transition (there are a few of us) I'll transpose the uke chord sheets down a fourth (i.e., fingering for a G chord on guitar sounds as C on a uke), or up a fifth in the reverse case;
• DGBE is traditional baritone uke tuning (more recent variations are re-entrant dGBE, octave-mandolin GDAE, mandola CGDA, and octave tenor-uke gCEA, where the re-entrant G is tuned like the third string of a standard guitar and the C is a fifth below - BTW you'll need custom-gauged strings for all of these) which, when used on a four-string banjo, is referred to as "Chicago" tuning; if you're playing with a local uke group doing "traditional" vaudeville-era material it's a very effective addition to the group sound, filling out the lower end and providing rhythmic drive - that said, while Chicago tuning sounds great on a plectrum banjo (think 5-string minus the short 5th string) there's something I've found more effective on tenor:
• With the proper string gauges on a modern instrument a tenor banjo can be tuned to GCEA drop-G tenor uke tuning, which allows you to keep the familiar chord names/pitches and fingerings while at the same time re-focusing things into the "sweet spot" of the banjo range, lending sparkle to the overall group sound (I've been using a Deering Boston tenor strung 10-13-17-26W) and providing a natural "lead" instrument. FYI this tuning was popular among converted uke players of the 1920's, looking to make some real money playing with the jazz bands of the day without having to learn a new set of fingerings (tenor banjo is traditionally tuned in fifths CGDA); when the guitar assumed its pre-eminent position in the early '30s this tuning was all but forgotten, Chuck Romanoff of Schooner Fare (from whom I learned about it) being the sole active proponent TMK. If you're going to be attending a lot of open jams I'd strongly recommend setting up your banjo this way, as it lends itself well to most forms of acoustic music (I've used mine for Irish, chanteys, neo-trad folk, Dixieland - I've even done "Scruggs rolls" when my 5-string crapped out on me) - and if you can sing and learn to play lead patterns (start by working with linear scale runs and arpeggiated chords) you're going to make a lot of friends...

[zztush]

Hi, rllink!

There are many UU (ukuleleunderground) members in this forum. :-)
Learn chords and play like ukulele. You have already have many opportunities to play ukulele. Just learn chords on your guitar and share your sing and play to your family and friends.

One of the advantage of ukulele to guitar for me is that we can play ukulele with out strap in standing posture. I can play ukulele and sing anywhere and anytime without strap. Now I have some travel guitars, whom I can play without strap and sing in standing posture. I can play them even guitar solo without strap in standing posture. Hence I do not need ukulele anymore. I think the best way of transition from ukulele to guitar is that you sing songs on guitar.

[slopeshoulder]

Some moveable chord shapes translate from uke to guitar and vise versa. D shape and F shape on guitar work on Uke as well. Food for thought.