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Old 03-16-2013, 03:56 PM
fishfret fishfret is offline
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Question what next?

I started playing guitar two years ago -- I'm in my mid 50s, take a one hour private lesson once a week, and practice roughly one hour a day. I'm still very much a beginner, but I'm learning and I love the process. I had no musical background before I bought my guitar.

About a year ago I got a ukulele, and then somehow I got another one, and now, I look around the room and a second steel-string guitar has moved in.

Recently classical guitars have captured my attention. I know NOTHING about playing them and I play very little finger style (okay, none at all) on my guitars or ukes.

Here's my question. Would it make more sense to learn finger style on my ukes before moving to a classical instrument? Does the technique transfer at all between those instruments? Or should I plunge headfirst into the world of classical guitar?

Related to the above, I am also considering a guitalele instead of a classical guitar (I started out just looking for a small body guitar with a cedar top). Maybe that would be a better option for a first nylon stringed guitar?

(Wasn't sure if this should go in the nylon string thread, the other stringed instruments thread, or this one, so went with the most active one for my first post.)
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Old 03-16-2013, 04:09 PM
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ljguitar ljguitar is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fishfret View Post
...Here's my question. Would it make more sense to learn finger style on my ukes before moving to a classical instrument? Does the technique transfer at all between those instruments? Or should I plunge headfirst into the world of classical guitar?
Hi fishfret...

First of all, Hello and Welcome to the forum! Glad you joined...and finally jumped in with a post.

As a guitar teacher I'd recommend that it always makes more sense to start with the more complex process and then simplify. In your case it would mean start with classical guitar and the apply it to the ukelele.

That way you only have to learn the overall process once.

For what it's worth (and I do own a couple nice Baritone Ukes) it's not an exact port of information between a Uke and a guitar. Most ukes have a bottom string which is higher in pitch than the 3rd string called reentrant tuning (the baritone is an exception, and sometimes the tenor uke).

Also the scale length of the uke strings is half that of the guitar (or less). So the weight and tension of strings, and width of frets is severely affected.

I occasionally hand a baritone uke to students and watch them 'fumble' for a bit. Even though the intervals are the same, the sound of the chords on a uke take on an entirely new spectrum than that of even nylon strung guitars. It's a cousin of the guitar, not a brother.

After all, there is an octave's worth less of string range (minus a full step) on a baritone uke and an octave and a half less bass on a soprano uke.


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Old 03-16-2013, 04:10 PM
Von Beerhofen Von Beerhofen is offline
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There's no difference between learning fingerpicking on a classical or a suitable steel stringed guitar, other then the pain involved and the neck scale and string spacings.
A 12th fret steelstring is probably the closest to the nylon stringed classical but for me the only difference is the sound produced and playabillaty.
The nylon strings will be easier when it comes to pain but your fingers can adjust to almost anything given enough time and training. There's no real difference in the learning process on either type of guitar and I think a ukelele can make for a reasonable start trainingswise, but it's not a 6 string guitar. The nylons will make it easier but if you really want to learn classical guitar I wouldn't wait too long with swapping to a guitar, whatever your choice of instrument will be.

Ludwig
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Old 03-16-2013, 04:38 PM
J Patrick J Patrick is offline
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..i play some fingerstyle on guitars and ukes...i would say learn on a guitar ....the fingerpicking patterns you learn on a guitar will translate to a uke easier than the uke to guitar.....more or less what Larry said....that said theres no reason you can't work on both at the same time....
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Old 03-16-2013, 04:53 PM
fishfret fishfret is offline
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I'm glad that my instincts towards purchasing a new guitar were good ones!

Now, I need to figure out if the guitalele is a better option for me than a classical guitar at this point. FWIW the guitalele I'm considering (not the $100 Yamaha one BTW but a solid wood one) has a 21.5 inch scale; not sure about the nut size right now, but I think it's probably narrow like a tenor uke otherwise it would be marketed as a guitar not a "hybrid," right?

/firstworldproblems
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