Uke tuning question

[Geof S.]

I am a ukulele newbie, and I have a simple question:

If you have a tenor uke tuned to high G, and you have a piece of uke music written for low G tuning, is there any reason you can't just play it in high G with the same fingering? Will it not sound right?

[frankmcr]

It will sound different but not necessarily wrong.

Kind of depends on the arrangement. If the piece is written to emphasize a progression from low notes on the low G to higher notes on the other strings, that would be lost with the high G tuning.

One of the reasons why many (most?) ukulele players have (at least) two ukes, one for a high tuning one for a low.

[lfoo6952]

Maybe. It depends. For example, if you were playing single note melodies, and had to play a note on that high G string, it might not sound right. But if you were strumming a chord, it might not make a difference.

[Geof S.]

Thanks, that makes sense.

I find it interesting that a lot of the ukulele books on Amazon and elsewhere don't indicate in their description whether they are for high G or low G. I guess the usual default is high G, but that appears to not always be the case and it would be nice if they just told you.

[Paraclete]

Are the books for chords or for TAB/standard notation? If TAB and standard, if they have a few sample pages scanned, you might be able to tell by comparing the two. High G is pretty standard, it seems, in many places. But apparently low G is really popular in Hawaii....or at least according to the luthier who built a uke I have.

[MC5C]

Part of it is that for a soprano uke, the scale length is a bit short to get a good tone and intonation out of a low G string. Plus the characteristic chordal sound depends on the re-entrant tuning of high G. Add to that the many odd tunings that uke's seem to get and basically you can do whatever you want. I like to play chords on my uke, and get away with single note runs on the upper three strings, but I often wish I had that low G string...

[Geof S.]

Originally Posted by Paraclete

Are the books for chords or for TAB/standard notation? If TAB and standard, if they have a few sample pages scanned, you might be able to tell by comparing the two. High G is pretty standard, it seems, in many places. But apparently low G is really popular in Hawaii....or at least according to the luthier who built a uke I have.

Thanks, this is an excellent suggestion. It works perfectly for books with "Look Inside" capability and both tab and standard notation, like this one: https://www.amazon.com/Fingerstyle-U...ywords=ukulele

And this one: https://www.amazon.com/Daily-Ukulele...ywords=ukulele

Of course, some books don't have that capability, like this one: https://www.amazon.com/Ukulele-Scrat...ywords=ukulele

[Geof S.]

Originally Posted by MC5C

Part of it is that for a soprano uke, the scale length is a bit short to get a good tone and intonation out of a low G string. Plus the characteristic chordal sound depends on the re-entrant tuning of high G. Add to that the many odd tunings that uke's seem to get and basically you can do whatever you want. I like to play chords on my uke, and get away with single note runs on the upper three strings, but I often wish I had that low G string...

Your comment about soprano ukuleles is interesting and makes a lot of sense. I guess the soprano ukulele is the traditional size. However, I have a tenor ukulele and it appears that people are more divided on whether tenors are better in high G or low G. It seems to me - just based on the available learning materials - that reentrant is the way to go in the beginning. As far as I can tell, the introductory level stuff seems to strongly favor high G (e.g., Hal Leonard's Ukulele Method books, Austen/Horne's Complete Ukulele Method, the Ukulele Roadmap book), as do a lot of the DVDs.

The long-term solution noted by frankmcr above appears to be to own two ukuleles and have both high G and low G tunings. But in the short term I am probably going to stick with one ukulele until I figure out how interested I am. So I am probably going to do a string change on my low-G tuned ukulele and tune it to high-G for a while.

[merlin666]

I have a tenor, and after playing with re-entrant for several months I switched to (unwound) low G and have not looked back for about 3 years now. The nut slot and the slot in the bridge needed to be widened to accommodate the thicker string. I am wondering if the considerably increased string tension might have an effect on the uke, but so far have not noticed any deformation.

[Neal]

Probably less tension on that low g.

But yeah, most music books for ukes assume reentrant. Low g is great for...well, sounding like a 4string mini guitar. Oof...that sounded condescending...low g turns a uke into another instrument for making good music in a linear way more easily understood by guitar players. There, fixed.

[Neal]

Originally Posted by Geof S.

Your comment about soprano ukuleles is interesting and makes a lot of sense. I guess the soprano ukulele is the traditional size. However, I have a tenor ukulele and it appears that people are more divided on whether tenors are better in high G or low G. It seems to me - just based on the available learning materials - that reentrant is the way to go in the beginning. As far as I can tell, the introductory level stuff seems to strongly favor high G (e.g., Hal Leonard's Ukulele Method books, Austen/Horne's Complete Ukulele Method, the Ukulele Roadmap book), as do a lot of the DVDs.

The long-term solution noted by frankmcr above appears to be to own two ukuleles and have both high G and low G tunings. But in the short term I am probably going to stick with one ukulele until I figure out how interested I am. So I am probably going to do a string change on my low-G tuned ukulele and tune it to high-G for a while.

Yep, soprano is considered “standard”, but there’s no real road map as to which size or tuning, reentrant or low g, 4-6-8 string, Wood, etc., is the “way to go” starting out. You’ll find plenty of opinions, but on the uke? Do what flips your switches.

[Steve DeRosa]

My tuppence worth:

While re-entrant tuning is in fact traditional, from what I've seen the trend among tenor uke players - and some concert uke players as well - has been toward low-G tuning; my wife and I belong to a community uke group, and as Frank suggests the serious players have instruments in both tunings, usually a tenor and a concert. As a converted guitarist I personally find the low-G tuning more versatile, and with an appropriately-gauged string set you can adapt to a variety of smaller/shorter-scale instruments (an old studio players' secret FYI - allowed them to collect double-scale for a session since they were playing "different" instruments... ); FWIW I have a Deering Boston tenor banjo set up this way (a trick I learned from Chuck Romanoff of Schooner Fare), which I've used it for everything from Dixieland/vaudeville to Irish to fingerstyle to substituting for a samisen at a school chorus performance, and I'm seriously considering converting one of my mandolins as well - might do this one with octaves on the lowest three strings for a tiple-like tone...