5 Ukuleles, 5 Tunings: What they are and why, with examples from vintage sheet music
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- Опубліковано 12 вер 2024
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Most players nowadays tune to GCEA without really thinking about it, but it wasn't always that way (and doesn't have to be now!)
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This is a fun video, and it reminds me of a couple of anecdotes:
My friends in the Bad Mouse Orchestra have a collection of sopranos, some in C and some in D, and have justified it as some ukes “singing” better in one tuning over another. I can get this from a sound engineer standpoint (fundamental frequencies, sympathetic vibrations, harmonic distortions on the waveform etc) and it made sense compared to my usual approach of just using a capo on my tenor ukulele
I have a friend in Vienna who has an old Kamaka that she just can get to like, no matter what kind of strings she put on it. One day I put the uke from C to D tuning and it just sang, I couldn’t put the thing down! I wish I took her up on her offer to take the uke home before the world shut down (this was in February last year!)
I haven’t been watching your channel long, but I have already learned so much! You truly have a gift for teaching. Thank you for taking the time to create such wonderful content.
signed!👍
Always good to have a bit of background history, the reasons for it and how it can be applied today.
I like Bb tuning a lot and have both an 8 string and banjo uke in that tuning - the 8 string sounds a bit less bright and the banjo uke a bit less harsh. Also keep one in D, mostly for playing with guitar players who gravitate to playing in D. Excellent video, thanks.
This is great information! I never knew I could lower the tuning on my tenor… it has a great new sound now!
After watching this I tried dropping the tuning of my tenor to B tuning, and it sounds great - definitely preferable for that ukulele.
I don't have a *lot* of ukes, but I work with 3 different tunings. admittedly, the DGBE tuned instrument isn't a uke, it's a tenor guitar tuned to what tenor guitar/banjo players call "Chicago tuning" for some reason. I did this because I've never found a baritone ukulele I could afford that had any decent volume. (bear in mind that much of my performing history has been outdoors and unamplified, at Seattle's famous Pike Place Market, seasonal farmer's markets, and assorted street fairs.)
the majority of my ukes are in GCEA, with the exception of my sopranino, which is in F tuning (CFAD). it really punches through the ambient noise in the outdoor setting and I've played it along with a doghouse bass player and a tuba player without worrying about being drowned out.
not having to learn new shapes between instruments is a real blessing.
Yes, those DGBE tuned tenor guitars are becoming popular among uke players, and they can certainly cut through. I played a tenor banjo tuned that way for a while, and it never needed miking!
It's funny, I think my loudest uke are the smaller ones, it's more than actual volume, it's the way the tone cuts through.
@@PhilDoleman -- like a hot knife through butter.
an added bonus to the F tuning is that I played a few of the songs that were in heavy rotation in my sets, using the fingering from my GCEA versions, and found out they were easier to sing in the new key. some I just switched to the 'nino, others I re-learned on the soprano in the new key.
Thank you for helping me with playing so much better! Softer string holds on my tenor and so much more!
Hi Phil! Really enjoyed the video. Just a beginner here, but truly apreciate your passion and hability to comunicate your musical knowledge. Maybe one day i'll catch everything you just explained haha. Un abrazo grande!!
Excellent information Phil! Thank you!
That's a lovely tenor. :)
Thank you Phil, very informative. 👏👍 Trev.
So cool. Why? Because I have been playing around with tuning and have ended up with many of the same tunings. I haven’t gone up a full tone from standard out of a concern for string tension. But I have gone down a full tone. I also strung one of my baritones to ukulele “standard” and then went down a full tone. And I love it. Thanks for letting me know I’m not weird for playing around so!
Thank you, that video was very interesting.
Many thanks, Phil ..... very informative. Dropping a tenor to F tuning, I'm going to try that. Cheers!
Hi Phil. In this video you suggest that a tenor can be tuned down to baritone tuning. Another video says that to do this you need to fit another set of strings. That you cannot just tune down the existing strings. Apologies if I have misinterpreted this video. Thanks.
I don't take the tenor down as far a baritone in this video, just down a tone to Bb. The baritone tuning is actually on a baritone uke with baritone strings. However, as it happens I do have a tenor here that I have tuned all the way down to DGBE with the same tenor strings on it, and it works well. The strings are a little loose, but on that particular uke it works well. If you were thinking of tuning a tenor to baritone you would most likely want some slightly heavier strings such as those marked for DGBE tuning on the tenor, but before you spent the money, you could always give it a go with your existing strings.
Outstanding.👍
I like the Mandolin sound so I have bought new strings and retuned my Pineapple soprano in fifths, but keeping my concert as GCEA.
I play tenor banjo in 5ths tuning, and I've been thinking or doing the same thing with one of my ukes for a while!
@@PhilDolemanit was Ben of UOGB that inspired me to do it. I love the sound of his uke.
@@spinnersue17 I know Ben well, he's a great player. Have you heard his new classical album?
@@PhilDoleman yes he is. I've only heard it on Soundcloud but would like to get the full album, it's great. He comes from my hometown too....Portsmouth.
Excellent info, thanks very much! 👍
Thanks for another great video. Is there a particular reason why you don't have concert ukuleles?
Funnily enough I have 3 concert ukes and regularly gig with them, but for some reason I didn't get any of them out for this video!
Really interesting. Thank you
Great info, bought a sound smith resonator from the states, havent been getting on so well with it, found it tiring to play, just retuned it in A#, different beast! Can slap a capo on to play akong to chordify easy enough, much lighter, more bend in the strings which I like, thanks!
How nice to see and hear the camp uke again! And if it doesn't hold up to Eb I have some of that oak left (yes readers, it's made of oak) to remake it :) But Eb will work, the uke is only 13 inch scale like the early Hawaiian ukes. The other reason I have confidence it can cope is that it used to be a bar top, so it had to be tough.
Hi Phil. This is something I've been wondering about for some time. In the violin and mandolin families, the tuning goes lower as the scale length and body size of the instrument increases. So, if the soprano was originally tuned higher, and the tenor lower, is it in fact only the concert that has a natural/appropriate tuning of GCEA, relative to its scale length and size? Thank you.
It's possible, but because the instrument developed in an odd way (gradually evolving, rather than originating as a family, ensemble instrument), and that historically sizes have changed too (vintage tenors are much more like modern concerts), it's not so clear cut. Vintage sheet music shows that the tuning was considered 'flexible'. The differences between scale lengths are also quite small compared to the mandolin family too. A mandola is a fourth below a mandolin, which if we carried it across to the uke would mean a concert uke would be almost as low as a baritone! It certainly makes sense though, as you say, to go lower as scale gets longer, which happens in most other instruments.
This is very good. I tend to favor my baritone and "supertenor" that is longer scale tenor, as my voice is quite low.
My baritone is actually tuned GCEA with a A3 (220 Hz). I love the sound of it.
I'll go try the other tunings on my other ukes :-)
Thanks for sharing, Phil.
BTW do you have anything on open tunings?
A low 'A' string, that's a really cool sound, and something that Cliff Edwards used to do, too!
I have one video on open C tuning
ua-cam.com/video/Ah6HYwssJBc/v-deo.html
Plus a made a little book on alternative tunings a while back.
www.phildoleman.co.uk/books
My baritone is tuned to open G (I also play banjo) leading to other banjo tunings, drop C, double C, mountain modal and Gm.
@@bobdexter9175 I do that too (also a banjo player)!
Very informative, Phil-thanks. Now I know why my Roy Smeck tunes don’t sound the same on my GCEA tuning, haha. I was a tad concerned about adding tension to the bridge by tuning up, but with only one note up pitch, I don’t suppose that should be a concern.
Yes, spot on, Smeck tuned up to D. It shouldn't be a problem tuning up, there are plenty of ukes around that have been at that pitch for decades. I think that some Martin strings still come labelled ADF#B!
Hi Phil, which software would you recommend to use writing uke tabs? Thank you.
I use Tabledit tabledit.com/
I knew George Formby used Ukes in different tunings but not the real musical theory behind it as he always said it was because he only had a very basic knowledge of musical theory. Quite a self efacing sort of bloke really. You are right about different ukes resonating in different ways as I know only too well as I expended quite some time trying to change one of my concerts to low G. I didn't like the feel of the fourth string and it didn't sound good. Eventually the string but it was a worth brown so I changed the other three so all three were brown. Eventuality bought a long neck concert Ko'aloha from Alex Beds and that is one of my favourites now. Great to know a bit more of the theory and mechanics though. 👍🙂
Yes, George did say he had the different ukes because he could only play in one key, I think, but of course he was extremely proficient. Those Ko'alohas are wonderful instruments!
@@PhilDoleman the Ko'aloha is better than I'll ever need and way above my level of proficiency but I love it's sound and also my two Kanile'as. Above all since I have spinal problems and Arthritic hands and fingers their excellently comfortable design makes it possible for me to fumble my way through more than just a few bars without pain and locking up fingers.
Very informative video. I like to try a different tuning on my other ukulele but do you need to buy different strings to tune to different tuning? I know that if you wanted low G you need to change to a new low G string.
It depends- a soprano should happily go up to ADF#B with the same strings, and a tenor should easily go down to FBbDG without changing strings. If you wanted to tune a tenor right down to baritone pitch, then are strings designed for that.
In the video, I haven't put any special strings on at all, and all of those ukes were tuned to C (except the baritone) before I got ready for the video!