California Ukulele

May 13, 2009

Kelly in California writes:

Hi Patrick,

I just had a light come on last weekend when I was playing around with my ukulele, and I wanted to share.

I was trying to play a song on my ukulele that I play on my guitar (No New Tale to Tell by Love & Rockets), and it wasn’t sounding quite right. I think it was that even though the actual chords were the same (D,F,C,A), the chord shapes gave a different sound than the guitar does, and things just weren’t flowing the same. So, I was trying it in different keys to get a similar sound to what the guitar has. It turned out that when I went up a 4th (G,Bb,F,D), everything fit right into place. Then, I noticed that those shapes were the same as the 4 top strings on the guitar. Ding! Ding! Suddenly, I realized that I could play all the same chords from my guitar on the ukulele, and just have the key be transposed up a 4th.

Well, I was happy, and I thought someone in the Tangier Sound community might find it to be useful information.

Good luck with your surgery, and thanks for all the inspiration you’ve given me and everyone else. I really appreciate it.

Kelly in CA.

Posted by Patrick Costello
Filed in Guitar, Music, Ukulele, people
3 Comments »

3 Responses to “California Ukulele”

  1. Danny Says:

    May 13, 2009 at 12:34 pm

    Good tip thanks mate

  2. Doug-the-electrician Says:

    May 13, 2009 at 6:04 pm

    A baritone uke is tuned the same as the top 4 strings of a guitar in standard tuning – DGBE. Some people also tune their 4 string (tenor) banjos to what is called “Chicago” tuning – DGBE.

  3. Bill from Michigan Says:

    May 13, 2009 at 6:51 pm

    I tune my Baritone uke in open g tuning DGBD. Then I use the banjo chords, it works great.


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