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curtsheller
Aloha
USA
4 Posts |
 Posted - 02/24/2006 : 5:26:12 PM
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Ukulele For Guitar Players by Curt Sheller - Available March 1, 2006
Preview chapter available now at www.UkuleleForGuitarPlayers.com
--- Marketing Blurb
TRANSFER YOUR GUITAR KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE TO THE UKULELE
This book is for current and former guitar players discovering the ukulele for the first time or returning to the instrument.
Ukulele for Guitar Players is a guide to transferring the accumulated experience and knowledge gained as a guitar played to the ukulele.
Ukulele for Guitar Players explores the possibilities that the ukulele offers. Covering basic open position chords, movable form chords, triads, advanced "jazz" chords, essential scales. An introduction to reading standard music notation on ukulele.
The ukulele is both a different instrument than the guitar and at the same time a lot like the guitar.
Guitar players that also play the ukulele find that it gives them a different and fresh look at how they also approach the guitar.
- - - Marketing Blurb - off
Having written twenty plus books for guitar and ukulele over the years, covering chords, scales, progressions and theory. Countless online ukulele and guitars lessons. Melody and Chord solo rrangements for ukulele. Maintaining several popular guitar and ukulele web sites. Answering many, many questions regarding the ukulele from guitar players I felt there was a need to let fellow guitar players in on the charm and fun that is the uke.
This is my eleventh book for ukulele and is for every guitar player returning the ukulele again or discovering it for the first time.
I feel there is such a need for a book like this I even got it its own web site: www.UkuleleForGuitarPlayers.com
So many of my fellow guitarist are intrigued wituke I thought I'd help the cause a little.
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Curt Sheller
www.CurtSheller.com
www.UkuleleChords.net |
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Reid
Ha`aha`a
Andorra
1526 Posts |
Posted - 02/25/2006 : 07:51:25 AM
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One thing in your book sample pdf is confusing me - the D tuning (DGBE) section. You write:
"The Baritone [and tenor - RK]ukulele is tuned the same as the thin four strings of a standard tuned* guitar. This tuning is referred to as “G” tuning among ukulele players."
Your G Clef standard notation shows that tuning to be 5 notes, or 7 semitones higher than low G C tuning. That would be equivalent to guitar Standard Tuning capoed at the 12th fret. If that is really true, how do you prevent the bridge from being ripped off or a string snapping during tuning up? If it is not, and is an octave lower, how do you get any sound at all from floppy nylon strings?
...Reid
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Fran Guidry
Ha`aha`a
USA
1579 Posts |
Posted - 02/25/2006 : 10:10:32 AM
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Most guitar music is written "8va" ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8va ). I have read that the purpose is to cause the notation to use only the treble clef in order to ease the burden on poor benighted guitarists.
This tuning (same as guitar tuning) works on a baritone because the scale is longer than a tenor. Bari strings might be heavier as well. But in fact they are a little floppy and (pardon me, baritone fans) a bit dull sounding ... uhhh ummmm I mean very rich and warm sounding.
Fran
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E ho`okani pila kakou ma Kaleponi
Slack Key Guitar in California - www.kaleponi.com
Slack Key on YouTube
Homebrewed Music Blog |
Edited by - Fran Guidry on 02/25/2006 10:15:42 AM |
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Reid
Ha`aha`a
Andorra
1526 Posts |
Posted - 02/25/2006 : 10:33:04 AM
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Thanks Fran.
So, let me see if I am clear on this. The D tuning on `ukes is *actually* the same frequencies as on a guitar, but the notation for guitar music is fudged up an octave so that we don't have to look at a lot of ledger lines lost in space, or an unfamiliar bass F clef when we play that instrument. Conversely, the treble G clef notation for a `ukulele is correct. (I think I knew that about the guitar, but I don't remember actually noticing the 8va notation on guitar music.)
In addition, regardless of what the book says about it being apropriate for a tenor `ukulele, the D tuning will produce a sound (or maybe nothing audible at all) on the tenor that will be equivalent to that of bubble gum (I am simply not as nice as you, Fran).
Correct? (The answer could be "Yes, you are not as nice as me :-)
...Reid |
Edited by - Reid on 02/25/2006 10:35:00 AM |
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Pauline Leland
`Olu`olu
USA
783 Posts |
Posted - 02/25/2006 : 12:20:03 PM
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| Playing a tenor tuned DGBE, with a high D, sounds very nice indeed. That is the tuning Lyle Ritz favors. |
Pauline |
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Reid
Ha`aha`a
Andorra
1526 Posts |
Posted - 02/25/2006 : 3:20:34 PM
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Pauline,
My question still persists, despite the favoring of Lyle Ritz, who, in my ignorance and artistic stance, means absolutely nothing to me (I know who he is, but I care not for his music nor his notions, which are hardly Hawaiian - yes, I am biased).
If the GBE portion of the tuning is *exactly* the frequency of a guitar's GBE, the bridge will still rip off, unless braced like a tank. (Which will bring me, later, to another subject - the acceptance of a boxy sound as normal and desirable in `ukuleles. I know that `ukuleleists can hardly wait for these comments.)
What could help me be less ignorant, would be, if you had a tuner that could tell you, and me, what frequency (hence, what tension), that tuning emitted. Since chromatic tuners will say "G", for instance, independent of the octave, it would help to compare the tone with that of a guitar.
I remain, yr obdt & hmble svt,
Reid
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Pauline Leland
`Olu`olu
USA
783 Posts |
Posted - 02/25/2006 : 6:20:52 PM
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Hi Reid,
I believe the tenor is tuned to guitar pitches on the top 3 strings and up an octave on the 4th. So tuning DOWN 4 or 5 steps from its usual C-tuning will DECREASE tension on the bridge, super slack key! So slack that I'm sure it would need heavier strings, they're out there, but that doesn't mean the tension on the new strings at G is greater than the original strings at C. Bridges and bracing needn't change.
I'm not sure what strings Ritz uses. There was a cross-purpose discussion of that at his workshop in Seattle a couple of years ago, but I don't recall anything specific. I think he was annoyed by the question and wanted to talk about playing.
(Side thought/speculation - Ritz is primarily a bass player. Maybe that's why he likes the tenor uke pitched so low. He says that's the traditional tuning of a tenor.)
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Pauline |
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Fran Guidry
Ha`aha`a
USA
1579 Posts |
Posted - 02/26/2006 : 09:43:17 AM
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Hey, I'm as confused as anyone, but ...
Reid, standard tuning guitars have an A 440 at the fifth fret on the first (closest to the floor, thinnest) string. I know you know this, I'm just restating the obvious.
Baritones are tuned to the same pitches. Some people tune tenors the same way, possibly with a reentrant (high) D. This is a looser, not a tighter, tuning than "normal" uke C tuning.
Finally, it's my understanding that the original tuning for Martin tenors, at least, is the one Lyle Ritz uses, same pitch as the guitar but with a reentrant D.
Fran
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E ho`okani pila kakou ma Kaleponi
Slack Key Guitar in California - www.kaleponi.com
Slack Key on YouTube
Homebrewed Music Blog |
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Mika ele
Ha`aha`a
USA
1493 Posts |
Posted - 02/27/2006 : 10:22:56 AM
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I look at my Tenor ukulele (strung with a low G vice reentrant G) as my guitar with a capo on the fifth fret (a fourth) above the guitar. That way I can translate my standard tuning guitar chord forms and familiarity to the ukulele. The problem now is that I rarely play in "tight-key".
So then I go and confuse myself by tuning the tenor ukulele to taropatch C by slacking the upper A to G (GCEG). Then I can play all those kika kihoalu tunes in the key of C instead of G (jus' no alternating bass).
Then I fix that by playing my six string ukulele (KoAloha D-VI) with a taropatch C tuning. It sounds quite nice adding the two bass strings. The sustain on the strings is not the same as guitar but the melodies support some more adds and frills with hammers/pulloffs Led Ka'apana style.
I find my ability improving more slowly on individual instruments but along a wider front. Must be my age activated attention deficit disorder. |
E nana, e ho'olohe. E pa'a ka waha, e hana ka lima. |
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curtsheller
Aloha
USA
4 Posts |
Posted - 03/01/2006 : 08:09:08 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by Reid
One thing in your book sample pdf is confusing me - the D tuning (DGBE) section. You write:
"The Baritone [and tenor - RK]ukulele is tuned the same as the thin four strings of a standard tuned* guitar. This tuning is referred to as “G” tuning among ukulele players."
Your G Clef standard notation shows that tuning to be 5 notes, or 7 semitones higher than low G C tuning. That would be equivalent to guitar Standard Tuning capoed at the 12th fret. If that is really true, how do you prevent the bridge from being ripped off or a string snapping during tuning up? If it is not, and is an octave lower, how do you get any sound at all from floppy nylon strings?
...Reid
The guitar is a transposing instrument, written one octave higher than sounded.
The ukulele is written in concert pitch. Written as sounded. |
Curt Sheller
www.CurtSheller.com
www.UkuleleChords.net |
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