Ukulele intonation- something I learned UkesterBrown

Ken Middleton helped me pickup my old ukuleles and correct a bad behavior I have.... what did he say?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzI48y7Or4s
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Category:

Education

Tags:

• ukulele
• Elysian
• Remiger
• Beare
• Son
• Canada

[DonfromMT]

Thanks for passing on what you've learned. It was helpful. And forgive an ignorant question. When you tune your ukulele up, don't you have to change your fingerings to compensate?

[UkesterBrown]

You can play the same shapes, but they will be different keys. A "Bb" shape becomes a "C" chord, a "F" shape becomes a "G" and a "C" shape is a "D" since it is tuned up one step. It really only becomes a problem when you play with others. Then you have to keep it in mind what you are playing so you stay in key with others. Playing and singing by yourself it doesn't really matter- you are just up a key.

[UkesterBrown]

A lot of times you can buy old sheet music which says tune ADF#B. You only have to do that if you want to play in tune with the piano. If you are going to play the music by yourself you can play the diagram pictured and not worry about the tuning. Hope that makes sense. It does cause a lot of confusion.

[nicolasanatol]

wow, thanks for broadening my horizon. I was suspecting that it's my fault when my uke sounded off all of a sudden. Now I know why.

[michaldabski]

Thank you, this is veeeery valuable advice. I play guitar and got my first uke this christmas. Silly me thought all i need is to learn new chord shapes and play it like a guitar!

[franulele]

I've been thoroughly enjoying your videos this evening. You do an absolutely superb job with that trad. ukey style that I love so much!

Regarding D6 tuning, I have a Kiwaya KS-1 (laminate) that sounds good in C6, but even better in D6. Even my cheap Mahalo , after tweaking the nut , saddle & replacing the strings with Aquillas, didn't have good intonation until I tuned up to D6. Now it actually sounds good, not a monster tone like your Josephine of course, but still surprisingly good!

[PeteyHoudini]

Thanks for the info about pressing too hard (as guitar players do). I ran across that and now I understand. Some ukes are worse or better than others on that front!  One just has to be aware of it!

[doogey9]

great vid ukester....helpful :)

[DonfromMT]

It makes perfect sense, and I appreciate getting that answered. Thanks!

[KenMiddletonUkulele]

I really pleased to have helped. An excellent video response. Thanks.