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| D tuning for tenor ukulele - General Ukulele - Ukulele - ezFolk Forums | |||||||||||||||
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Ukeconomics Approved 
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I have a Pono PTC tenor ukulele that I bought a little over a year ago and after wasting much time and money, er, experimenting with various sets of strings I ended up putting a set of low-G Worth CT's on it that sounded very nice. But one thing that still had me wanting to do a bit more futzing with it was how the low G string itself sounded "thunky" at times. This last weekend it occurred to me that I could change the tuning from GCEA to ADF#B without too much worry as neither the C or G strings are wound and the low G also seemed to have enough play in it to allow me to tune it up a note. So I did and the change just blew me away. There's a sweetness to the sound now that's amazing to hear, and the cedar top instead of booming a bit at the lower end is now much livelier. A bonus is that the strings themselves are a bit tighter and more responsive when strummed, but are still easy to fret. I thought I'd pass this along here in case anyone else was curious to give D tuning on their tenor uke a try. Last edited on Mon Sep 15th, 2008 05:05 pm by Ukeconomics |
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ukepimp Approved 
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Although I tune my ukulele to an open C tuning(GCEA), I have tuned up a few ukes to open D tuning. It really cuts through the instrument mix a lot better because of its higher tuned strings. The only problem is that a lot of the ukulele playing population are tuned to a C tuning, and therefore, most books and instructional dvds are being instructed in that way. It's not hard to transpose from the chords that they play and teach, to be D tuning friendly. Just play everything one whole step lower. If they say to play strum a C chord, you just strum a Bb. I think that this is funny. The ukulele was originally tuned with a D tuning when it was first introduced to the Hawaiians by the Portugese way back in the day. But in Hawai'i, I think majority of ukulele players are tuned to C. But, in Canada(where ukulele is mandatory in their school system), their standard tuning is D tuning. What we ukulele players from Hawai'i call "Canadian tuning", the Canadians simply say "tuning". haha. Well... I think its funny. There are a few books that are geared towards those with D tuning. I can search for some links if you want them. Have fun.
____________________ http://ezfolk.com/audio/Dennis_Kaieamakoa_Nakamoto http://www.myspace.com/dennisnakamoto http://www.myspace.com/ukehutguam DON'T THINK.......JUST PICK!!!! |
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Ukeconomics Approved
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Well, Canadian tuning is a low "eh" tuning, eh?
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hdxtheo Approved
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hi, ukepimp: do you mean your D tuning is A D F# B? if so, would the strings tension cause damage to the instrument, or add some difficulty to one's finger tips?
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Will Approved 
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hdxtheo wrote: hi, ukepimp: No, he meant to say that about a hundred years ago, ukuleles were mostly tuned to a-D-F#-B (D tuning), but the lower g-C-E-A tuning (C tuning) eventually became more popular. If the uke is well-built, the greater string tension of a-D-F#-B should not harm the instrument, nor the fingertips of the player.
____________________ Will http://ezfolk.com/audio/bands/297/ Loose Change & Friends http://ezfolk.com/audio/bands/245/ http://loosechangeandfriends.com The Earth Tones http://ezfolk.com/audio/bands/337/ A Bunch Of Coconuts http://abunchofcoconuts.com |
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hdxtheo Approved
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Will, thanks for your explanation. I became a bit confused: what's the difference between gCEA & GCEA? As far as I'm concerned, 'g' stands for the lower one in the 4th interval of F clef; 'G', for the higher one on the 2nd line of G clef, am I right? Now let me copy a title of the song: Simple Gifts Ukulele Tuning gCEA (high G) After looking into the whole staff as well as the tab, I found all the numeral marked on the 4th line of the tab corresponds with those higher notes in 'G' clef. I have no clue why the author indicated the 'gCEA' tuning rather than GCEA directly. Actually most of the uke tabs are marked with GCEA, unless the author wants to meet a special need with a thicker 4th string. So sorry to bother you.
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Will Approved
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hdxtheo wrote: Will, thanks for your explanation. In common usage, the lower case letters usually denote a higher octave tuning. Hence, the re-entrant "high-G" tuning would usually be written gCEA. Low-G tuning would be written as GCEA, but sometimes GCEA is mentioned in the general sense to denote ukulele tuning, but not specifically low-G tuning. An 8-string tenor has 2 high octave strings, so the tuning is written as gGcCEEAA.
____________________ Will http://ezfolk.com/audio/bands/297/ Loose Change & Friends http://ezfolk.com/audio/bands/245/ http://loosechangeandfriends.com The Earth Tones http://ezfolk.com/audio/bands/337/ A Bunch Of Coconuts http://abunchofcoconuts.com |
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hdxtheo Approved
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Hi, Will After reading your answer, I thought I had succeeded in catching what you were talking about. However, when keeping on viewing some of the messages written by different people, I start being at sea again. Now, in order to make it simple, I'd like to make a "window" for you to explain. For example: on the piano, the standard A---440 will be regarded as A4, the central C, C4. Thus, our common ukes would be tuned to GCEA, all of them are in Range 4. Then, gCEA, the 'g' is supposed to be in Range 3, but, according to what you said, 'G' is in 3, 'g' in 4 because of the re-entrant. From others' messages, it seems to me that their G & g are pretty much confusing, not same as yours. So, I hope you can help me out. My point is that when we see GCEA or gCEA / ADF#B or aDF#B in the future, what concept I have to create? Besides, I can't figure out what re-entrant really means. Sorry to bother you again. Thanks for your help.
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Will Approved
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Don't be confused by the notation used on an electronic tuner display. Re-entrant tuning simply means the tuning of a string is an octave higher than what would be expected in context with the tuning of the adjacent strings. On a uke, what should be the lowest string position is instead one octave higher than expected. The term "re-entrant" is used for more than just ukuleles. The short drone string (5th string) on a 5-string banjo may also be considered re-entrant tuning, typically gDGbd.  The best way to explain the alternate tunings of a stringed instrument is to use a keyboard, which, unlike stringed instruments has a linear sequence of notes, and only one unique key position to generate a particular note. The blue numbers in the above diagram indicate the sequence of notes in the C-chord, using typical re-entrant tuning on a C-tuned ukulele. Note that the 1st note, the re-entrant G, is located one full octave higher than what its string position would normally indicate it to be, and is actually only one note lower than the high A. Now follow the red numbers, which indicate the sequence of notes of a C-chord using a low-G string. Last edited on Tue Oct 7th, 2008 07:08 pm by Will ____________________ Will http://ezfolk.com/audio/bands/297/ Loose Change & Friends http://ezfolk.com/audio/bands/245/ http://loosechangeandfriends.com The Earth Tones http://ezfolk.com/audio/bands/337/ A Bunch Of Coconuts http://abunchofcoconuts.com |
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hdxtheo Approved
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Many thanks for your explanation & the diagram. Now I gotcha.
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| ezFolk Forums > Ukulele > General Ukulele > D tuning for tenor ukulele | |
