Quick Guide to the Ukulele For Guitar Players.

The original ukulele is now called a soprano uke, string length of 13 to 13.5 inches and is tuned to a C6 chord, GCEA, with the G string an octave higher than one would expect. It was the marriage of the four string braguinha and the GCEA strings of the five string rajåo. Both of those folk instruments are Madeiran. They were married in Honolulu Hawaii in 1887. (Some mainlanders and Canadians tune it up to D6, ADF#B. Occasionally sheet music will show Bb tuning.)

Concert ukes have a slightly larger sound box.

Banjo-ukes (also called banjoleles or uke-banjos) are usually soprano ukes with banjo heads rather than wood tops.

Tenor ukes have a larger sound box and have a 14.5 inch string length.

Baritone ukes, originally created by Martin (some say Ditson) at the request of Arthur Godfrey, have much larger sound boxes and a 20-inch string length. They are usually tuned like the first four strings of a guitar, DGBE. (Nothing else in this section relates to the baritone, which is more appropriately thought of as a small tenor guitar, or perhaps soprano guitar.)

The ukulele tuning is re-entrant — not tuned from low to high, but tuned high to low to high: The lowest note is middle C, the third string.

The 12th fret is usually located where the neck meets the body.

The strings are nylon and interchangeable regardless of tuning. Friction tuners can be a nuisance but some luthiers are using PegHeds and banjo planetary tuners these days. Some long time players often refer to geared, guitar-style tuners as “mouse ears” and they don’t like them — or plastic ukes either! No accounting for old-timers.

Lowest complete diatonic scale is C, highest is (usually) D from the fifth fret on the A string.

The ukulele is like a tenor guitar that has a capo on the fifth fret, but no bass string.

Guitarists can read a ukulele player’s fingers by recognizing the guitar chord formation (for example a D guitar formation) and thinking of its fourth to transpose. Thus, a D guitar formation and position when played in the same place on a uke is a G chord. When uke players see a guitarist playing a G chord, it looks like a uke C chord to them, so the uke player thinks of the fifth to know it’s a G. In other words when a guitar player is following a uke player’s fingers, he counts up four; and when a uke player follows a guitarist, she counts up five.

Because of the re-entrant tuning, there are often two notes in unison in a chord. Simple inversions can easily change which note will get an octave or unison.

The ukulele lives to be glissandolised, trilled, muffled and plucked.

The ukulele is a percussion instrument with access to chords and melody. It was originally built for dance. It is rarely played with a pick although felt picks are available. (Lyle Ritz, who made his living playing bass in Capitol Records’ Wrecking Crew in-house rhythm section, uses a felt pick to play jazz melodies and arpeggios on a tenor ukulele.)