Uke tuning? : r/ukulele Skip to main content

Get the Reddit app

Scan this QR code to download the app now
Or check it out in the app stores
r/ukulele icon
r/ukulele icon
Go to ukulele
r/ukulele
A banner for the subreddit

Welcome to the ukulele community! All are welcome. We are helping and encouraging one another to achieve ukulele greatness. Check out our Discord server! https://discord.gg/B29aVnKUUc


Members Online

Uke tuning?

I'm so confused right now, I picked up a concert uke to learn a few bwu songs on and have him sign one day and I'm trying to learn to tune it. My brother plays the guitar and I know that with a guitar there's like a million things to tune it to. It seems with a uke there's only one way to tune a uke, is that correct or am I just stupid?

Share
Sort by:
Best
Open comment sort options
u/Doc_coletti avatar

There are many ways to tune ukulele.

The most common, from face to floor, is gcea. Adf#b is also popular, as is gCEG. There are many others but those are the most used, ime.

Okay that's what I thought. What is considered the standard tuning? It seems like bwu uses standard from what I can find and that's what made me think that there's only one tune.

u/Doc_coletti avatar

gCEA or GCEA (high g or low g) is modern standard.

I have no idea what bwu means.

Boy With Uke, I assume.

Yes sorry

More replies
More replies
Edited

That is the tuning boywithuke uses. What song do you wanna learn first? I personally recommend just let me go bc it's nice and easy

Bad things that's what I've heard. I wanted to ask him but I forgot It was late and I was tired LOL

Bad things is actually a pretty hard song to play. The chords are awkward and the song is just fast in general. I'd say work up to it but you got this either way

more reply More replies
More replies
More replies

Re-entrant gCEA is standard tuning.

More replies
More replies

Theoretically you could tune your uke however you want provided you get a string gauge that supports that tuning. I think the reason why there are less variations is due to 3 reasons.

First, the uke is significantly less popular and has less serious players than guitar. That just means less people experimenting on the instrument in general.

Second, most chords and alternate voicing of those chords are easily accessible on the uke. The guitar's neck is sometimes double the length of a uke's, making some transitions harder. Different guitar tunings exist to make certain chord shapes easier to access. Drop tuning is used a lot by metal players to make power chords easier for example.

Third, gear support. You need thicker strings to go lower and hold a playable tension. Sure you can order thicker ones, but they aren't as readily available. You would also need a new saddle to properly intonate your instrument (assuming you get thicker strings). Intonation is easily adjustable on electric guitars, but not so much on acoustic instruments.

u/theginjoints avatar

Guitar has a standard tuning and so does ukulele gCEA. Doesn't mean you can't tune it the way you want