Granddaughters birthday coming up(6)and her big bro(11)wants to get her a Uke and teach her to play!!! He has been getting lessons for a few years and mum played piano and sax so between them Minime should be well capable of strumming a tune. I think big bro actually wants one so we will probably end up buying 2-3, one for mum….
Question is, what Uke ??

Makala Dolphin is hard to beat for a starter at £45, you probably need to spend a lot more to improve on that. Cheaper is still workable if you need it. I started with a cheaper Mahalo and just by changing the strings made it a pretty good thing to have around, still use it despite owning a much nicer one nowadays as I don’t mind it getting dinged, so it’s always out.

We’ve got one of these

Brunswick Tenor

Being a tenor it is a bit bigger, so easier for sausage fingered adults to handle. Marked increase in quality with the bit extra in price.

Get proper guitars. I find them really irritating, all the chords are different and the notes are all over the place. There’s almost no sustain so picky pieces sound empty. Something for walking or cycling for a month or more but once home the guitar is picked up again.

She is just a wee bit small for her brothers smal acoustic guitar, he also has an electric+amp thanks to another thread on here last year :D. It’s her brothers idea btw
Thanks, will have a look at suggestions

Some good suggestions above. If you are at the budget end +1 for the Mahalo ones, they are what I use for teaching. They are good for the price, especially with quality strings on as mentioned above. Find a good local shop if possible rather than the big music retailers and they will probably set them up with new strings for you too.

Mahalo do some good starter ukes. But I always preferred the Makala MK series:
MK-S Soprano
MK-C Concert etc

Nice simple ukes with a plain finish.

Makala Dolphins are fun if you like bright colours. Sound pretty decent too.

gra…..
We have a good music shop: http://johndouglasmusic.com/
Got some good advice when we bought grandson his Xmas present which was much the same as on the guitar thread

Yamaha six-string uke? Same tuning as a guitar, AFAIK.

Get proper guitars. I find them really irritating, all the chords are different and the notes are all over the place. There’s almost no sustain so picky pieces sound empty. Something for walking or cycling for a month or more but once home the guitar is picked up again.

There are a number of musicians in very successful bands, in particular The Staves, who play ukes, so are you suggesting that they’re lowering their standards by playing an inferior instrument? Particularly when a good uke can cost the same as a reasonable guitar?

Ukuleles sound ace when played by someone who knows what they’re doing. GavinT has some good stuff on YouTube 🙂

whatever you do, buy and instrument, not a bit of wood with strings on it!

Get proper guitars. I find them really irritating

Don’t worry, I don’t think treksters grandaughter was planning on coming round and playing it for you 🙄

We’ve had a few cheaper ones but Makala Dolphin at the moment, seems to be decent enough.

so are you suggesting that they’re lowering their standards by playing an inferior instrument?

No

Particularly when a good uke can cost the same as a reasonable guitar?

It would need a superlative rather than “good”.

Guitar E A D G B E (other possibilites but all rising scale)

Base E A D G

Violin G D A E

Cello C G D A

Uke G C E A

One day I’ll get a baritone Ukulele and G tune it like a guitare’s high strings. Then I’ll be abel to solo on more than two strings.

You left out banjo, lute and viol. Are those worthless too ‘cos they’re not tuned like a guitar?

Uke is great for someone learning to strum and understand rhythm. I had one as a kid and I don’t recall any issue transferring what I learned to guitar, or viola, or even oboe.

Personally I would choose recorder but it’s not very rock ‘n’ roll is it?

What does a base look like? 😆

Are those worthless too ‘cos they’re not tuned like a guitar?

No. Is your way of putting words in people’s mouths asking questions in which you imply they have said something they haven’t?

My word was irritating, because you can’t tranfer learned patterns to it. A six string banjo is the same as a guitar.

Here’s junior playing the household Uke at 1:40

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvm6byeui3Y[/video]

All the guitar parts were recorded with the buterscotch Tele you see at 1:08 rather than the silver Tele with humbuckers which sounds a bit muddy with that much gain.

My word was irritating

Prefaced by “Get proper guitars”. Which led me to believe you were suggesting ukulele was a bad choice.

I think for many people it is but a bad choice but that doesn’t mean I think it’s a bad instrument. It looks like a guitar but isn’t in terms of the way it’s strung it isn’t (hence “proper”). I’d like to see statistics for the most owned, least played instrument, the uke has to be high on the list. The household one hasn’t been out of its bag in year but every guitar gets played by one of us now and then, even the classical.

I’d like to see statistics for the most owned, least played instrument, the uke has to be high on the list. The household one hasn’t been out of its bag in year but every guitar gets played by one of us now and then

Four guitars here, hardly ever used and all now ended up in the loft.
2 Ukeleles, both get played pretty much every week, one of them every day.

Anecdotes eh, what can you do with ’em.

You could always use a low g string in place of the high g.
That is what I used to do. Gives it a more serious sound and can use all 4 strings more effectively for solos (if you want to solo on an instrument with low tension strings and a scale length in single figures!)

I agree a Ukulele is great for starting out;
– Low tension strings which don’t hurt fingers
– Very easy chord patterns (some one finger)
– easier to switch between chords

They soon feel limiting though and I would think most people would want to move onto to one of the ‘proper’ instruments.

Which is what forums are all about, Neal. People passing on their personal experiences.

Check out the car threads: one man’s meat is another man’s poison.

Edit: you didn’t watch the vid, Kerley, check out the solo.

I take delivery of a ukulele on Monday next week, I’ll be sure to let you know how I get on

Ukuleles sound ace when played by someone who knows what they’re doing. GavinT has some good stuff on YouTube

That’s very kind Simon – I’ve got some shit stuff on there too but I’m quite pleased with this one!

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ix2LXfkAqf4[/video]