Monday Tune

When I first started I bought an ukulele and a book. The ukulele, a Mahalo, had serious intonation problems, and the book was for D tuning. After I had played a while, my ears got good enough that I noticed the problems with the Mahalo. So I started searching out more info on the ukulele and everyone told me that "no one tunes ADF#B anymore." I  thought I'd wasted my money on both.

The first person I ever heard defend D tuning was Joel Eckhaus. Here he is in action (unfortunately this gets cut of rather abruptly at the end but is still worth it):



I have always liked this interview he did a few years ago. This quote in particular:

I play standard and concert uke in ADF#B (which I call East-Coast-Up-Tight tuning), mostly because that’s the way Roy taught me. But after all these years playing that way, I’ve grown fond of that tuning. It fits my vocal range and my playing style, which is often hard and aggressive. GCEA (West-Coast-Slacker tuning) works well for those mellow Hawaiian Hulas. Some ukes sound better in one tuning or the other, depending on the resonant frequency of the box. I like to experiment and see which tuning sounds best on a uke.

East-Coast-Up-Tight Tuning! I think we should call FBbDG Southern-Sitting-On-The-Porch-Sipping-Bourbon tuning.

Anyway, his point about experimenting is a very good one. Your ears will tell you what tuning you like and the ukulele will tell you what suits it.