Uke

Over the past year, I have been taking my daughter to Wiggleworms, the renowned early childhood music program at the Old Town School of Folk Music. The program is great in that it makes music accessible to kids from a really early age. For this past session, I have been taking Wiggle-N-Strum, a class which combines the Wiggleworms classes into an adult class built around the teaching of the baritone ukulele.

It is here where I note that I am a percussionist by training. Which means that I am used to playing instruments with my hands but not by plucking strings. I am used to banging on drums, xylophones, timpani, you know, drums. And yet, I am in love with the uke. This poses a dilemma for me.

The baritone ukulele is at the deep end of the spectrum and is the largest of the four types of ukuleles (soprano being the smallest, or “standard” size). I suspect the baritone ukulele is being taught at Wiggle-N-Strum as an intro instrument to guitar, which is Old Town’s most popular class. The baritone, unlike the other types of ukuleles, is tuned D3-G3-B3-E4, the same as the highest four strings of the standard guitar. The other types of ukuleles, the soprano, concert and tenor, are tuned at G4-C4-E4-A4. The baritone is also 6 inches longer than the soprano. It makes for a deeper bass sound, thus taking away some of the distinctive sound of the ukulele that you commonly know. The baritone ukulele I am learning on is a Makai B-55 Baritone uke.

So, if the baritone ukulele is a vehicle for learning guitar, I need to decide if that is what I would like to do. However, I think I am in love with the distinctive sound of the ukulele, both the baritone and its other more common sizes. This means, of course, learning a new instrument, as the tuning is different from the baritone, but that’s OK. I think what sealed the deal with the uke was listening to stuff like this: