Why I use a Low G on my Ukulele - Glen Rose

[@MichaelAustell]

After listening to one of your earlier videos, I literally tried for a week for find Baritone Low G strings. None of the big vendors had them. I finally found 2 obscure little dealers who sold the PHD brand. I'm just now putting them on my new baritone. Love your stuff, Glen.

[@schlitze1]

As soon as I got a uke I put a low g on it. Coming from guitar it just made sense to me, glad to see a pro give legit reasons for it.

[@SocietateaAscendenta]

THANK YOU, Sir! This was very helpful, since I tested Low G strings once and loved the warmth of the sound, instead of the "pinchy" High G sound.

[@glenrose7925]

I prefer it too. It makes better musical sense to me. But it's a matter of personal taste also.

[@profarrington]

Good to see you back. Your lessons have served me well.

[@glenrose7925]

Thanks

[@laubsch75]

Hi Glen, When I heard you play Satin Doll, I bought a Baritone and stringed it with a Low G. Such a beautiful sound. Thanks for sharing!

[@glenrose7925]

You're welcome. :)

[@glenrose7925]

Glad you dig it.

[@glenrose7925]

Glad to hear that.

[@bstring3967]

I used to be all about low g, but I heard that possibly high G was used to make a harp like sound and after experimenting with finger style with high G I like that a lot now as well. Probably not as good in jazz songs though I agree. I like both though.

[@audreygiamlayhoon]

Thanks, agree, and my instruments are strung with a Low G string.

[@glenrose7925]

youre welcome. :)

[@glenrose7925]

Way to go..!

[@JagBetty]

I got a low G today after playing high G for a year…wow what a difference, already my fingers are picking out things I couldn’t do before…great fun.

[@StringsOfBrian]

I really like everything he says and I totally agree! I think the low G would be essential for playing jazz. But, when I do a low G, or play a baritone uke, I just feel like, I don’t know, I should just get my classical guitar out instead. I feel like more of a uke player when I’m playing high G, and thinking of the fretboard differently. I like to utilize the high G in my playing to kind of clash and ring out with other melody notes that are being played on the a string. But that’s just me. I don’t know. It’s a matter of taste and style for the song really.

[@glenrose7925]

I think it's a good idea to have at least two ukuleles. Tune one normally with high G and one with a low G. Then you can have it both ways.

[@bashaenraets9156]

I love the space in my chords when playing on a Low G ukulele, but I also like the the way my chords are compressed when playing on a high G ukulele. I guess my preference depends on the effect I want to achieve.

[@rogiecadiente8885]

The reason for Low "G" which was used throughout his career by the great "Ohta San" Mr. Herbert Ohta, Sr., was the ukulele would have a longer range. More Notes, bottom line. Just remember all you ukulele players, Ohta San was the first to use the Low "G".

[@glenrose7925]

Hi Rogie, I didn't know that. Thanks for saying it. I agree. One has more scale to work with if there is a low G on the instruments. Also, it provides a strong low note on every chord.

[@SocietateaAscendenta]

Yeah, we all know that. The only Intro I know to play on Uke :D

[@michaelprozonic]

without the classic ukulele re-entrant tuning it starts to sound more like a mini guitar. So I also keep uses that are strung with both high G and low G. The high G is very limiting. It depends on what you are trying to do with your uke

[@gustavochiozza6465]

Hi Glen, I have a tenor ukelele with low G and a concert with hi G. I think hi G is funny when you strumming cause you always starts with a hi note, no matter you strum down or up. That’s a very unique situation. But you are right, I think I prefer low G. Thanks for your video. I bought your first jazzy ukelele book. It is great. I would like to know better how to replace normal chord in a song with those beautiful chords that you teach in your book. Soon I will buy the next book. You are great. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

[@tangobayus]

It extends the range in a good way. More like baritone uke or tenor guitar. I tune my soprano in 4ths.

[@nattyboyo2404]

Changing that high string soon as! 😊 Thank you!

[@nekislohike7293]

Thank you for sharing yours skills, Glen I'm already teach a lot from you, and because of your lessons I want play more and more. Salut from Russia! :>

[@Laionel76]

You are so right to describe the chord from low to high. After years of misunderstanding with both music and theory, I watch hours of video bout TONAL music : everything makes so much sense now ! I could not wrap my mind or ears around those chose 6th chords. it turns out are inversion of seventh chords. They have a great way to write it. The lowest note is critical is understanding the harmonic function of a chord. My limited understanding, at this point in my journey, is that music has not gone full circle from modal to tonal and back to modal. In most popular music tonal music extends (or some could say loosen into) into modality , yet its principles are still at its base. The III chords is hardly played in tonal music though the first inversion ( coded 6 ) of the I chord shares the same base note. Guitar as ukulele have benefits as you can play right away with tablature, they make transposition a breath too. Though that is double edge sword, as if your brain is not wired to make sense of it by itself, it is easy to pass on critical musical concept and to loss actually an insane amount of time. Looking into tonal harmony lessons, would have saved me many many years of practice to the point it bring me shame, guilt and sorrow looking at the wasted time. Another thing I discovered : I was awful at reading music score, I discovered it is a better way to learn chords and so first focusing on reading vertically. The intrinsic connexion between the tonic, the dominant and the leading tone, in minor (harmonic) and major, is something I never heard about till recently. Now I feel like I learned to listen to what used to be «funny» tones. I could never understand how and why in blues you can have dominant chords on I IV and V for example. Now I see it (wrongly possibly I'm in the discovering phase) as if they play, say in D, a pentatonic D minor scale whereas the harmony moves from D dorian to D mixolydian and D minor (real minor/harmonic minor). In the same way I've issues with spelling, it seems to me as if I could not hear properly without what a proper mental construct. I can't «really» listen to something, it seems it is filtered, as water passes through a colander and noodles don't. My brain doesn't know what to do with notes that sounds funny (in good way), no matter how many times I listen to a piece.

[@a.wilkins1708]

I totally agree, I first had a soprano and a concert Uke with a high G and now I've got a Tenor and a Bariton with a low G, much nicer to play. I learned to play the violin as a child and just couldn't get my head round the high G.

[@glenrose7925]

Eggs-zactly!

[@Laionel76]

I suspect the material (guts) may have been more easily available and may have better endurance against the elements (humidity and air filled with salt) than the filled strings. The reentrant tuning doesn't make that much sense, if it is about playing more close voicing one can go with different tunings that don't rely on using a reentrant string : CGBD, DGBD, DGAD for example. It definitely has that signature sound though. Anyway, I feel like the less string you have the more alternate and open tunings are tempting. The short scale length is a blessing as it makes even fifth tuning practical.

[@glenrose7925]

There's a lot to learn and enjoy about music theory. It can be intriguing.

[@kanisf]

great video! I've just put low G on my tenor ukulele.The strings I bought were GHS Low-G, but the G string gauge is 0.35 while C string is 0.40. What is the G and C string gauges of this ukulele you're playing, please? Is low G string supposed to be lighter than C string? Thanks! Greetings from Brazil!

[@glenrose7925]

Sorry but I don't know the gauges of my strings. I just rearrange a normal set as I talk about in the video. The low G string should be a little bigger than the C string but really they look the same to me. I am happy with the sound. I am glad to hear from Brazil !

[@mr.keebler7927]

I agree. Low G or go home.

[@glenrose7925]

Ha! M preference as well, but some players learn with a low G and prefer it. To each his own.

[@WillieBeard]

Mr. Keebler Home? What’s wrong with home? I’ll go home, and when I get there I’ll take a nap.

[@mr.keebler7927]

Phil You woke me from my nap 😜

[@juthikamandal9324]

Please help me tune my uke on G . No online application is helping me at all with tunning 😣

[@stanleysokolow]

Hi, Glen. Thanks for posting this advice. I put a low G (Aquila Red unwound low-G) on my tenor ukulele and love the sound. For jazz like you play, I like the full sound of a tenor rather than a smaller size ukulele because the tenor body resonates well with the low overtones but smaller body ukes de-emphasize those rich lower tones and emphasize the higher overtones. What's your advice to people about the best size of ukulele for your kind of jazz. I've seen you demonstrate on your teaching videos using a baritone tuned to the standard GCEA instead of the usual baritone tuning, but you explained that this is just so it's easier for people to see your fingering with the extra space of the baritone frets. It seems to me that a tenor is the sweet spot.

[@glenrose7925]

I think a tenor is a great ukulele for playing standards. A Bari tunes GCEA is even better because it will project a bigger sound. But I also play normal bari tuning, DGBE and that then gets it back into the guitar world. I'm a jazz guitarist so that's fine for me but it's not really a ukulele sound then. I find it best to have several ukuleles and enjoy them all for their unique sound and tunings

[@Stephanie-hn3ds]

What’s that song you played in the beginning? Sounds amazing!

[@glenrose7925]

A few bars from "When Sunny Gets Blue."

[@billylin5404]

I'd be perfectly content and happy if I could never use a high G string on my ukulele ever again for the rest of my life.

[@WysteriaGuitar]

Does that mean the chord shapes would be different using low g on a baritone ukulele vs high g that I use now? Thank you

[@Domiuke]

It seems so obvious specialy for jazz music.

[@glenrose7925]

Exactly. Makes good sense. Especially if you play any slow songs.

[@glenrose7925]

Agreed.

[@colson8327]

Thank you!!!!

[@glenrose7925]

Welcome

[@joikomojomoto828]

So do I need to buy low G strings or is there already uke with low G strings on it because im going to buy tenor where I want low G

[@graemethorne4540]

Glen has a tutorial about how to rearrange the strings for low g

[@deeman524]

I still love my high g

[@glenrose7925]

High G is cool and high. Low G is hot and low

[@crewsforchrist762]

@@glenrose7925 yes , low G is warmer like playing guitar, but I also play baritone uke and guitalele, so I'm slow at getting into low G, but I will soon own a low G ukulele

[@sundownsigns]

Yes, low G all the way.

[@glenrose7925]

I agree!

[@fabiocaetanofigueiredo1353]

Hi Glen, thanks for the awesome video! One question, is yours a baritone or tenor ukulele?

[@glenrose7925]

Hi Fabio, I play both. For my own playing enjoyment, I play my baritones with their natural tuning DGBE. I only use GCEA tuning (with a low G) on a bari if I am playing with other small ukulele players in a group or teaching , because it is easier to see.

[@fabiocaetanofigueiredo1353]

Thanks Glen, makes sense!

[@MikeDavid_Davideos]

Most of Jake's arrangements were only in the keys of G, C and A because he only uses high G string. And nowadays, he's being accompanied by a bass player to "secure" the chords of the songs. So why not transfer to a low G string for convenience purposes?

[@ukuleletoast3292]

I think the ukulele is unique to because it has the high G. For certain types of music like jazz it’s great for others like Hawaiian it is not so great. I think we should use it for certain situations and not use all the time just to keep the ukulele true to its original form. And it is worth to point out that Herb Ohta was the first to make it popular. This is a Hawaiian instrument, we should not be turning it into a guitar for every single song.

[@uinsinoriabhaigh7758]

Which brand strings are you using.

[@SamirsLab]

in my area, there is not available low g string. i found a string which was still string i mean like guitar low string but that causes alignment issue in my ukulele. Can u recomment me full set low g strings i mean all nylon string ? in amazon or etc

[@glenrose7925]

Please take a look on the ukulele page on my website to see how I obtain a low-G using a normal set. ( glenrosejazz.com ) . No special set needed or special string. If you get Jazz Ukulele Workbook One I go into great detail about the ways to do it. Just go with a normal set of ukulele strings and rearrange them in the order of thickness. That's what I do and what you hear on all of my KZbin videos.

[@Greenmantislives]

You convinced me, low G I go sir!

[@glenrose7925]

Cool

[@suziofftheplanet977]

I would love to have low G on one of my Ukuleles but it sounds so boomy and almost flat compared to the other strings. Is that down to my choice of strings or something I need to get used to?

[@glenrose7925]

Hi Suzi. There are a few various ways to make a low G on your ukulele. You might want to go to my website and look at a free download there that describes how I go about it. I use a normal high-G set and rearrange the strings in the order of thickness.

[@suziofftheplanet977]

@@glenrose7925 well thank you! I didn't realise that would work. I'll try it! 😁

[@krakenturdz]

Can I string any ukulele with a low G then?. Are there special low G string sets? Cheers.

[@glenrose7925]

Yes and yes. There are a few ways to make the low G. Come to the Jazzy Ukulele web site and download a free instruction PDF on how I go about it. Quite easy actually. www.glenrosejazz.com/jazzy-ukulele.html

[@teegees]

So basically, standard (high) G is optimized for Polynesian music, and low G works for everything, including Polynesian music?

[@tipsy4373]

Can you put low g on concert uke?

[@mollyoxy]

Yes. Not sopranos though

[@georgeferguson2188]

I do agree for scales it's nice, but Train and Tweenty One pilots both rock that high g and are not Hawaiian music . Why I might switch it out on mine , it's what makes it a ukulele. If I had 2 I would have low and high . But I dont .

[@glenrose7925]

Solution is easy. Yes, get two ukuleles

[@georgeferguson2188]

@@glenrose7925 havent any room for anymore instruments lol

[@aidzun0000]

For me I feel like the high g uke for me is redundant. Just me tho

[@leeponzu]

You're the pro. You get to do what you want. But for me, "ukulele" has a high G. Low G makes it into some sort of small, four string, guitar.

[@glenrose7925]

Hi Lee, I think you re in the majority. You are possibly correct in your saying that the low G makes it into some sort of small guitar. A small guitar with a capo on fret 5, then it would match the ukulele exactly. As I mention to another comment below, I'm a jazz guitarist so I personally like the low G and also I play bari tuned DGBE as well as GCEA. I find it best to have several ukuleles and enjoy them all for their unique sound and tunings.

[@royhsieh4307]

ITS ALL ABOUT THE RANggggggggE

[@rickyelvis3215]

not another jazz snob… enough!