Comments on: 10 Reason It’s Easier to Learn the Guitar than the Ukulele

By: Andy

Andy — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 14:09:51 +0000

I cant agree with point #7 as here on the south coast of the UK we have an excellent music shop with a huge range of ukes for sale (southern ukulele center) but i must agree with your final point, I’ve played 6 string for 20 years but the E on a uke certainly takes some getting round! Songs that start in E and then never go back to it are fine though! :)

By: raj

raj — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 08:02:12 +0000

Sunny? mancs? more like wet miserable mancs….

By: Woodshed

Woodshed — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 12:04:46 +0000

Terry: Thanks. It’s amazing how things have changed over the last few years.

By: Terry Truhart

Terry Truhart — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 21:58:37 +0000

Hi, Todd

The original article was written in 05/2009, almost 3 years ago. Fender ukes did not even exist then. Over 655,000 Chinese ukes have been sold last year. So, there is more in stores/uke maker/uke types to meet the rising demand over the last three years.

Keep Strumming, Singing, and Smiling, Todd
Welcome to the community of uke lovers.

Terry Truhart

By: Todd

Todd — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 18:16:04 +0000

#7 is pure crap. tons of shops sell uke’s and really nice ones at that. I just bought one an hour ago. walked in picked up a beauty fender uke. all koa wood. sounds sweet. walked in and out within ten minutes.

also leeuwen it’s not about the size of the uke its about the tone and the sound. i dont think it compares to a guitar cause its a uke. i’ve played guitar for 15 years but have way more fun playing a uke.

it’s also not a “hype” or fad. the uke has been around for a very long time.

By: leeuwen

leeuwen — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 07:32:35 +0000

The uke is just a hype at the moment, but funny to play. If you find a normal guitar too big just try a 1/2 or 1/4 size they are big fun and give much more than a uke.

By: MikeE

MikeE — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 04:19:53 +0000

Love the site, and the discussion. My take:

1. Guitars can be a bitch to tune sometimes, too. As far as friction tuners go, anyone who owns a screwdrier can install geared tuners.

3. It can be much harder to get a good sound out of a guitar, particularly for a beginner, and for anyone using a guitar that hasn’t been professionally set up (most people). Beginners have a hard time fretting the strings, and there are a lot of chords that require muting a string – if you don’t you get “dischord.”

4. You think it’s easy to hold a dreadnought standing up? Get a strap and stop complaining about having to hold your uke!

6. True, but I use guitar tab for my uke. I started as a guitar player, then learned uke (and mandolin, and banjo, and bass, and…) so it’s fairly easy for me to transpose notation in my head.

7. I was in a guitar store just this week that had a whole range of ukes, soprano, concert, tenor, and bari, and at varying levels of quality. And it’s a small store in a small town.. Things are getting better for uke players!

8. Strumming pattern is just as important with guitar, but yeah, not a lot of passionate discussion about it among guitar players.

9. The strings are in the right order on the uke, too. One of them is just an octave off.

10. Yeah, on a guitar it’s called a “B” chord. And there are two more strings to worry about.

By: Ben

Ben — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:13:01 +0000

I learned the uke instead of the guitar because I thought it would be easier. Ukes, by virtue of being so small, are generally easier to hold. Guitars that are just the right size for your body are good, but they can be hard to find.
Overall, this article is really good to have out there. I thought I was alone in thinking these things. I think that the size and string quantity of ukes is ultimately conducive to them actually getting picked up once they’ve been bought, but that doesn’t make them easier to play.
People have talked a lot about how ukes used to be more popular than guitars and “whatever happened?” I think that what happened is, when ukes were more popular, it wasn’t because they were easy- it was because their sound fit with the popular music of the day.
These days, guitars fit more with what’s popular, so they’re inevitably going to be more popular.

By: Alf

Alf — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 11:43:45 +0000

I agree with you on this. The E chord is very hard on the Ukulele, but on the guitar I find its quite simple to play.

By: Jess

Jess — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 21:07:08 +0000

the amount of instruments (of any kind) avaliable reflects more on the store than the instrument. Just because I cant pick up a piano or accordion and a regular music store doesn’t mean they’re awful, it means theyre a more niche group of instruments that only the more dedicated would track down.
The music store I went to had an entire wall of ukuleles ranging from the begginners to the most advanced electric ones.

I own two guitars and one ukulele, I admit the guitar is better for my large fingers and theres a wider range of sounds on the guitars in one tuning (far more frets, chords and string length to mess around with.

But everyone and their dog would be carrying around giant guitar cases, public transport next to anyone with a guitar, even the most mindful person, would be awkwardly trying to balance their instrument.
Guitars were so mainstream (lol) and so many people would be playing TNT by ACDC.

Ukuleles are handy by been small and sweet. There are deffinately difficult things to play on the Ukulele. Easy to learn and hard to master.

I’m a novice at both instruments (only a few years of guitar but a few days on Ukulele already sounds nicer).

I guess for me the Ukulele is something different that can cheer anyone up.

Also sitting down playing guitar is rather difficult for the more…ahem…well endowed woman, having one boob squished and the other sitting ontop like a lazy cat is rather unappealing.
Hawaiian girls with grass skirts and coconut bras are sexy though.