{"id":1012,"date":"2020-08-18T07:12:11","date_gmt":"2020-08-18T12:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/soundadventurer.com\/?p=1012"},"modified":"2020-08-18T07:12:25","modified_gmt":"2020-08-18T12:12:25","slug":"is-ukulele-easier-than-guitar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/soundadventurer.com\/is-ukulele-easier-than-guitar\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Ukulele Easier Than Guitar? The Answer Is… Yes?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The ukulele is smaller, the strings are made of nylon and there are 4 strings instead of 6–but is it actually an easier instrument to play? Or is that a myth?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The ukulele is easier to play than guitar due to its comparatively lower string complexity and its ease of pushing down the strings. The tenor ukulele is much smaller than a guitar and is easier to hold, as well.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, the story doesn’t end there. There are some difficulties particular to the ukulele that are stumbling blocks for anyone trying to learn it. You may find that the difficulties are frustrating–so before you switch from guitar to ukulele, you should take a peak at the rest of this article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reasons Why Ukulele Is Easier Than the Guitar<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I’m going to go over all the reasons why the ukulele is easier than the guitar. There may be things that surprise you that you haven’t thought about<\/strong>. I’d make sure and also stick around for the next section where I talk about why the Ukulele can be tricky to play in comparison. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Less Strings = Less Complex<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

All three major types of ukulele, soprano (smallest), tenor, and baritone (largest), only have 4 strings.<\/strong> A standard electric or acoustic guitar has 6 strings. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is one of the more obvious differences between the guitar and the ukulele–but does less strings always mean its easier? Violin players would probably argue this point (since they have less strings). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comparing apples to apples, though. If you are trying to play the open C chord on the guitar you have to hold down three strings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ll show you what that looks like on the guitar:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Open C Chord shape on the guitar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The green squares in this picture show the places where your fingers would have to put pressure on the strings to make a chord. In this case, you would use your ring finger on the bottom left green square, your middle finger on the square in the middle, and then your pointer finger on the top left green square in the picture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now for the ukulele, the C Chord looks like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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C chord on a tenor\/soprano ukulele<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For the same chord you have only have to push down one string as opposed to 3. Many of the open chords on the ukulele are like this–much simpler to play than their acoustic\/electric guitar cousins.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Less strings means less strings you have to play. To be fair, most guitar chords you are pressing 4 or less strings, but with the guitar there are 6 strings, and so that means you are pressing some strings down and not pressing others, so there is definitely more complexity, there.<\/strong> The ukulele is simpler to play than an acoustic or electric guitar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Softer Strings<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

One really fun part of the ukulele is that the strings are not steel-string, but are often nylon or some other variant of string that is soft-to-play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These soft strings gives the ukulele its mellow feel, removing some of the treble (higher pitched overtones) that the steel-string guitar has. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One huge benefit is that it makes it much easier to press the strings down on a ukulele<\/strong> than on a steel-string guitar. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The thing is that your fingers do get used to playing a steel-string guitar, but it means that beginners have to struggle with painful fingers for a long time before they can enjoy the guitar, but with ukulele they can play very quickly.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does that meant the beginner won’t feel any pain from playing? No, actually, you are still pushing a small diameter string into your finger pads, which is painful if your fingers aren’t accustomed to it. But in comparison to the steel-string guitar, the ukulele has easier to play strings.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s worth noting that classical guitars also use nylon strings. In my post here I talk about whether classical guitars are easier to play than acoustic steel-string or electric guitars, check it out here<\/a> if you want to consider the classical guitar (you might be surprised to see the results).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thinner Neck, Thinner Frets<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This isn’t often talked about, but one reason why the ukulele is easier to play than the guitar is that the neck of the guitar (the long skinny end where you fret the strings) is wider than a ukulele’s neck.<\/strong> Furthermore, the ukulele’s frets are much thinner than the frets of a guitar.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, one of the biggest roadblocks for a new guitarist is being able to stretch their fingers across the fretboard to press down all the strings necessary for a particular chord. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hand cramps <\/strong>are a real problem for beginner and even intermediate guitar players because it can be super hard to stretch your hand horizontally and vertically at the same time to reach all the strings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ukulele is much nicer and gentler to play in this respect,<\/strong> because the ukulele’s neck is thinner and the frets are thinner, your fingers don’t have to stretch nearly as far<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is It Easier To Hold the Ukulele?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The answer is yes and no. See the next section where I talk about how a smaller ukulele isn’t always easier to hold. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here, though, I’ll direct my discussion to the tenor ukulele (the medium-sized ukulele).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full-sized guitars are fairly large and sometimes heavy instruments, the tenor ukulele wins a lot of points here because it fits within the crook (the elbow region) of your arm opposite the fretting hand. This gives you a good grip on the ukulele where you don’t feel like you are going to drop it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Playing the guitar for a long period of time can be uncomfortable (especially with bad posture), <\/strong>especially if you aren’t used to it. Your right arm is (if you are playing a right-handed guitar) gripping the guitar, and I’ve experienced a loss of circulation after extended playing (probably due to bad posture, to be honest).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the tenor ukulele, the uke is so light that it just nestles in the crook of your right arm so you can comfortably play for hours. I’d say this is a significant reason why the tenor ukulele is easier to play. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is especially important for smaller people such as children. The ukulele is small enough to be held comfortably by a child for long periods of time.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s worth mentioning there are guitars that are quarter-sized, and half-sized which are made to overcome this difficulty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reasons Why the Ukulele Can Be Difficult<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Now the above section gives the impression that the ukulele is a complete cakewalk to play. And when you are just starting out, the type of music that is out there for beginners is very easy and simple to play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, playing the ukulele is not without its challenges. In fact, there are some things that are more difficult (in my opinion) than playing the guitar (at least for a beginner).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bottom String Confusion<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The first thing that I think makes the ukulele more tricky to learn is the fact that the bottom string is not<\/strong> the lowest-pitched string on soprano and tenor ukuleles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, the second-to-bottom string is the lowest-pitched string<\/strong>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Notice that the lowest-pitched string is not<\/strong> the bottom string on a tenor\/soprano ukulele.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Funky right? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This isn’t a big deal, the chords and tablatures are all accommodated for the ukulele’s funky string arrangement, and you’ll get used to it, quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, for a beginner, this is a bit strange. When learning the piano, or the guitar, all the notes are arranged from lowest-pitch to highest pitch. It’s a bit of a curve-ball to throw at the beginner musician that can take some getting used to. This is especially true for a beginner guitarist trying to pick up the ukulele–their first reaction will be…what?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, it’s not hard to overcome, just a little strange and not immediately intuitive, especially if the learner is coming from guitar. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barre Chords<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Now, if you’re learning to play the guitar, you will have to come to grips with barre chords. (ba doom psh… wow… look at what I did there). But it turns out you have to as well with the ukulele.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First question, what is a barre chord? A barre chord is simply when you have to use one finger to depress multiple strings. For example, on the ukulele, this is the chord of D:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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D Chord on the Ukulele<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If you notice, the green square is covering the bottom 3 frets–you have to use a single finger to SKIP the top string, and cover the rest of the strings with enough force to allow the string to play. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can<\/strong> crowd three fingers in to play D, but what’s interesting about the ukulele is that the frets and neck are thinner–it is actually easier to get a decent sound if you barre these chords rather than crowd your fingers in. On a guitar, for a similar chord shape (A), the beginner can crowd three fingers in no problem since there is more space to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means that several basic chords on the ukulele, such as D, E, B, Cm and many more will (practically) require a barre chord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What’s very fortunate is that the basic barre chords are way easier on a ukulele than a guitar. But, for a beginner, it’s a tricky technique that requires practice and getting used to.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is There Such a Thing As Too Small?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Now, one of the things I mentioned that makes ukulele easier<\/strong> to play than guitar is the size of the instrument.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It turns out that it can also make it harder to play.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s for this reason I sold my soprano ukulele to a roommate<\/strong>. I enjoyed playing, but was constantly frustrated because the instrument was so small it kept on slipping from my hands, and I wasn’t able to fret the instrument.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was frustrating! <\/strong>I loved the sound of the ukulele, but as an adult, I wasn’t able to play the soprano ukulele comfortably.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I bought a tenor ukulele–the Luna mahogany series <\/a>(off of Amazon), and it fixed my problem, instantly. I am able to comfortably hold the ukulele and it was big enough to not constantly be slipping from my grip. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Depending on the stature of the player, you may find that the ukulele is not an easy size to play. <\/strong>For children, a soprano ukulele may work just fine. Of course, any adult can learn to hold the soprano ukulele properly (I just never figured it out), but it’s something to keep in mind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is Ukulele Easy for Guitar Players?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The ukulele is very similar in concept to the guitar–more similar than to bass (even though they have the same amount of strings). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does that mean it’s easier for a guitar player to learn the ukulele than someone who has never played guitar? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From personal experience, I will say absolutely yes<\/strong>. There are many skills that are shared that make the journey easier–however there are some differences that make the transition tricky for guitarists as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ll list what’s similar to give you an idea of what skills cross over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guitar and ukulele players do the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n