Holiday Ukulele Group Class

Buying a Ukulele: 

A SOPRANO UKULELE is the one that you probably picture in your mind when you think of the ukulele. These are great for kids. 

BUT, the ukulele actually comes in FOUR sizes: Soprano, Concert, Tenor, and Baritone. 

The Soprano, Concert, and Tenor are tuned exactly the same and the only difference is size. 

The Baritone is pitched lower (like the first 4 strings on a guitar) but has the same intervals. So all of the chord shapes you learn on the other sized ukuleles will also work on a baritone! 

Generally speaking, use a Soprano Ukulele for kids and a Concert Ukulele for adults. If you have a bigger adult or someone that is coming from a guitar background, you may want to look into a tenor ukulele. 

Ok, let's get to the tips! 

1. If it looks like a toy, it's a toy. 

Use your judgment. Even if you haven't played ukulele before, you know what a quality instrument looks like. You would be surprised at the great quality ukuleles you can get for around $50, but there are also some pretty low quality ones. Generally speaking, stay away from any 'themed' ukulele with your favorite cartoon or similar on it. 

2. Make sure it has GEARED tuners. 

Tuners are the little knobs that you twist to tune the ukulele. If you flip it over you should be able to see little gears. These are GEARED tuners as opposed to TENSION tuners. Tension tuners do not have gears and often slip out of tune or won't tune up at all. You will see these on cheaper/toy ukuleles. So, you're just looking for 'geared tuners' in the description or a picture where you can see the gears on the back of the headstock. 

Note: Tension tuners were actually pretty common in the early 20th century, but the quality was MUCH better back then. 

3. Our #1 Buying Tip. 

Check out our buying guides for some specific ukuleles, but what we tend to do is search for either Soprano (for kids) or Concert (for adults) sized ukuleles on Amazon. Then we search by price (low to high) and check out the ones with the highest reviews. If you use the two tips above and some common sense, you should be ok. We've had some that are slightly better or slightly worse, but all have been very solid in the $30-$50 range. 

4. Accessories and "Beginner Packages"

You don't need anything but a ukulele. You'll probably never use a strap. We don't really recommend picks unless a young kid is really struggling and then it would only be felt picks. The tuners in these packages are pretty low quality. You probably won't use the extra strings either. The nylon strings on ukuleles will last for a LONG time (read: years). 

A case is the only accessory that is nice to have and a lot of the budget ukuleles come with nice padded gig bags. 

You can grab a Snark tuner for about $10 or use an app on your phone.