Ukulele as a gateway to mandolin for my daughter?

[bob_mc]

6YO expressing interest in music and she is fond of my mandolin. She is kind of dainty and I am unsure if starting on steel strings will be a deal killer.

I found a resource suggesting that I could string a soprano uke and get it tuned to GDAE. (and the sopranos are also available in pink, which is a critical requirement).

Any thoughts/experiences with using a uke as a training mando?

[abuteague]

I tried this and failed. I had a pink flea and I got the strings to tune it GDAE using exactly the strings that were recommended and it really didn't work out. There was no way the set of strings I got could get into GDAE tuning. Perhaps someone suggested the strings I used in error. If I were to do it again, I'd have a shop do it for me. The nut was plastic. The tuners slip. I got myself some new tuners and after all that I have a uke no one picks up. I don't think I'm completely incompetent, so I'd put this project as a theoretical gateway path to mandolin that doesn't work for my family.

Meanwhile my daughter took up clarinet because her friends took up clarinet.

She is 10x more attracted to my mandolin than the uke. What was I thinking to get her a uke?

I should have got her a 4 string tenor guitar with light stings or maybe a 4 string electric. It would be easier on the fingers and she would have gained tuning in fifths knowledge from it.

She loves to sing and she is good at clarinet so I am not a complete failure.

Hopefully someone who got this to work can share the other side of the story.

[Capt. E]

I think a short scale mandolin strung with light to extra light strings wouldn't be too hard on her fingers (I know from raising two daughters that 6 yo girls are tougher than you think). Big Muddy used to make a model M-8 that is smaller than most (saw one for sale on ebay recently). You could probably have them build one for you.

[bob_mc]

See, now, I'm glad I asked.

Thsi guy has s set of strings specifically fro the purpose:
http://cliffordessex.net/index.php?_...&productId=105

[Markus]

Aquila has such string sets, available at Elderly.

My 4 year old has a uke, tuned uke as she is in the 'making noise' phase and my wife is picking it up. She does do rhythmic bowing on the 3/4 fiddle we have (played like a cello).

Uke is nice as you can get a decent, playable one for not too much. If it gets dents, so be it. Unless she is entering lessons soon, uke gets an instrument in her hands that you don't have to worry so much about.

[abuteague]

Yes, Aquila strings are the ones that didn't work for me and I got them at Elderly. They snapped before I could get them up to pitch.

[Tim2723]

Let her learn the ukulele without dealing with anything about the mandolin. At six years a child can learn anything you put in front of them, so the difference between uke and mando is nothing. More important to foster the interest and let her spend time with daddy, which is probably what she really wants. Don't over-think it. Just enjoy it while she's little.

[OldSausage]

Or you could put just 4 light steel strings on a regular mandolin, skipping the doubled strings - only half as hard to press down.

[bob_mc]

May I admit now that since the main end user requirement was that it was PINK (maybeeee purple) I may have subconsciously decided that while I could tolerate a pinkish Uke, I could not stomach a pink mandolin?

And be darn sure, if my kid gets a pink paisley instrument I want a Telecaster to match.

Thanks folks, still mulling it over.

[catmandu2]

Hey Bob--my 7 year-old daughter's favorite color is pink (so she must have pink everything)...unfortunately, her uke is red, but I made it amenable to her by putting lots of pink stickers on it

I usually recommend that young kids--no matter their utlimate stringed instrument desires--on uke, if I can; the skills transfer--the important thing is starting them off with proper mechanics on an (stringed) instrument. My own experience was that, after guitar, all the other strings just fall naturally into place. Another way to approach it: after one year of uke, say, you get the mando. This way you can assess practice habits, interest over time, etc. There are lots of ways to use carrots

You m,ight check out the "children and bluegrass" thread on the forums below

[bob_mc]

Too funny, we have already discussed stickers (OK for hers, not on Daddy's). I will check that thread out.

In regards to my darling Emma's musical tastes, I will search for "children and Beiber" as well.

[Markus]

Tuned as uke, while they have different names uke chords are the same shapes as the top four strings of a guitar. While it will transpose things a fourth up, you can play guitar tab (excepting bottom two strings).

[Ivan Kelsall]

Tim2723 has it right. Buy her the Uke & teach her to play it 'as it is'. She can then play along with you when you're playing tunes on the mandolin. As much as learning the instrument,gaining dexterity in your hands & getting a feel for tempo.is every bit as important. You can do that on a simple (ish) instrument like a Uke. I began playing Uke before getting a banjo,& it most certainly helped me. If your daughter still wants to play mandolin when she's a bit older,she'll have the dexterity (& additional finger strength) to 'swap over' & she won't find it too hard either.The confidence gained playing one instrument will help her with another,
Ivan

[Geordie]

Does she get discouraged easily? If yes, then I recommend a ukulele; much easier to play than a mando (easier chords, easier fretting, smaller for a little kid, etc. etc.).

[Brutus1999]

I'm with Ivan, cat, Tim, Geordie, etc. --

Learning to play any instrument, especially a fretted, stringed instrument, helps anyone learn other fretted, stringed instrument. Learning how to hold the instrument, learning how to hold the pick, and especially learning how to fret cleanly and most especially, how to keep time -- these basics are more important for beginners than learning the fretboard (which is also important....).


Uke strings can't be tuned to mandolin pitch. The strings on the uke are GCEA -- the mandolin is GDAE. By the time you try to get that E string on the uke up to the pitch of a mandolin's A, you'll likely break it; it is FIVE "frets" (half-steps) higher, and the E on the mandolin is SEVEN half steps higher than the A on the uke. BOING! There goes the string, and good luck getting the cheap tuners to hold them in place if they don't break. Which they will. Hopeless. You could spend time getting the gauges in nylon that would work but then they would have to fit in the slots!

Mandolin is NOT essentially a "chordal" instrument, although bluegrass players and especially Jethro Burns found a way to do that and make great music. The strings are SEVEN notes apart, so the "middle notes" in a three (1-3-5 or 3-5-1 or 5-1-3) simple chord is often missing. The strings on a uke are melodically closer to each other so that a person, especially a child, does not have to stretch so far to make chords. The child can play chords on the uke, which sound satisfying, accompanying and yet having her own sound so that she doesn't have to keep comparing herself to the far better player (her parent) who is playing along. Kids CAN learn "melodic-tuned" instruments at a young age (violin, for example), but if you really want to start her on a mando, you should get her a mando. All instruments are difficult to play well, but some, like piano and uke and harmonica, are easier for beginners to get a "nice" sound out of. So I would vote for uke for now.

She's only six. She needs to learn to love the music, keep rhythm, and play things that don't discourage her. Over time she can start on either a four string mando with light strings or even an eight string one. She still has four years to catch up to Sierra, and a few more to match Thile.

P.S. -- To be honest, I had the same thought about stringing a uke in the mando style but a little reading made me realize that it was not practical, especially for a kid.