Ukulele for banjo players

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Posted by WayneConrad on Monday, December 2, 2019

Some reasons Ukulele is good for banjo players:

Ukuleles are inexpensive. You can keep one everywhere you might want to practice. I keep one at work.
Ukuleles, being small and tough, travel well. I have one in the car to practice at stoplights or when waiting for someone. Plus, if you do break it, see above.
Soprano and concert ukuleles use reentrant tuning, the same as banjo. Clawhammer style sounds great on a ukulele.
Ukulele strumming patterns transfers nicely to banjo. I'm not suggesting you strum entire tunes (although four-string banjo players do, so why not five-string players?), but adding some strums here or there adds variety to a clawhammer tune.
Ukulele scale patterns aren't that much different than five-string banjo scale patterns, so practicing scales or melodic improvisation on the ukulele aids your banjo skills in those areas.
Ukulele jam groups are everywhere and are a lot of fun.
Ukulele may be the only instrument that is as intrinsically happy as the banjo.
Practicing ukulele chord changes aids left-hand dexterity.

The tl;dr is: Ukulele isn't that different than banjo, and ukulele gives you a way to practice where you otherwise couldn't.

3 comments on “Ukulele for banjo players”

Moose_Roberts Says:
Monday, December 2, 2019 @5:24:03 AM

If I'm not mistaken, ukulele was the instrument Earl Scruggs started on as a youngster.

WayneConrad Says:
Monday, December 2, 2019 @5:37:11 AM

Moose_Roberts I didn't know that. Very cool!

Judith511 Says:
Thursday, December 26, 2019 @6:24:01 AM

Interesting I keep looking at them in the stores. They are inexpensive and light which makes them perfect for travelling. I asked the man at the store and they sell lots of them. Easy for senior lesson groups etc. :)

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