I haven’t played the ukulele much since the pandemic started, but recently my friend let me borrow his ukulele to take to a Bluegrass jam. At the time when I was playing ukulele in 2020, I was having a really difficult time figuring out the scales. Stepping away from it and playing only guitar for a while has proven to be a good strategy. Once I picked up the ukulele, I was able to quickly identify the major scale pattern I’m most familiar with on the guitar. I wrote about this in another post about playing melodies, but the one I like the most is commonly referred to as position 5 of the CAGED Major Scale shapes. In the key of C, it looks like this:

There are more notes around it, but this is a core part of it. This is the same shape I was apply to the ukulele after a little experimenting with the scales. On the ukulele in the key of C, it’s here:

Knowing this, I was able to play the ukulele well enough to get by playing with other people. When I got home I was really curious about how I could incorporate the g string into the mix. The ukulele has a super unique tuning relative to other string instruments like the guitar or mandolin. In standard tuning, guitars are tuned E-A-D-G-B-E, and the strings go from lower in pitch on the left to higher in pitch on the right. Ukuleles are tuned g-C-E-A, with the g string tuned in a higher octave (which is why the g string is denoted with a lowercase ‘g’ in uke tabs). This then makes the C string the lowest in pitch and then the other two strings E and A, get increasingly higher in pitch. This is called Reentrant Tuning, and it’s fascinating.

I was experimenting with the scales trying to find how I could connect my main pattern (position 5) to something on the g string. Eventually I found a way to play the major scale I’m most comfortable with using the high g string, and it looks something like this:

It’s a little weird to wrap my head around because I’m moving left across the neck while I’m getting higher in pitch which I’m not used to with playing guitar. I do like this shape a lot though because it’s the same on both strings, so it’s easy to remember and move between.

I need to spend some more time getting comfortable moving outside this shape before giving the ukulele back (or buying my own again), but I’m really excited about seeing more options on the fretboard now.