Ukulele Sizes and What is Best For You | Soprano, Concert, Tenor, or Baritone?

With so many different ukulele companies, sizes, shapes, colors, and sounds, it can be totally overwhelming trying to figure out which is best for you.

Maybe you should just get all of the different ukuleles? It would be nice but the reality is that many of us are ready to get our first one and need help deciding where to go.

Some of the different sizes you might see are the sopranino, soprano, super soprano, concert, pineapple, tenor, super tenor, baritone, and bass.

That's a lot, so for today's video let's just focus on the 4 most popular ukuleles, the soprano, concert, tenor, and baritone.

Also remember this as a general rule for instruments, smaller the size the higher the timbre. You'll notice how the tiny soprano ukulele sounds much higher than the bigger baritone ukulele.

You may even say the soprano sounds louder than the baritone, but this is not necessarily true. Bigger instrument produce more sound than little ones are should be louder, but many of our ears perceive higher timbre instruments as being louder because they cut through so well.

When I say higher pitch, I’m not referring to volume, although many of our ears perceive a higher pitch as sounding louder, but simply that a sound has more treble (higher pitch) or more bass (lower pitch).

The order of the 4 ukuleles that we discuss in this video are (from smallest to biggest): soprano, concert, tenor, and baritone.

The best way to figure out which ukulele size is best for you is to go to a store and pick them all up and see what one fits best for your body.

Even if you don't know how to play a single chord, you can just tell by holding, feeling, and even smelling the instrument which is best for you. Maybe not smelling but ukuleles do smell great, or is that just me?

One tip, I would stay away from purchasing a baritone ukulele if it's your first instrument because it is tuned differently than the soprano, concert, and tenors.

Plus a majority of the instructional videos and books on the market cater towards the soprano, concert and tenor ukuleles.

Unless you know specifically that you want a baritone ukulele, I would stick with a soprano, concert or tenor.

The biggest difference in the sound of the ukuleles is sound and size. Bigger ukuleles will have bigger bodies, longer necks, and sound deeper.

If your a big person with big hands I would consider a tenor or a concert ukulele. Personally I think the tenor ukulele is the best there is.

But if your smaller with smaller hands than a soprano or a concert will be just fine.

The safest best is to get a concert ukulele. The are not too big or too small, there easy to hold and play, and they sound great.

Remember that you get what you pay for.

With so many ukulele companies making so many different types of ukuleles at all price points, it's easy to say look at this one on amazon for $85, it looks just like the one that is $850.

Looks are deceiving. The 2 biggest reasons why some ukuleles cost so much more than others is the kind of wood that is used and if an instrument is handmade or not.

An handmade Hawaiian ukulele made from koa wood is going to cost you much more than a laminate ukulele made in China.

That is not to say that some $200 ukuleles don't feel and sound great, but personally I always go for the most expensive instrument that I can afford.

This is another reason why it's great to go to a store and play the ukulele that you want because you might find that $200 ukulele that plays and sounds like a $2000 one.

Now go buy a ukulele or go grab the one you have and play.

Quote of the Day, "The only way you get better is by daily consistent practice"

Check out Uke Like The Pros at:

I play a KoAloha Classic Tenor Ukulele with a Low

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Enjoy, Terry

[Eshx]

For sound samples:
0:43 Sorpano
1:52 Concert
3:11 Tenor
5:47 Baritone

[BernadetteTeachesMusic]

Terry, I have to be honest with you. There are many videos like this online, but I think yours is the best. It's short, sweet, and straight to the point. You show all the ukulele sizes and you give your recommendations. I like that you also showed a low G on here! It's good to know about that option :)

[petramatheson]

I noticed that the baritone ukelele sounds more like a guitar

[MJ-jnqh]

If you want to compare the sounds directly:
0:44
1:53
3:11
5:48

[homersimpson]

*me:Baritone ukelele is so expensive*
*Poor intensifies*

Me: *bought guitar and removed two strings*

[rosemary.-]

Tip: If you sing and play the ukulele use an ukulele in the same sound as your voice:

High soprano voice = soprano uke

Lower soprano voice = concert uke

Tenor voice/middle voice = tenor uke

Very alto voice = Baritone uke

[money]

(For my own reference)
0:43 Soprano 13-14 inch
1:53 Concert 14-15 inch
3:11 Tenor high G 17 inch
5:19 Tenor low G (A-E-C-G)
5:47 Baritone (E-B-G-D), 19 inch

[Ukelikethepros]

For sound samples:

0:43 Sorpano
1:52 Concert
3:11 Tenor
5:47 Baritone


Thank you to Esther NB for taking the time to do the time code.

[kreati_]

So the baritone is basically the instrument you want if you can't decide between guitar and ukulele

[PressPausePlease]

As someone who is looking to buy a ukelele for a beginner, this video helped a lot. Thanks

[MR]

Plot twist: the ukuleles aren’t getting larger throughout the video. He’s just getting smaller.

[veemay]

I played Guitar when in my 20's to 50's but tore my shoulder apart so had to give it up because I couldn't hold it without pain. I had a Baritone Uke but rarely picked it up.
Now I am 77 and am visiting my Daughter, when all of a sudden, one evening she gave me her Baritone Uke and out of boredom, the next day bought new strings for it and started to play. I was SO shocked because I remembered how to restring it, tune it and then play it. I have fallen in LOVE with it. I can play Malaguena, and all other pieces I played on Guitar. I LOVE THIS INSTRUMENT....!!

[plamenmilanov]

After watching a lot of tutorials i came to the conclusion that the concert ukulele is the one to go for the following reasons:
1. it's hard to play any melody on a soprano uke due to it's size and the fact that it has fewer frets. Also the chords are limited to fret 5 or so, unless you can somehow manage to arrange your fat fingers properly to play anything higher
2. baritone ukulele i don't want to even discuss but - just cut 5th and 6th strings of your acoustic guitar and you are set. Only the size is a bit smaller, but then again you can buy a 3/4, 2/4 guitars etc
3. tenor - exact same problem as the baritone, it's more of a guitar size really and again you have to cut your 5th and 6th string and put a capo on the 5 fret. If i would bother bringing a tenor ukulele to a party or w/e, i think i would bother bringing a proper acousting guitar as well.

[ferldt]

Im a filipina and wht i noticed is u talk so clear, which i really understand.

Thank you.

[madelinelaake]

Got a tenor recently. Been having a ton of fun with it, especially when my fingers are too tired to go at my steel acoustic. It’s nice to have something so small and simple

[alycertain]

I got a soprano and I'm happy. Finally an accompanying instrument that has a similar range to mine. I never really liked the guitar because of the lower pitch. Besides, the soprano on this guy looks tiny, but I'm quite petite, so I feel it really suits me. I think it's something about the audio through the video that makes the soprano here sound kinda too loud. In real life it sounds beautiful (for my taste).
Also, I do play single notes on it. But I'm only learning, so maybe in the future I will consider a concerto. For now, I travel a lot, so that's another reason for me to want the smaller one. I love my uke :)

[FenrirInFlowers]

Very cool video. As a short female with small hands I got lots of advice to start with soprano, but it felt too cramped. I switched to tenor, and it was so much more comfortable for me. I love my tenors and play them all the time. I'm even looking to add a baritone into my small family of ukes now.

[wifi-YT]

It’s a bit misleading to say, at 0:53, that “the smaller the body the higher the pitch.” The fundamental pitches are identical regardless of the body size. But smaller bodies cause the accompanying overtones/harmonics (higher pitches above the fundamental pitch) to yield a more trebly sound.

[hackdown]

I have an old soprano ukulele in my bedroom and it still sounds good to me whenever I break it out and play it. Sure, it hurts my fingers, but I get a satisfaction from strumming with it.

[metalmonster]

I picked up a tenor in Milan, Italy because I missed having a guitar while backpacking in Europe for months. Didn't know how to play it but learned instantly and the size of it REALLY helped because I was able to carry it on in airports. I change my high G string to a low G for that extra range. It's perfect.