You can play a fair number of A songs on the middle string, particularly if you have the 6+ fret. You will want to either raise the D strings to E, or avoid playing them when they clash. A reverse capo is probably a good thing to use for raising them for an occasional song to avoid a lot of extra tuning. Some players keep a second dulcimer in a second tuning.Seems like a double fretboard model would work well, too. You can't have too many toys!
Paul
Still, placing a set of heavier strings on an already built dulcimer is a cheap way to experiment. Much cheaper and quicker than building another dulcimer. That is always an option if the thicker strings don't work out. That's why I suggested not modifying the nut & bridge until playing the heavier strings to hear them. It won't play it's best until the slots are fitted to the string gauges, but it will show how much deeper the sound is.
Paul
If you string it with .039, .029, and .022, you can tune it to DAd, an octave below standard Dad tuning. You will have what is usually called a bass dulcimer. You may find the sound somewhat muddy, if the "cubic inches" Ken mentioned aren't there. You need to move a large volume of air to produce those low notes. A bigger body is the answer to moving a lot of air, the body must contain a lot of air before it can move it. Strings are relatively cheap, try a set and see what happens. If it does the job, widen the notches in your nut and bridge to accept these larger strings. If it doesn't do what you want, you can go back to the previous gauges and tuning. I suspect most bass dulcimers have a longer scale length than 24", but you can use this. My bass dulcy is 27.5", but my hands regularly wish it was shorter. 24" sounds like it would allow me to reach some things that are tricky right now. And be sure to report back what you find, we like to hear of experiments.
Paul
Weissenborns do have hollow necks, as the sides of the guitars come all the way up to the nut area. The strings are set up very high, to keep the steel bar from hitting the fret board. You can't play them with your fingers in the normal way, you have to use the bar. But by slanting the bar, you can get notes in between the frets. The frets may be inlaid strips of wood or metal, rather than actual frets. Most lap/console/pedal steel guitars have painted on frets. The frets are only used as visual guides where to place the bar. All of this also applies to resophonic guitars, such as National and Dobro models. The "hubcap thingie" is a resonator, hence the resophonic name.(Banjo resonators are a different thingie.) I love the sound of those Weissenborns, more than the resos, and electric steel guitars, but that's just personal taste.
Paul
I wouldn't trust any of those ideas to stay on. Some adhesives might damage the finish, but in any case, if the strap disconnects while you are playing, your dulcimer could sustain major damage when it hits the floor. If you aren't comfortable putting strap buttons on, have it done at a guitar store. Almost all of my instruments also have some type of Strap Locks on them. I have a couple of guitars that were damaged when they hit the floor or ground.
Paul
If your strings are too high above the frets this can make it harder to fret cleanly. Stick dulcimers should conform to the same set up parameters as lap dulcimers, guitars etc. If the strings are too high, you have to press harder to get clean notes on any stringed instrument, except those played with a slide or bar, such as steel guitars. Do you have a friend who plays any stringed instrument? Perhaps they could look at the action and see that it is set up correctly. If not, a good rule of thumb for diatonic instruments is the string should be no higher above the first fret than the thickness of a dime placed on the fret board behind the 1st fret, and the thickness of a nickle placed on the seventh fret. If the strings are significantly higher, the height needs to be adjusted.
Another possibility is that another finger is leaning over and damping the string, making it thud. Make sure the end of your finger is pressing the string, not the side of your finger. This is less likely on lap dulcimers because the hand is not around the neck of the instrument. It's more common on neck type instruments. Don't let the neck of your strum stick fall into the V between your thumb and index finger. The pad of your thumb should be placed behind the neck, allowing you to oppose the downward pressure of the fingers with upward thumb pressure. An observer facing you should not be able to see any part of the last joint of your thumb. This is a pretty common problem, work hard to ensure you don't have this problem. Unlearning a bad habit is REALLY HARD! I still catch myself doing this after all these years playing guitar, etc.
If you had a high fret, a buzz or rattle would be more likely to happen, rather than a thud. The rattle would occur at one or more frets below the high fret. A thud indicates the string is probably not touching the fret at all.
Paul
I'm not familiar with the song, so I searched it and found several versions. I listened to this one: It sounds to be an ionian melody.
This one changes keys, most likely to allow the melody to change from soprano to tenor voices. If you were to sing this as a soloist, you could keep it in the vocal range best suited to your voice, eliminating the key change entirely. As an instrumental, the key change can add some variety, but isn't completely necessary. This is part of the "re thinking" I mentioned in my earlier post.
Still another possibility for this example is to tune to EbBbEb, and play the Eb section on the melody string, and the Bb section on the middle string. This likely would require the use of a 6+ fret, if you have one. Without the 6+ fret, you could tune to EbBbBb, and try playing the Eb section on the melody string, and the Bb section on the bass string.
These 2 keys have a lot of common notes and chords, which allows one tuning to overlap the keys fairly well. Many of us do this with the keys of D,G, and A when we use the DAD tuning. Some melody notes are found on the middle string, and some may require the 6+ fret, but the closeness of the scales does give us a lot of overlap. Sometimes when only one missing note impedes us, we bend the lower note to get it. We seldom need to bend the string more than a half step, though a whole step and more is possible. unless you like extra heavy gauge strings.
If the song requires 3 or more different keys, or If you play a lot of songs with key changes, you may find a 135 tuning, or a chromatic dulcimer will do the job best.
Paul
Yes, and not necessarily. It's impossible in those keys using the common 155/158 tunings, but may be possible if you rethink it.
One answer you might want to try is the 135 tuning. Have a look here, http://mountaindulcimer-1-3-5.com/ and try a song or two from their tabs. This tuning gives you the flexibility to deal with key changes.Probably what I would try first, if I didn't play other chromatic instruments.
Another possibility is to change keys to put all parts of a medley in the same key. One tuning will cover them all, unless the songs use accidentals, in which case you may still be looking for an answer.
I would try the 135 tuning first, and see where it takes you.
Paul
What I have seen a lot is players who are actually afraid to try to play without the tab in front of them. In some cases it's because they never got the tune in their heads-many never listen to recordings of the songs they are trying to play. Never letting their ears take over guidance of their hands, they are forced to use their eyes instead. Eyes are a very very poor substitute for ears, when playing music. Besides Beethoven, can you name a deaf musician? But there have been scores of blind musicians. Even Beethoven learned with his ears before he went deaf. I suspect he never would have become a musician had he been born deaf. Find a recording of the song you are working on, and listen until you can hum the tune, then work with the tab. It speeds up the process. YouTube is the first place I turn, if I don't have a recording to listen to. The down side of YouTube is I always find several more songs I want to learn. It's a vicious circle, and I'll never get to the end at the rate I'm going, so many songs, so little time.
Another group doesn't realize how much they can do with their ears, and stick to tab/eyes. Fear or failure, lack of self confidence, there are several reasons players fall into this trap, but it can be hard to talk them out of it. I've heard such answers as "Oh, no, not me. I'm tone deaf. But almost every person can recognize a familiar melody after only 5 or 6 notes. Your ears have been in training since your Ma first sang to you as an infant. Start with the tab, or SMN, but eventually set it aside and try without it. Trust your self, and your ears, the worst that can happen is a few wrong notes. That won't last forever. But do use your eyes for using knives, cars, and chainsaws!
From my own experience, I have found that at performance or jam speed, I can't read the tab fast enough to keep up with other players. This is when you or I really need our ears in command.
Paul
A big part of it is the books & tabs available tend to use public domain tunes. Copyright issues are not going away, so we have to live with that. When True Colors becomes public domain, it will be as outdated as Old Joe Clark is now. Another issue tied to this is limited sales. A lot of younger people may want guitar tabs for Cold Play songs, but there are way more young guitarists than young dulcimer players. Look around at dulcimer workshops, and see how the demographic shakes out. When I was in my 50's, I was still one of the younger people at dulcimer festivals. I'm not in my 50's any more, but how many teens and 20's do we see at dulcimer festivals? A publisher looks at how many copies they can reasonably expect to sell, and decides what books to put money into. If they see that certain books sell, and others don't, they look for more similar to the ones that sold well. If much of what sold was public domain, the publisher is going with more of the same. That's how the whole music biz works. That's why so many dulcimer recordings and books are self-published. But there still needs to be enough profit to make it worth while for the author. I don't write books, maybe someone who does can chime in here. I don't see myself spending my limited time listening to, and learning to play, songs I don't care for. Not for the purpose of writing a book, paying royalties, and hoping someone buys enough copies to allow me to make a profit. Life is too short to learn music I don't like, I don't have enough time to learn all the songs I do like.
Couple this with the twists & turns so much popular music uses.Going from one song to the next could easily require a new tuning. The club I was in refused to try new tunings. This is the main reason Old Time and Bluegrass jams are usually separate. We OT banjo players use multiple tunings, and tend to stay away from chord based playing. We stay in one key for a while, then agree on a new key for the next batch of songs. Bluegrass banjo players play chord-based music almost always using the G tuning, even when the key is C, D, or A, Bb, etc. They think nothing of changing keys at the drop of a hat, and the OT banjo player who tries to keep up is tuning while the other musicians are playing.
I tend to stay up late at festivals, because after the jams get somewhat sparse, those who like to sing do some really wonderful things. You can't sing over 24 dulcimers, 6 banjos, 4 mandolins and 11 guitars at a jam. But when a certain amount of the people have gone to bed, great fun is had by the half dozen who are still awake. That's when those other songs start to come out. I'll sit out the heavy metal dulcimer songs, the heavy metal guy will probably sit out my Hawaiian songs. We may all sit out the songs we don't know, and allow one or two players to entertain us with Mozart, or Cole Porter. If I think I can fill in some chords, I may try. If I think I'm messing it up, I will probably drop out and listen.
For the purpose of Stephens lessons, I think the basics are in order. For advanced lessons, branching out could be good, but royalties and demand are going to dictate to at least some extent. That certainly doesn't stop us from exploring other music on our own. As I see it, the ultimate goal of a teacher is obsolescence. The teacher should strive for the day the student can take over teaching themselves what they want to learn. A good foundation in the basics is crucial for this to happen.
Paul
First try pushing the pegs into the holes more tightly. If this doesn't work, someone familiar with violin and related instruments can look at them and advise you on the peg dopes. There are 2 kinds of peg chemicals, one to help them move, and one to help them stay still. I don't know enough to know the product names, but ask for the one that "makes violin pegs stay still." If the pegs need replacing, the tools for fitting them to the instrument are a necessity. This means take it to someone who works on instruments of the violin family. Some guitar shops may have these tools, but not all will.
Paul
The .010 string will reach the same pitch as the.012 string at a lower tension. The .012 may be a bit stiff for D, depending on the scale length of your instrument. This is where the calculator Ken mentioned helps. Since we don't know the different dimensions of every instrument, we tend to check string gauges when we change tunings or instruments. Measure the scale length of your strum stick, from the nut to the bridge. A ruler or tape measure id fine, you don't need to be within 1/1000" of an inch. Within 1/8" is fine, then convert it to a decimal for the calculator. For the strings you have on it now, try tuning to DAA, or CGC The high C string will be noticeably tighter, but we tend to live with that when using multiple tunings on our instruments. If it seems too hard to play at that tension, use the string calculator to find a suggested string gauge to replace that one. Keep a record of what you put on it, so you can buy spare strings. They go dead before they break, in my experience, though sometimes they break before I replace them.
Paul
Recorded arrangements will follow the chord changes theoretically, but not always in identical fashion. The player you hear on a recording way use partial chords,for some or all of the song. If they are playing on a guitar, as Simon does, he has more strings available, which means he may have some notes duplicated in a different octave than your dulcimer can provide. There are also other instruments playing along on most S&G recordings. All this conspires to make your solo version sound different than the recording. Simon also finger picked a lot of songs, and sometimes used altered chords. He may have changed the key to suit his or Art's vocal range, as well. When I bought the first S&G song book in 1966, I had been playing guitar for all of 1 week. Several songs were in very unfriendly keys, such as Bb and Eb. These were a real problem, and I later found that to be common in published songs. Some composers "kept it all in their heads," and an arranger sat and listened to the recording, learned the song, and put it on paper so it could be published. But this arranger often worked it out on piano, in keys most folk guitarists tried to avoid. If you are using the chords as listed on sheet music for the song you are playing, you can keep on as you are. We can't always get a dulcimer to sound like a guitar, but we don't always want to, either. As Ken suggested, give us more details about the song, and we can try to make a better response. If you are playing along with a guitar, piano, etc, you need to match keys and chords pretty closely.
Paul
Offer it as an option. Some players prefer the traditional look, and many of them may want traditional carved wooden violin pegs as well. Others won't care how much is modernized. After they request several non traditional features it stops making a difference. Personally, it takes me almost as long to put 4 strings on my scroll peg head dulcimer as to put 12 on my 12 string guitar. Working inside that tiny peg box is a pain, even using needle nose pliers. But a choice will cover a lot more folks preferences for you.
Paul
If you want to play with drones, from DAD you almost have to use a capo. Either standard capo at the first, or a reverse capo under the drone strings at the first fret. It can be done without a capo, but you have to fret a lot of chords. The DA drones will clash with all the Em phrases. An alternative would be to not strum the drone strings at all, and just play the melody. That's what a fiddler does, though most modern fiddlers embellish the daylights out of tunes. You don't need to do everything a fiddler does. The whole melody can be located between the the nut and the 3rd fret, if you start on the bass string. Perfect for walkabout dulcimers. Another alternative is to raise the bass string to E, and the middle to B. This eliminates the capo, and gives you the correct drones for this song. You will then be tuned to EBD, and play all the melody notes on the melody string. More than one way to skin a cat. But beware of the ladies- As I understand it,the annual Faire in Lisdoonvarna was a place ladies went to find a husband! You could come home married!
Paul
The original question here was how to determine the keynote when changing from a tuning such as DAD to DGD. Let us not confuse each other with this issue. When we speak of dulcimer tunings as 155,158, 515, etc, the string we designate as "1" is tuned to the key note of the scale that tuning is used to play. To say that tunings don't have key notes is to confuse people. Adding an extra scale to a single tuning by way of the 6+ fret doesn't change the key note, it only allows us to play two modes from one tuning. Both of those modes, ionian and mixolydian, relate to the same Keynote.
While some may understand advanced music theory, many do not. And of those who do not, a good many play very well, and do not allow the lack of college level classes to hinder their enjoyment. Lets keep our answers to the point, and not go too deep. There are many lessons between beginning and advanced theory, those who are missing many of those lessons will become confused.
Paul
Some players use reverse tunings because the strings we have on our dulcimers will not raise or lower enough to use traditional tunings. My normal tuning is DAdd. If I want to play in G, I can't lower or raise my low D string to G. It is easy to lower the middle from A to G, giving me the reverse tuning DGdd. This places my root, G, on the middle string. And many of us do tune the drones to our key, then tune the melody string to the mode we need. But sometimes we have issues with too loose/ too tight strings for the melody strings as well. This can sometimes dictate what keys/modes we can actually reach with certain gauges of strings.
On diatonic instruments,capos not only change the key, they also change the mode. The best way to grasp this concept is to find a book that uses tabs with a capo. It becomes clearer with practice.
Paul
My first dulcimer arrived by Reindeer-powered sleigh, on Christmas Day, 1990. Mrs. Wanda decided I should play dulcimer, and so it was written. The box contained a lot of sassafras wood pieces, none of which were shaped like the pictures in Foxfire, but with glue, varnish, and some tools, it eventually acquired an hourglass shape. Working with sassafras has a small problem, every day after work I spent a little time working on it, and nearly every evening the fragrance sent me looking for a glass of Root Beer. It was not enough to buy a 12 pack and be done, Mrs. Wanda decreed that root beer without ice cream floating in it just was not to be accepted. My next dulcimer was walnut & spruce, I weigh enough without a daily dose of root beer float! The fragrance faded over several years, but a certain amount of humidity tends to boost it somwhat.
Paul
Fret leveling is very common on stringed instruments. I have had a couple guitars need it over time, and one dulcimer is getting close. It's about 22 years old. When the strings wear grooves into the frets, and buzzing starts to occur, they need leveling. This is done with a file, and then they are crowned to bring back the correct shape. After this they are polished and you are back in business. After having them leveled 2 or 3 times, they may have to be replaced when they become grooved again. This can be many years down the line, or not so many, depending how much you play, how hard your strings are, etc. Stainless strings are harder than the fret wire, and the frets wear faster. Brass fret wire is even softer, and should only be used with gut/nylon strings. If brass is even available any more. If you aren't hearing buzzing, you probably don't need to do anything at this time. Seems unfair to bad mouth a luthier who isn't available to defend himself, particularly if we haven't seen the dulcimer in question. We don't know how much fret wear is visible.
Paul
I always felt that what we refer to as "Right Handed" playing is backwards. We need the dexterity more on the fret board than for strumming. But the reality is, both hands have a job to do, and both have to learn that job first. I don't think either hand is incapable of learning both jobs, but few people would bother learning to play both ways. If the students are playing guitar or another stringed instrument, let them continue to fret with the hand they have been using. If they are new to stringed instruments, it really shouldn't matter. It's all a matter of training each hand to do it's job. Some years back, when I had Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in my left hand, I tried a lefty guitar to see if I might need to switch. The 35 or so years I had been playing was all right handed, and neither hand had paid any attention to it's counterpart. It was just like Deja Vous, all over again.I gave up the lefty guitar idea & had surgery instead.
Paul
Well, if he didn't, he should have! " Einstein played the violin, he loved to shout and sing. If that ain't genius, that ain't anything." -Henry Jankiewicz, Cranberry Lake Jug Band
Paul
Again, I used terminology from dulcimer books I learned from. I'm not chiseling the writing off the stone tablets. The "new" modes used a 5th drone, but placed it on the bass string instead of the middle string. I was trying to explain to the original poster how to find other keys without the expense of a new dulcimer. A lot of us shy away from being told we have to have several dulcimers in different tunings and string gauges, some diatonic, some chromatic, etc. The question here was about tunings and keys, not history. If we stray too far from the original question, we may confuse instead of educating.
Paul
The "New Modes" term came from an older book, either by Neil Hellman, or possibly Bonnie Carol' s book. I'm not sure who actually coined the term, it may have been Richard Farina. It may not be in common usage except among those who used those books. I think Hellman used the term in at least two books, those are where I picked it up. Sorry if there was confusion, I haven't used any newer books, perhaps it's time I read something from the new millennium?
I spend a lot of my time in the 18th & 19th centuries, studying history, so being out of date is a habit.
Paul
There are always trade-offs. The capo gives, but it also takes away. A new tuning gives, but it also takes away. Same for extra frets. Each of these ideas have uses, but learn when to use each of them to take advantage of their benefits and minimize the drawbacks. As an example, most songs start on the 1st,3rd, or 5th note of the scale. Sometimes they start on the 3rd or 5th below the lowest-octave 1st note used in the song. The melody walks up to that 1st note. You Are My Sunshine doesn't hit a "1" until the word "Sun." If we tune or capo so that our melody string is tuned to a "1" or "8", we have to find these lower notes on the middle string. Pretty simple for finger dancers, but tough for noter players. A better alternative for noter players is a tuning that places the melody string tuned to the 5th of the desired scale. In this example, the capo may not be the ideal answer. Learn to use different tunings as well as capos. Extra frets can make certain things easier, but to use them to eliminate retuning can limit our learning, particularly where modes are concerned.
Babs, you may want to try tuning DGdd, letting your root be on the middle string instead of the bass string. This is what some people call a "new" mode. Actually, the mode isn't new, just the tuning is new. Traditionally, the root or key note, was on the bass string, and the middle string was a 5th above it. In new modes, the root is on the middle, and the 5th is below it, on the bass string. You have to reverse the fingering of these two strings to use the GDdd tab. But learning a song or two will have you well on your way, and you will find you have learned something very useful. These new modes are not really new, they are called inversions by chord players. Guitarists, mandolinists, and keyboard players have used inversions for a very long time. Dulcimer players seem to have only been playing chords a short time, relatively speaking, but we invert them in standard tunings as well as new tunings. Every time we relocate a chord in a different part of the fret board, it is an inversion.
Paul
Is there a particular reason you want to match the key in which the tab was written? In many cases, there is no need to do this. Tab writers often use keys to match their voices, or to fit in with the key their band members are using, but they may just like the way a certain key sounds on their instrument. If your strings are better suited to DAdd,go with it. Just enjoy.
Paul
Enjoy all of it, and juggle the time however it most needs to be at any one time. Whatever gets shorted one time will come out ahead some other time. The babies will someday be grown, and won't require as much of your time as now. And you'll be glad for every minute you spent with them. Just enjoy the ride.
Paul
Since the action of the fingers/ noter/strings will wear away any finish used on a fret board, violin makers adopted ebony for finger board use centuries ago. It's hardness allowed it to resist wear, and the natural oily quality made ebony difficult to varnish. These natural oils made a finish unnecessary on the finger boards. Ebony is still the preferred finger board wood for violin makers. Guitar builders use a lot of rosewood as well, because it's cheaper and in much better supply, but most high end guitars use ebony.
Paul
Most dulcimers come with a doubled melody string, 2 strings tuned to the same note, and placed very close together. The idea here is to have the melody a bit louder than the other strings. They are and used as if they were one string. Some players like to separate the pair, tuning them to different notes. This allows 4 note chords, and also can allow the use of tunings which have no missing notes. This is used a lot by players who like to play swing and other styles of music that require more complex melodies and chords from outside the key in which the song is written. There are a number of tunings using this setup.
Some players use only a single melody string, either buying a 3 string dulcimer, or removing one of the paired strings. Often this is done to make it a bit easier to learn the instrument, though I don't think the difference is significant, if the string height was properly adjusted before purchase.
Like Rob, I have one dulcimer on which I have tried using several different string set ups. I did go so far as to add a 5th string to it, though, as Rob said, most dulcimers won't have enough space on the peg head to add another tuning machine. I managed to fit one in, but a dulcimer designed for 5 strings might have been a good idea. After all, we all want "just one more."
Some of this is due to players wanting to do things the 3 note tuning doesn't allow. My 5 string lets me do things a bit differently than my other dulcimer. Is it necessary? Not a bit. But we sometimes indulge our whims. Robs suggestions are good. They will allow you to experiment with a few set ups and playing styles without making expensive changes, or buying more dulcimers. Not that buying more is a bad thing, as long as you aren't raiding the kids piggy bank to do so. If there are specific styles of music you want to play, this may affect your decision. What do you have in mind?
Paul
Contact Dave Lynch, at Sweetwoods and have him make one of his travel dulcimers with a second top. http://www.strothers.com/sweetwoodsinstruments.com/dulcimers.php Go here, and click on Specialties.
Paul
The cardboard dulcimers I've seen have been decent starter instruments. The sound quality isn't as nice as a wooden dulcimer, but it isn't near as poor as we might expect. They are pretty cheap to start with, but I believe some assembly is required. Not much, essentially you glue the fret board to the box, and install the tuners & strings. As long as the frets, nut and bridge are accurately placed in the fret board, and the nut & bridge height is set correctly,they play in tune and play easily. If you decide you want a better instrument later, you will have some playing skills to help you choose your next dulcimer. If you decide dulcimers aren't for you, you won't be out much money, and can pass the cardboard model to someone else to try. If you decide to keep playing, you also have the option of building a dulcimer, using the fretboard from the cardboard one. The fretboard on cardboard dulcimers is not cardboard, it's always wood. Talk to the local builder, and have him explain some of the terms I used here, and how the height of the nut and bridge make a difference.
There are also some builders making inexpensive wooden beginner models. Dave Lynch, of Sweet Woods Instruments builds a Student model from plywood for a very reasonable price. http://www.strothers.com/sweetwoodsinstruments.com/index.html You may find the price difference between the cardboard and Dave'sStudent model isn't a very great expense. I believe some other makers also have beginner models. The cardboard ones are unlikely to have much resale value if you decide to sell it, where a wooden one will retain more of it's original price.
Paul
I'll second Dusty's choice of Slack Key Christmas. Also from Hawai`i, but with all vocal songs, is Hilo For The Hollidays, by Kuana Torres Kahele. http://www.mele.com/music/artist/kuana+torres+kahele/hilo+for+the+holidays+%2810-23-2012%29/ Most of these are sung in English, I think only 3 songs are in Hawaiian. Both of these are available from www.mele.com
Another I like a lot is Light Of The Stable, by Emmylou Harris. The link goes to a remastered CD, we have the original version on cassette. The remastered CD has a few extra tracks. http://www.amazon.com/Light-Stable-Emmylou-Harris/dp/B000641Z3Q
Paul
http://everythingdulcimer.com/tab/index.php Go to the link, scroll down the page to the EZ Christmas e-Booklet, and click the PDF link. You can download it free,thanks to Garey McAnally.
Paul
The ukulele is typically played in a variety of keys, without changing tuning. The string to string relationship of both tunings is the same as standard guitar tuning, except for the high 4th string. I keep a low G on my tenor uke for more low notes, but if I want the high G, I can always borrow Mrs.Wanda's uke. It's nice having multiples in the house!
Paul
I find myself dropping the second string to G for songs in the key of G, That gives me a DGD tuning. The root is then on the middle string, rather than it's more common bass string location. Some call this a reverse tuning, for this reason. For songs in C, I usually tune to CGC, as Ken said above. If I lower my melody strings to G, they are a bit too loose for my liking. Very often I take a second instrument to jams to cover keys that are tricky with the string gauges I use. Most often, the second instrument is a guitar or banjo.
Paul
