Donuel,

Sorry, I should have explained. What I meant was, I understand what fifths, fourths, thirds are etc, but I'd like to know what each string is tuned to when you refer to the different tunings, e.g. mine is tuned to GCEA with the G the lowest string, guitars are EADGBE, or DADGAD, etc

I haven't really worked out why some people use one tuning and some use another on the uke. I have figured out, over the years of coming to Mudcat, that the DADGAD tuning works well for some tunes or styles of music, or something like that. Not being a guitar player, I didn't investigate that much.

I have a very, very old uke book which was given to us as kids - back in the dinosaur age in the middle of last century. The book was old even before we got it. The tuning for the songs in the book is - I think - ADF#B. I know the first note was A.

So I am just interested to know which tunings you were referring to.

I have discovered from a beginner uke book I bought, that the chord progression for House of the Rising Sun sounds good, and on the GCEA tuning, the chord shapes are easy for a beginner because most of the chords don't need many fingers on the frets.

Helen