The traditional size of ukulele is the soprano. And this has also been the most popular ukulele. But increasingly the tenor ukulele is taking the place of the most popular uke. This is no doubt due to the influence of professional ukulele players like Jake Shimabukuro and James Hill who use tenors in their work. So the tenor is becoming popular with all types of player – even beginners.

Defining A Tenor Ukulele

The types of ukulele are divided by their size (specifically the playable length of the strings – the scale length). The tenor ukulele has a scale length of 17 inches making it the largest of the re-entrant ukuleles (two inches larger than the concert and four inches larger than the tenor).

The tenor ukulele is not just larger in terms of its scale length. The tenor’s extra volume and tone comes from the fact it has a larger body as well.

Why Play A Tenor?

The tenor’s greater scale length gives your fingers more room to pull of fancy ukulele tricks. This makes it the ukulele of choice for highly skilled ukulele soloists such as Jake Shimabukuro and James Hill.

The tenor ukulele – thanks to the larger body size – will offer you greater volume and tone. Although other factors (such as wood used and playing skill) will affect these, with everything else the same, the tenor wins out.

What are the disadvantages?

Although the greater tone of the tenor is an advantage, it can be counted as a disadvantage. It is closer to the guitar in its sound and loses some of the punch of the smaller size ukes.

Also, the tenor doesn’t work quite so well strummed. When you strum a soprano, it feels completely natural. With a tenor, that same feeling isn’t there. But that’s the sacrifice you have to make to gain the extra capacity for finger picking.

Another draw back is that you will not find many tenor ukuleles in the budget range. So if you don’t have a lot to spend, your choices will be fairly limited. If you have less than $100 to spend, your best choice is the Makala tenor.