There are four sizes of ukuleles: soprano (smallest), concert, tenor and baritone (largest).

The soprano, concert and tenor are all tuned GCEA. The baritone is tuned DGBE, and that’s where the confusion begins.

The baritone is tuned the same as the top four strings of a guitar. And because it’s tuned differently, it has a richer, fuller sound, and to achieve a specific note, you create a different chord shape than other uke players. However, a G chord is still a G chord, on whatever instrument you may play.

Some workshops for ukulele will say, “C6 tuning only,” or more blatantly, “No baritones.” The only possible reason I can see for these alerts is that the workshop will play a lot of “Tabs” or finger picking, and clearly plucking the top string on the third fret will produce quite a different note. (Actually a G rather than a C.) There is a workaround – placing a capo on the fifth fret of a baritone produces the same CGEA tuning as a soprano, concert or tenor. 

There is also the mistaken idea that baritone players have to transpose to achieve the same notes as other ukuleles. Nope, let’s go back to a G chord is still a G chord. Most baritone players simply love the deeper, richer, more resonant sound of the instrument compared to the plinky-plunky sound of a soprano.