All 294 Lessons

The "E/F Movable Barre Form" chords are movable form chords based on the open position E, Em, E7, and Em7 chords. With the root on string six, these chords can be transposed to ANY key.

This is the most popular chord progression in use today. It has replaced the most common chord progression that was used in the 50s, the 1 6 2 5 chord progression.

The "Major Scale" or Ionian scale is a diatonic scale, made up of seven distinct notes, plus an eighth which duplicates the first one octave higher. In solfege these notes correspond to the syllables Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti/Si, (Do), the Do in the parenthesis at the end being the octave of the root.

You can’t play this chord on many other stringed instruments other than the ukulele. This is the ultimate C chord with only two C notes. In high G, C tuning three are the exact same C notes and a middle C.

Hawaii can be heaven and it can be hell. Going back to the noir fiction of the 30s, 40s and 50s. It's very contemporary. The universe is so big, there's so many worlds, there must be one of them or more, something that's alive. People work harder when conditions are worse. It's an important fact of life, war.

Three-chord tunes, though, are more common, since a melody may then dwell on any note of the scale. Often the chords may be selected to fit a pre-conceived melody, but just as often it is the progression itself that gives rise to the melody.

"Transposition" is the process of moving a note, chord, scale or any musical passage from one key to another key. All music can be transposed, from a single note to a complex musical score. This lesson deals with transposing chords on ukulele and transposing chords.

Naturally, for Ukuleles, all chords need to be voiced using only the four strings available. You would think that this is limiting, when in actuality it's quite liberating when you learn the makeup of chords. Chords can be categorized into four categories: “Open Position Chords”, “Movable Form Chords”, “4-part - a.k.a. Jazz Chords”, and “Free Form Chords.”

There're a lot different ways to show chord shapes, diagrams and images on a fretted instrument. This is the basic chord diagram I use in all my lessons and book. In this lesson the basic chord diagram as used for ukulele is explained.

A chord's name is comprised of it's letter name, either A, B, C, D, E, F, or G and it's type information symbols which encapsulates the instructions for building a chord.

Upper Partials or extensions for chords are the 9th, 11th, and 13ths of a chord. The 9, 11 and 13 can be altered chord tones depending on the type: e.g: b9, #9, #11, b13. These numbers, the 9, 11 and 13 refer to the scale tone/chord tone relative to the major scale used for building all chords.

A chord extension or upper partial are the chord tones above the octave and not one of the fundamental 4-part chord tones. These are the ninths, elevenths and thirteenths of chords. All chord extensions on ukulele will displace a fundamental chord tone. This is even true for guitar with the ability to add the extension to another string.

Voice Leading is a technique used to smoothly connect chords. It is based on a small number of variables.

Too many chord shapes to memorize Hopefully, that is something you might have realized after three months into the Chord a Day saga. There are way too many chord shapes to memorize.