I’ll tell you where to put these shapes in this lesson, but if you want to know how to move them into any key, you should buy the book. It’s a monster reference of moveable shapes that would be most useful to an aspiring jazz uke player since a lot of the voicings are pretty weird and only used in this genre. The chord voicings in the progressions section can all be found in my chord book, Ukulele Chord Shapes. They allow you to retain the core harmony, but also expand upon it for a more diverse sound. There are lots of options for substituting chords, but I’m going to show you three families of shapes that I think are the best starting point and cover 95% of the songs you might want to play on your ukulele.Ī substitution chord is simply a shape that you play in place of another – usually more boring – chord. Most of the magic of ukulele jazz comes from fancier voicings that highlight more interesting decoration notes in the chord. You could play any of the following jazz chord progressions with standard chord shapes and they would sound profoundly plain. To get started we’re going to need some… Jazz Chord Shapes for Ukulele From the common ukulele jazz chord shapes to common chord progressions to a songs you can use to learn the style. In this lesson I’m going to talk about the basics of playing chords that sound jazzy on your uke. The harmonies and sounds they evoke have an inherently pleasing sound. At the 5th fret the capo gives you the C6 low 4 tuning! At the 7th fret you will get the D6.There are few ukulele chords that sound better than some standard jazz shapes played in a simple progression.
G6 tuning: D G B E (linear “low 4th D”) From Guitar to UkuleleĪ really great way to get to grips with this instrument if you already play guitar is to put a capo on the fifth fret of your guitar and ignore the bottom two strings (the low E and A strings). From the smallest in size and highest in pitch to the largest size and lowest pitch they are as follows:ĭ6 Tuning: A D F# B (either re-entrant or linear “low 4th A”)Ĭ6 tuning: G C E A (either re-entrant or linear “low 4th G”) There are really six sizes that I've heard of but we will stick to the four pretty standard sizes and tunings for the ukulele. Don't forget you can look through the whole catalogue of videos on youtube or Vimeo. Just go to the Music Theory Section and the Guitar Theory section. There are other videos on this site that may help. If you don't understand the chord theory have a look at this video. DF#AB (or Root 3rd 5th 6th) in the string order ADF#B (or 5th Root 3rd 6th). The D6 ukulele tunings would comprise the letters (notes) of the D major 6 Chord i.e.
(G the 5th, C the Root, E the 3rd, A the 6th) (C6 = C the Root, E the 3rd, G the 5th and A the 6th) The chord harmony analysis follows standard western theory, that is: So in both re-entrant and linear tuning the letter order is the same. The A string is considered string One and the G string is string Four regardless of the the octave that the G string inhabits.
Implied Major 6th Chord HarmonyĪs far as tuning interval structure when we talk about the C6 tuning the notes that the strings are tuned to (in order from closest to your chin to closet to your feet) are G C E A. That is actually a C6 chord. If the above is true then it follows that whatever order we put the letters in as long as the pitches do go from low to high or visa versa without any interruption we have a Linear Ukulele Tuning and not Re-entrant Tuning. I think "C6 high 4" is less of a mouthful! Linear Tuning So this is a "C6 high 4" tuning short for "GCEA with the 4th string G one octave higher in a re-entrant" tuning. That is because it is in the standard re-entrant tuning with the 4th or G string of a gauge that can be pitched/tuned one octave higher. You may be able to see the 4th string (the one on the left) is smaller. Whatever order we put the letters in as long as the pitches don't go from low to high or visa versa without some interruption we have re-entrant tuning and not linear tuning. The tuning does not normally ascend or descend all in order of pitch. Banjos, ukulele tuning and charrangos are classic examples of this type of break in tuning. Simply put a re-entrant tuning is when the strings or courses of strings don’t follow in order from highest to lowest pitch or lowest to highest pitch without interruption.