If you're a first time visitor to this site - start with The Problem (menu above) and work on from there.
If you start reading the Posts below - well it might be a bit confusing. Up to you :)
Monday, 21 November 2016
The site pages show my approach to playing chords all across the neck.
But this post is about the Major chord diagram for GCEA tuning.
This chart shows the fingering for the Major chord on a regular GCEA tuned Ukulele (right handed).
Looking across the top you see a small image of the Neck - showing the notes at each fret as a reference. Then for each note we see the fingering.
The format of this is different from a regular tablature display because I wish to emphasise the important thing - which is that there are only 4 shapes used to create all the notes. Normally these four shapes are hidden because we learn chords up at the Nut, and the Nut is hiding from us the fingering you will use if you move the chord away from the Nut and further down(up) the fretboard.
The shapes are different for each Chord. Above we see the shapes for the Major chord.
So I have chosen to show the full shape. You can see there are only four shapes and they move steadily down(up) the fretboard as we proceed up the scale. We swap to a new shape when we get away from the Nut but the shapes do keep progressing. You can see (in the lower section) the repeating patterns spread down(up) the fretboard.
The lower section is the fingering map and it shows the location of all the (say) A notes on the fretboard. This Root note is drawn as a little white circle - representing the Root of the Note. I.e. an 'A' note has 'A' as the Root. This note occurs somewhere on every string and is repeated every 12 frets down the keyboard. But its in a different place for each stringed instrument. On the Ukulele the most common tuning is GCEA which is the name of the topmost note on the fretboard and is the sound heard if the string is played unfretted.
So hopefully you can see that to learn a chord - you only need to learn the four fingering shapes for that chord and the distribution of notes on the fretboard - which is always the same for a given instrument and tuning. Read on for an explanation of how this can be very simple and easily learnt as well as diagrams for all the chords for you to experiment with.
But this post is about the Major chord diagram for GCEA tuning.
Looking across the top you see a small image of the Neck - showing the notes at each fret as a reference. Then for each note we see the fingering.
The format of this is different from a regular tablature display because I wish to emphasise the important thing - which is that there are only 4 shapes used to create all the notes. Normally these four shapes are hidden because we learn chords up at the Nut, and the Nut is hiding from us the fingering you will use if you move the chord away from the Nut and further down(up) the fretboard.
The shapes are different for each Chord. Above we see the shapes for the Major chord.
So I have chosen to show the full shape. You can see there are only four shapes and they move steadily down(up) the fretboard as we proceed up the scale. We swap to a new shape when we get away from the Nut but the shapes do keep progressing. You can see (in the lower section) the repeating patterns spread down(up) the fretboard.
The lower section is the fingering map and it shows the location of all the (say) A notes on the fretboard. This Root note is drawn as a little white circle - representing the Root of the Note. I.e. an 'A' note has 'A' as the Root. This note occurs somewhere on every string and is repeated every 12 frets down the keyboard. But its in a different place for each stringed instrument. On the Ukulele the most common tuning is GCEA which is the name of the topmost note on the fretboard and is the sound heard if the string is played unfretted.
So hopefully you can see that to learn a chord - you only need to learn the four fingering shapes for that chord and the distribution of notes on the fretboard - which is always the same for a given instrument and tuning. Read on for an explanation of how this can be very simple and easily learnt as well as diagrams for all the chords for you to experiment with.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)