Category Archives: Moveable Chord Shapes
UD#110 The Strum-o-lo-gy of Swingin’ the Blues
UD#110 The Strum-o-logy of Swingin’ Bluesfrom Ukulele in the Dark with Guido Heistek I’ve created an arrangement of “Blue Monk” by Thelonius Monk. Have a listen, and then read on! CLICK TO LISTEN TO “BLUE MONK” The music sheet is below. Try it out with some uke buddies! Today, I am going to focus on strumming the chords. In the song we use three chords: G7, C7, D7. A lot of times when we play jazz music on the ukulele we use chords “up the neck.” So today, instead of playing the open G7 like this… we will play the …Continue Reading
UD#101 Chameleon Jazz Chord
UD#101 Chameleon Jazz Chordfrom Ukulele in the Dark with Guido Heistek I love this chord shape. It’s super useful in jazz. There are many types of chords that this shape can play. I’ll just talk about one of them today, the 6/9 chord. How does it work? Let’s say that you are trying to play an F6/9 chord This shape can be used to play an F6/9 in two different places on the neck of the ukulele. First, a wee bit of theory. Here are the notes in an F6/9 chord. ROOT (1) 3 5 6 …Continue Reading
UD#61 You Are Not A Capo! (Bb chords and barring)
You Are Not a Capo! (UD#60) from Ukulele in the Dark with Guido Heistek Some chord shapes require us to use our finger as a “bar”. This means using one finger to hold down two or more strings. Many beginner students find barring very challenging! And while many more advanced players find it possible, they also find it tiring and awkward. So, I’ve put a little piece together on barring with the index finger that I hope you find helpful, whatever your level. “Oh no! There’s a Bb in this song!” The Bb chord is usually the first chord we …Continue Reading
UD#51 Play 12 CHORDS with THREE SHAPES
12 CHORDS with THREE SHAPES: Around the Clock (UD#51) from Ukulele in the Dark w/ Guido Heistek Today I want to share an little activity that I use with my students. I find it helps for remembering the names of chords. Also, it creates a framework to see how chords are related to each other. And it’s a good introduction to chords “up the neck”. More on moving chords “up the neck” here: https://ukuleleinthedark.com/704/ We use three familiar open chord shapes for this activity: C, F and A. Images: If you are using a mobile device please make sure …Continue Reading
UD#41 Chromatic Wrap-up: Applying the CHROMATIC SCALE
UD #41 CHROMATIC Wrap-up: Applying the CHROMATIC SCALE Ukulele in the Dark with Guido Heistek Use the chromatic scale to: CREATE SCALES, MOVE CHORDS UP THE NECK, LEARN THE FRETBOARD AND MORE! I ended off my last news letter with a list of uses for the chromatic scale. Here is a little expansion on each point and answers to the questions associated with each point. (Please check out last week’s newsletter if you haven’t read it: https://ukuleleinthedark.com/ud-40-chromatic-walk-in-the-park/) 1. Movable chord shapes Question: How many frets up the neck do I need to move a C chord for it to become …Continue Reading
UD#36 Chameleon Chord: Diminished 7th Chords part II
UD#36 Chameleon Chord: Diminished Chords Part II (The coolest thing you can do with dim7 chords) from Ukulele in the Dark w/ Guido Heistek The coolest thing you can do with diminished chords…in my opinion… NOTE: For simplicity I will refer to diminished 7th chords as DIMINISHED CHORDS in this lesson. ALSO NOTE: If you don’t feel like reading there is a video at the bottom of the page. Try this experiment Take a diminished chord like this one: Lower one of the notes in the chord by one fret. Let’s lower the note on the G string. What …Continue Reading
UD#35 Anglular Symmetry: Diminished 7th Chords
UD#35 Angular Symmetry: Diminished 7th Chords from Ukulele in the Dark w/Guido Heistek Diminished seventh chords can be found in lots of different kinds of music. There are a few different ways to write them. Here are three different ways you might see a C diminished 7th chord written down: Cdim, Co, or Cdim7. For this lesson I will use this format: Cdim7 or Fdim7 throughout. Or I will write out the full name C diminished 7th or F diminished 7th. Most chord charts use the shortened form Cdim or Fdim. Now for some cool facts… 4 …Continue Reading
UD#33 Mr. G7 Goes West: Low-Rider! (G7 in 4 positions)
UD#33 Mr. G7 Goes West: Low-Rider (Play a G7 in four different places on the neck) from Ukulele in the Dark w/ Guido Heistek THE INVERSIONS OF G7: First things first. Let me introduce you to my favorite one chord song. Lowrider by War. You can strum along with this song with one chord: G7. Give it a go and come on back and we’ll look at some different funky ways of playing G7. Please find a fretboard chart on the right which you can use for reference as you go along through the lesson (click for printable version). …Continue Reading
UD#24 The Secret Life of Roots (Naming Moveable Chord Shapes)
UD #24 The Secret Life of Roots (Naming Moveable Chord Shapes) from Ukulele in the Dark w/ Guido Heistek Last newsletter we talked about how to move chord shapes up the neck. We took the C, F and G7 chord shapes and learned how to move them up the neck to play a chord progression in different keys. https://ukuleleinthedark.com/704/ QUESTION: “What do we call the chords once we have moved them up the neck?” I’ll do my best to answer this question in this newsletter. Here goes… THE ROOT NOTE! Identifying the position of the ROOT NOTE in the …Continue Reading
UD#23 Chord Progressions in All Keys
UD#23 An Experiment: Chord Progressions in All Keys (Moving chords “up the neck”) from Ukulele in the Dark w/ Guido Heistek I recently had a chance to sit down and talk about ukulele teaching with one of my favourite players, Kimo Hussey. He inspired me with his approach to teaching moveable chord shapes. So here is a little lesson on moveable chord shapes inspired by Kimo. MOVING A CHORD PROGRESSION UP THE NECK! Let’s start with a simple chord progression like this: | C | F | C | G7 | Play the progression through a few times. You …Continue Reading
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