Ukulele For Dummies (75 page)

Varying Your Inversions and Verying Your Invarsions

When you're familiar with the first position chords presented throughout this book, you can expand your knowledge and start using inversions farther up the neck. Although inversions are the same chord, they have subtly different sounds to them and suggest different ways of moving between the chords. Using different inversions within a song differentiates verses and keeps the listener interested.

Using different inversions is particularly important when playing in a ukulele group. If everyone is playing the same chords in the same way the arrangement sounds dull. Adding inversions gives a richer sound.

An important part of this technique is improving your fretboard knowledge. In Appendix B, I list the notes on the ukulele. Try to increase your knowledge slowly. To start, learn all the notes at a certain fret, for example the fifth:

g-string 5th fret = C

C-string 5th fret = F

E-string 5th fret = A

A-string 5th fret = D

Opening Your Ears

If you come across a song you want to play, don't immediately go to the Internet and try to find tabs for it. Have a go at working out the song yourself first.

Start off simple. Think of a simple tune you know really well (such as ‘Happy Birthday'). Play a note (any note) and try to figure out the second note. Listen to the tune in your head and figure out whether the second note is higher, lower or the same. When you've decided, try different notes on the uke until you find the right one. Then keep going until you've got the whole tune.

When you've built some confidence with single notes, try your hand at working out chords, as follows:

1. Find the key the song is in by sliding along the C-string until you stumble on the note that sounds like home.

2. Decide on the key, and then take a look at the chord family for that key.

3. Try the chords and see which ones fit in the song.

On this last point, focus particularly on the I, IV and V chords of the family because these occur in most songs.

Enjoying Yourself

Virtuoso musician and ukulelist Bob Brozman noted that wherever he went in the world, in every language you ‘play' music, you never ‘work' music. And that's true for the ukulele more than most instruments.

The uke is often denigrated as a toy. But toys are meant to be fun and played with. So whatever piece you're playing, make sure that you enjoy it.

Busting a Rut

No matter how much you enjoy playing the ukulele, at times you may hit a rut and feel like you're going nowhere. If you ever feel like that, here are a few unusual ideas to reignite your inspiration and give you a new outlook:

Retune:
Just because the ukulele is usually tuned gCEA, doesn't mean it has to stay that way. Twist the tuning pegs and see what you come up with. A personal favourite of mine is fCFE (that is, tuning the g-string down two frets and the E-string up a fret). Chapter 3 has loads more on using different tunings.

Imitate:
Try to recreate the sound of a different instrument on the ukulele. You can try to imitate a similar instrument, such as the mandolin or banjo, or something completely different, such as a trombone (by using lots of slides and vibrato) or piano (by picking all the strings of a chord rather than strumming so the notes sound at the same time, as they do on a piano).

Investigate:
The world is full of different types of music and they all have something new to inspire you. Check out Congolese soukous, medieval hurdy gurdy music or Japanese J-pop. Plenty of ideas exist for you to get hold of and perhaps take the uke into new territories.

Part VII

Appendixes

In this part . . .

I provide 96 of the most common ukulele chords, so that you can quickly look up any chord you're unfamiliar with; an in-depth look at standard musical notation and a guide to where you can find every note on the ukulele fretboard; and a complete list of the accompanying audio tracks. Enjoy your listening and playing!

Appendix A

Chord Charts

T
his appendix includes charts for 96 of the most common ukulele chords.

You can play any particular chord in a number of different ways (known as
chord inversions
), for example to make the fingering easier or to make the sound more interesting. The charts presented here are just one possible inversion – usually the one that can be played on the lowest frets.