Cheat your way to more jazzy sound! :-)

JarMa76

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I was wondering whether there would be interest in a thread for "cheat charts" to find the more jazzy chords without needing extended theoretical knowledge.

I have started making charts for myself, which enable you to play a 9th chord by playing a 7th chord starting from the third note of the original chord, thus adding the 9th note (or, indeed the same as the 2nd note), but not playing the root of the original.

For example, if you want to play Dominant C9 (C-E-G-Bb-D) without the root, all you need to do is play Em7b5 (E-G-Bb_D) or Gm6 (G-Bb-D-E). For Cmaj9 the chord you play would be Em7 (E-G-B-D), Cm9 would be Ebmaj7 (Eb-G-Bb-D). And so on...

Obviously, this approach is rather limited if you are playing alone, but it certainly gives colour to the chords when playing in an ensemble. And they may not work in every situation in a song, so of course you need to use your ears as well! :)

Here's the first set of charts for the Dominant 7th chords, and a sample song Autumn leaves, the uke played with this approach to the chords in the second round of the song backing the piano improvisation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yc3_Mb0tUXU&feature=youtu.be

Sorry for the recording quality, only made a quick multi-track recording. I am also quite new to playing the ukulele, so I have many technical issues to sort out still...

Any feedback would be welcome, if this is useful to anybody else... :)

UKE_jazz_chords.jpg
 
Indeed, your way is much simpler way of thinking on the ukulele... I had used my way of thinking on the piano previously, so perhaps this is why I approach it from slightly different on the ukulele as well. I am sure some of the shapes I came up with are not the typical ones... I've tried to work many of them out so that they are closed chords, in order to get more "swing" sound... As indeed your option for E9 is as well.

So perhaps my thinking here is slightly complicated... And as I am still a noob on the uke, great to have these kinds of tips, thanks! :)
 
I like your multi-track rendition of Autumn Leaves. Which software, interface, and method did you use to record that?

There are an abundant amount of chord charts both here and on other sites that are beyond the open, cowboy chords which are depicted in most beginner's songbooks.

http://forum.ukuleleunderground.com...sition-Chords&highlight=Movable+chords,+chart

http://www.gotaukulele.com/p/ukulele-chord-charts.html

http://forum.ukuleleunderground.com...on-one-sheet!&highlight=Movable+chords,+chart

http://www.ianchadwick.com/pdfs/pdf files/chords_v4s.pdf

http://www.ezfolk.com/uke/Tutorials/1four5/music-theory/ukulele-chord-forms/ukulele-chord-forms.html

Also see the stickies, and search engine for UU.
 
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Thanks for the links! I recorded the song with Audacity (with a click track) through Behringer MIC100 Tube Ultragain preamp and Focusrite Scarlett sound interface, with Fender Jazz Bass, Yamaha electric piano and Fender Hau'oli tenor ukulele with a sticker pickup.
 
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Good stuff. Adding on, I usually see Ab9 as 3323, which is like your Gb9 moved up two frets. Other than that, you got all the good chord shapes that people usually move around the ukulele (like we can play G9 as 2212 or 4555 depending on what we want).

Side note: Unique chord shapes are guuci doe, like for C9 we could play 0665. If you're figuring out the chord shapes yourself, you're doing a really good job :D
 
Thanks! :) Obviously I learned the basic chords from the beginner's charts, but very often they are open chords. Luckily I have quite solid theoretical background (and I play the bass but I have never player the guitar), so figuring out different chords is not very difficult. I think the advantage of figuring them out yourself is that you then remember them more easily compared to just learning them by heart from charts.
 
Thanks for the links! I recorded the song with Audacity (with a click track) through Behringer MIC100 Tube Ultragain preamp and Focusrite Scarlett sound interface, with Fender Jazz Bass, Yamaha electric piano and Fender Hau'oli tenor ukulele with a sticker pickup.
Thank you for the equipment info. I'm trying to get geared up for another small studio. (A little off topic, but pertinent to your chord demo and recording methodology).

I've replaced my 10-year old Presonus Firewire 8-channel and cubase, with something more simple. Sounds like you've nailed one of the current best recording interfaces. I'm keeping my single channel old Behringer Tube preamp though, using an NOS tube, because it's good, and warms up recordings. So at Christmas, I recently added but haven't yet set it up, a Behringer U-Phoria UMC404HD 4-channel interface. Other than GarageBand, I haven't chosen any multi-tracking software.

I might try to record similar to how you have; since I play (a rougher and more simple style) the same instruments you do. My piano playing isn't as good though. However, I still have my Fender Jazz I bought in 1972; still barks like it used to; played it in many bands along the way. Also, I have a couple of keyboards, one a Casio PX-560, the other, an old Yamaha PSR-3000 arranger.

New to me is the ukulele, which I picked up (an inexpensive Oscar Schmidt, OU2 concert size) last year because I thought it was a cute little toy, but soon discovered it can be taken quite seriously, as Jake Shimabukuro has. If you haven done so already, listen and watch him play on YouTube

Playing guitar professionally, has made the chord transfer quite easy; as the top three treble string shapes for the small ukuleles are the same, just a different key. The movable or barre chords from guitar can be played down to the sound hole, and all over the keyboard.

All your chords above, are old chords I learned (or skipped) in 1966. I see you've gone and discovered them for yourself. Wow, what an undertaking and high degree of understanding music theory!

Although I mostly play by ear, I would never have learned if i didn't have someone to guide me in those beginner years. First, it was guitar lessons, then from my bandmates in 1964 -- mostly Beatle songs. If I want to learn more, then I'll be getting together with other accomplished ukulele musicians, which is for me, a much quicker route to learning the keyboard.
 
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Thanks Rrgramps! I've studied music theory at school, and once you have the basics, then it is easier to use those concepts in more advacned jazz music theory. I actually feel that I have learned more since finishing the studies! And here's another thing that actually only now occurred to me that could be useful...

Since the chord tabs are readily available, I won't bother making them, but I thought tables that would show possible rootless 9th substitutions to the 7th chords, also with flat 9, could be useful. I also thought about adding another basic jazz "cheat", the tritone substitution, which is often used in place of the dominant chord before going back to the tonic (G7-C). Obviously it can be used elsewhere as well, but there it is probably most common.

When I started making the rootless 9th substitutions, I realised that if you play the rootless G7b9 chord in place of G7 (B full diminshed B-D-F-Ab (1212) in the key of Cm), when you drop the D by a half step, you end up with Db7 (1112) chord, which is the tritone subsitution for G7 chord, and sounds pretty jazzy...

Please make me stop the thread here if it does not make any sense to anybody else... :)
 
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In your diagram, why didn't you use your Gb9 as a movable shape for G9 and Ab9?

Following similar reasoning:

m9 becomes Maj7 with the root a minor 3rd higher.
Maj9 becomes m7 with the root a major 3rd higher.
7b9 becomes dim7 with root a major 3rd higher.
+9 becomes 7b5 with root a major 3rd higher.

and a rootless 6/9 makes a good jazzy tonic or subdominant chord.
 
If you have a song in a major key, the sound of one quintessential jazz chord, Major 13 with sharp 11, can be easily achieved by playing either a minor 7th half step down, or major 7th a fifth up (or fourth down). It is very often used as the final chord in a song. As an example, if the song ends in C major, you can play either Bm7 (2222) or Gmaj7 (0222), especially if somebody else is playing the C-chord or at least the C for bass note. :)
 
Here's another tip for achieving jazzy sound, not sure if this topic has been dealt with elsewhere...

There are relatively easy fingerings to achieve altered 7th chords. They work really well when played as the dominant 7th before the Tonic especially in a minor key (for example G7alt -Cm).

The first set of altered chords start from A7alt, and can be then transposed up the neck as high as you feel comfortable. The first set of chords have the following notes without the root, counting from the G-string:

flat 7th, Major 3rd, Sharp 5th, minor 3rd

The fingerings are:

A7 alt: 0113
Bb7/A# alt: 1224
B7 alt: 2335
C7 alt: 3446
Db7/C# alt: 4557
D7 alt: 5668
Eb7/D# alt: 6779

And so on if you want to play higher.

The second set of chords start from E7alt, and it is a different inversion. These chords have the following notes, counting from the G-string:

Major 3rd, flat 7th, minor 3rd, Sharp 5th

The fingerings are:

E7alt: 1233
F7alt: 2344
F#7/Gb7alt: 3455
G7alt: 4566
Ab7/G#alt: 5677

By using these fingerings, you can find one altered chord starting from all 12 notes. They give the very jazzy "altered" sound, and sound awesome when used in the right place! :)
 
That's interesting. I've recently discovered 1233 and love it. I'm sure I wasn't thinking of it as an E chord. Like you say, it is "out" of the norm and can be just the right amount of surprise in the right place.
 
That's interesting. I've recently discovered 1233 and love it. I'm sure I wasn't thinking of it as an E chord. Like you say, it is "out" of the norm and can be just the right amount of surprise in the right place.

It really depends how you think about it, as I have theoretical background from which I started discovering the "out" chords, I have a particular way of understanding them... Also, as a bass player, I understand the chords very much from the bottom note up, so I think of the altered chords as "rootless".

Some of the main ingredients of the altered chord are the flat 7th and both minor and major 3rd. Other notes you can try to include are flat 5, and flat and sharp 9th (2nd). But it seems to me that the main thing is to have both major and minor third with almost octave distance between them.

I'm sure I'll be trying to look for some other altered chord combinations... :)
 
It can be a Bb13 too. b5 sub.

Yes, indeed, that's true, it depends how you think about it, whether as an alt7 dominant or 13th tritone substitution, the function is the same. It all depends on what the bass player chooses to play, either E or Bb... :)
 
Very nice summary! I used similar technique when working out #11 and b13 chords, but found the other altered ones just working out note by note, and then found out the easy transferability.
 
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