Keeping Beat and annoying Em chord

panda84

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I've started Ukulele not so long ago, without any music knowledge prior to this (unless you can count recognizing the notes as music knowledge), and I'm really bad at keeping the rhythm, always a bit off during the middle of the song :( . Also, I'm practicing a few basic chords such as: C, F, G, G7, A, Am, Em, E7, Dm, and can't seem to changing chord to Em smoothly from whatever chord before that, there was no problem for other chords.. So I hope you all can help to share any practice tips for these problems.

Thank you so much!!
 
It just needs some time... I'd say first practice the changes very slowly, for example C-Em-C-Em, then F-Em-F-Em etc, very slowly, don't try to rush it, and observe how your fingers move from the one to the other position.
 
Make a g and use your pinkie c string 4th fret (e)

^^^^^^
This. At first I struggled with the Em because my brain just couldn't seem to get that 3 finger chord shape but when I made it a 4 finger chord shape by making a G and then using the pinkie on the 4th fret, it became easy.
 
When going from C to Em I fret the C chord with fingers on the second and third frets of the A string. When switching to Em the finger on the second fret is already in place, I just lift my finger off the third fret, move it up one string while adding the last finger to complete the chord.
 
For rhythm, nothing beats playing to a metronome or click track
 
I don't know what types of music you prefer but I can suggest learning to play Like I'm Gonna Lose You by Meghan Trainor. The chord progression is C, Em, Am, F, G. Assuming you have no issues with the other chords by the time you learn to play this song you'll have that Em under your fingers. See my post above about switching from C to Em. The song has a nice mellow beat. Play along with a metronome or backing track to work on keeping rhythm.

Here is a good backing track. It has no lead vocals so you can sing too :)


This is exactly the song that helped me conquer the Em :)
 
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Make a g and use your pinkie c string 4th fret (e)

Wouldn't that make a Em7 chord?
I know that it can be used as substitute in some places, but learning both would be handy.

I learned something new from this thread. I have until now only played Em as a barre chord, Dm shape moved up two frets.
I moved from my concert to tenor for a song the other day, because the space for my four fingers was a bit small.
That's what I get from being too lazy to look up chords.
 
No, the chord is still 0432. You have two fingers on the C string. Index finger at the 2nd fret and the pinkey at the 4th.
You lift the pinkey and play a G.


Wouldn't that make a Em7 chord?
I know that it can be used as substitute in some places, but learning both would be handy.

I learned something new from this thread. I have until now only played Em as a barre chord, Dm shape moved up two frets.
I moved from my concert to tenor for a song the other day, because the space for my four fingers was a bit small.
That's what I get from being too lazy to look up chords.
 
Thank you all for your tips and advice. I've been trying that pinky on 4th fret.. it seems faster for me, just have to train that pinky a bit stronger.
 
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