Not getting uke theory: help

Yes, a m6 chord will have the same pitch set and shape as some m7b5 chord built on a different root. Does the name matter? To basic uke players, probably not; to players of other instruments, people attempting to understand harmonic structure, people attempting to improvise over the basic chords, etc., it matters a great deal. Almost all chord shapes (even the most basic) can be interpreted as different chords or chord types corresponding to different roots. In the case of extended chords (9ths, 11ths, 13ths and 6/9s, for instance), using the wrong name may result in the player playing the wrong chord, because their voicing choices may include notes that the arranger didn't intend and which clash unintentionally with the real harmony or melody—at the very least, voicing options will be unnecessarily limited, not for the best.

m7b5 aka. the half-diminished chord (also notated ø) is the diatonic chord built on the seventh major scale note (degree) [VIIø], also on the second minor scale degree [IIø]. It occurs often in the songs I play, mostly from the 20's to 40's. Of course, its use isn't limited to these two degrees, I'm just showing that it's one of the basic chords in our familiar major and minor modes, more "natural" than the dim7 often used in its place.

If you don't see this chord type often in your sources, it may because m7b5 chords are disfavored in simpler song genres (and there are probably a lot of other common "jazz" chord types you don't see). It may be because the notator doesn't really know what's going on harmonically, and so always names those chord shapes according to the m6 names he does know. It may be because the notator is dumbing things down for the masses, eliminating less familiar chord types (a self-perpetuating circle of limitation), sticking only to names players will recognize, and reducing the number of chord changes required. Nowadays, I examine the piano parts in sheet music to restore chords omitted by simplifications in the uke/guitar notation, so that's one reason I see this chord type more often.

Note that these same shapes are also used for rootless 9th chords on yet different roots. Though there are other alternatives for playing these chords that omit some other chord component instead, the rootless 9th forms are the ones you'll most commonly see in uke chord charts and sheet music or lead sheet grids. There's at least one other not so uncommon chord type that these same shapes may be used for, but I don't recall it off-hand.

We have more control over voicing than you assume from your "first position only" and "only one shape per chord" way of training yourself. One obvious way of changing the voicing is to move chords higher on the neck. Another is to change which components of a chord we play: they're not all always necessary; for instance, you can suggest a full seventh chord with just two notes: either the third and seventh (a tritone interval) or the root and seventh—not beyond ambiguity, but the surrounding context helps our interpretation. Some chords have more than four components in their full theoretical form, so that we're forced to eliminate one or more; the choice of what we eliminate and what we keep leads to more voicing options, and again context normally helps our interpretation along.

Augmented chords should be no challenge because any note in the augmented shapes can serve as their root, and there are really only two shapes you need to learn in order to play augmented chords all over the fretboard. (In fact, just one suffices, though it wouldn't fit your limitation of always being the lowest variant possible.) Move the shape up four frets and you have the same chord again in a higher voicing. You'll notice a similar situation with dim7 chords: any note in the shape might be the root, and moving it up three frets yields the same chord by name.

One reason you blank on the non-basic chord types is because you take a harder approach to learning them. Instead of learning 12 (to 100+) chords for each type, you could just memorize four shapes—one per root string—as your go-to shapes, deriving other variants "out of real-time" when situations arose calling for something more tailored. The system which you thought wouldn't be of much use to you not only can show you how to form core shapes for each type but also all their other possible variants, and helps as a reminder (or for quick re-derivation) when memory lapses, as mine frequently does.

In a recent thread on jazz ukulele, someone linked to one of Glen Rose's tutorial videos, where he's discussing how the scary "jazz" chords he's using are closely related to the shapes for more basic chords—that's basically the system in action, though he doesn't explain the precise tweaks from a more generative perspective. A chapter of Ukulele Fretboard Roadmaps also discusses a similar derivation approach, though it does it in reference mainly to three major chord shapes (an approach I find less direct, less consistent and less complete). Sadly, the book omits a thorough discussion of chord naming, so if you haven't yet cracked that code, the UFR presentation may be mostly lost on you.

The way you talk, it is so disrespectful, but I do appreciate some information you give.

Rather than you always advertising your method with so many words, we all maybe would like to hear you play with your moving style.

I myself stick to my style that is based on chord knowledge in my head and less about physical patterns. My ukulele sounds best strummed low and balanced, providing the rhythm, Like guitar, you can't almost hear it, until it is not there.

I did play my guitar with moving barre chords to cover then the keys. It is basically the only way to play accompaniment with guitar. I would not consider myself limitated like you constantly point out when attacking me, when am just liking some style better. With guitar I stuck to patterns of play instead, with accompaniment. Also I solo of course with at least 15 frets with my ukulele.

I blank now.
 
Interesting. I've always thought the keyboard was easier because it is linear, although you do have to accept that there is no difference between a black key and a white key. I suppose a fretboard is also linear for each individual string, but having grown up playing violin, the intervals between the strings of a guitar or uke have always driven me a little crazy.

BTW, thanks for your perspective on learning music theory. Personally, I find it stimulating, but I know others that completely shut down with the mention of a scale or an interval. I'm learning that it really doesn't matter as long as playing brings you joy....unless, of course, you choose to take a music theory class :).

I used to play in my youth the guitar with fourths tuning few years, the 2nd and 1st string tuned to C and F. I was into soloing a lot and thought this logical. But it was extremely limited with chordings. Stanley Jordan plays with that tuning and he is a very talented unorthodox guitarist though.

You will get used to the ukulele soloing despite that 3rd interval with practise :)
 
You've simply missed the clips I've posted in the past. But where are your clips, demonstrating your often advertised method, described in so many words? Glass houses again, bud.

Clearly you're more interested in reading in some sort of slight than in learning how to accelerate your mastery of other chord types. If that post was your winning way of saying "thanks for the help" and "tell me more," it somehow escaped me. No one else expressed interest, either. Okay, point taken.

I don't have any method, my singing voice is not so good. I only hope someones are maybe getting something from my posts in continuing their love with playing some songs with their ukes same as me, with aloha spirit, despite all your words that they won't or that you know better. I almost regret posting that 4 note chords link, except some like to maybe read and learn same as me.

We don't all have to be as super fine as you lol ;)

I just play uke for my pleasure as an accompaniment too. Thats all.
 
Music theory is nothing more than understanding the intervals between notes, and the patterns of intervals that make up the music we play. You can make it very complicated or keep it relatively simple. I have to keep it simple! For me, the light bulb came on when I looked at the piano keyboard and realized:

View attachment 107447

ALL of the notes are included in this picture. They merely repeat themselves in the same pattern as they go higher or lower.

The white keys are called the natural notes. There are seven natural notes. The black keys are called sharps and/or flats. There are five of them inserted between some of the natural notes. That gives a total of twelve notes in half-step intervals.

The white keys are in whole-step intervals, except for the E & F, and the B & C. There are no black keys between E & F, and B & C, so those notes are always only a half-step apart.

What are half-steps and whole-steps? The distance, or interval, between two adjacent notes. NOTE: On the ukulele, one fret equals a half-step and two frets equal a whole step.

Music is based on scales, and on chords constructed from those scales. A scale is simply a specific pattern of notes, played one note at a time, starting on any note and ending on the same note an octave higher or lower. There are usually seven notes in each scale, eight if you count the ending note, which is why it's called an octave. Scales that use half-steps and whole-steps are known as Diatonic Scales. Scales that use only half-steps are known as Chromatic Scales.

Going back to the piano diagram, if we play each white key, starting with 'C' on the left and ending with 'C' on the right, that's a C Major scale. It's a C scale, because it starts and ends on 'C', and it's a Major scale, because of the specific pattern of intervals it uses. It's also a diatonic scale, because it uses half-steps and whole-steps.

Now, pay attention. Every Major scale has the same pattern of intervals, which are: whole-step, whole-step, half-step, whole-step, whole-step, whole-step, half-step.

I like to remember the Major scale as a phone number, which would be 221-2221, with the twos being whole steps and the ones being half steps. This is easy to see in the key of 'C', because the C Major scale uses only the white keys, with no sharps or flats.

It gets a little trickier for Major scales (or playing in different keys) other than 'C', because those use sharps and flats (the black keys) to make up the same 221-2221 pattern of intervals, and you have to remember how many, and which sharps or flats, are needed depending on what key you're in, or what note the Major scale starts on. You can see this on the piano keyboard by working out the 'whole-step, whole-step, half-step, whole-step, whole-step, whole-step, half-step' (221-2221) pattern, starting on each different note. Then you can play the same scales on the ukulele. Of course, you need to know the names of all the notes on your ukulele fingerboard in order to find them.

The notes of a scale can be numbered from '1' to '8', and the chords we play on the ukulele are built from the notes of the scale. A chord is simply three or more notes from the same scale, played together at the same time. A basic three-note chord is called a Triad, and is built using the first, third, and fifth notes of a scale, also known as the 1, 3, & 5 scale tones. If the notes are from a Major scale, then it's called a Major chord. (If the third note is lowered a half-step, it becomes a minor chord, but I'm sticking to Major scales and chords for simplicity's sake.)

Again, it's easy to see with a 'C' chord using the 1, 3, & 5 notes, which are C, E, & G, because the key of 'C' and the C Major scale uses only natural notes (i.e. white keys) with no sharps or flats. Again, it gets a little trickier to build other chords because you have to use sharps or flats to create the same 1, 3, & 5 intervals. But a triad is always the 1, 3, & 5 notes of a scale.

Now, the songs we play are made up of chords which are built on the scale of the underlying key they are in. If we think of the chords in a certain key the same way we think of notes in a scale, we can number the chords from one to seven. Chord numbers are usually written with Roman numerals to indicate they are chords rather than notes in a scale. The I chord corresponds to the root or first note of the key a song is in. In the key of C, the I is a C chord.

Most popular three-chord songs are based on the I, IV, and V chords. In the key of C, that's the C, F, & G chords. In D, it's the D, G, and A chords. In E, it's the E, A, & B chords. You can count on your fingers to find the I, IV, and V chords in each key, or you can look at the Circle of Fifths which is simply a diagram of the those chords in each key, and usually shows the sharps or flats in each key, as well. Very handy!

The I, IV, and V chords are almost always Major chords. The chords in between, the ii, iii, and vi chords are usually minor chords, as indicated by the lower-case Roman numerals. The vii chord is a diminished chord, which is a whole 'nother animal I don't even want to talk about. The reason some chords are major and others are minor is due to the 1, 3, & 5 intervals depending on which note of the scale that each chord is built on, which we won't go into.

Just keep in mind the I, IV, and V chords are very strong obvious changes, while the ii, iii, and vi chords are weaker, more subtle changes. If you're trying to figure out the chords in a song, try the I, IV, and V chords first, then try filling in the others. The vi chord is closely related to the I chord and is called the Relative Minor chord. It gets thrown into a lot of songs that use the I, IV, and V.

All the different minor scales and modes, and complicated music theory stuff is merely based on variations of the good old Major scale, so that's all there is to it!

Anyway, that's all I've got, and that's as simple as I can make it. Hopefully, I haven't confused anyone too badly. I'm gonna stop now before I confuse myself any further! :cool:

This is absolutely OUTSTANDING, Steedy! It's the clearest and best explanation I've read, and by far the most useful. Thank you for taking time to present this first step to understanding music theory.

Bradd
 
This is absolutely OUTSTANDING, Steedy! It's the clearest and best explanation I've read, and by far the most useful. Thank you for taking time to present this first step to understanding music theory.

Bradd

Thank you, glad it was helpful! :)
 
I found that the first thing you have to learn about music theory is this: It doesn't make sense (when thought about in other terms).

Why are there 13 half steps in an 8 note scale?
Why are 4 half steps called a third?
Why do people usually say F# instead of Gb?
Why is a "C" 523 Hz?

Music is its own consistent system. Don't think of it in terms of others*.



*OK, so mathematically speaking, the ratio of a major chord is always 1/1.26/1.5 and a minor chord is 1/1.2/1.5. That is extremely helpful to remember when playing the ukulele.
 
Music theory is more difficult than Chemistry ! I give up a long time ago.

This is easier.

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[/url]IMG_0480 by Brenda Lee, on Flickr[/IMG]
 
Steedy that is very helpful. My lightbulb is starting to flicker!
 
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