Very simple fretboard chart

VeganMobster

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I recently started playing the uke, and was looking around for a fretboard chart. I found that many charts online had every single note (a lot of clutter), or were not very intuitive (vertical orientation etc). So I made a new chart myself. You can check out the PDF from the link below.

http://bit.ly/1oIxSQy

This one has only natural notes, and they are color coded. I chopped this off at the 12th fret, because that seems plenty to start off with. I also tilted the fretboard slightly for added realism.

Let me know what you think, and do tell if I made a mistake somewhere in there.
 
Kudos. I like it a lot!
 
I like it too. Simple, uncluttered, and looks as though you're holding a uke. This should make it very easy to learn all the natural notes on the fretboard, and then the sharps and flats can easily be filled in between. Thanks!
 
Thanks for making this chart, VeganMobster. The chart is unique and uniquely well-suited to the player in playing position - well done. I will laminate it and keep it handy for reference.

Edit: Having grabbed two other fretboard charts elsewhere from the internet prior to this one, I have comment on the creativity shown in this design. Everybody lays theirs flat so we have to make a visual translation from chart to fretboard. This one is different with its perspective from the player's viewpoint. It seems such a simple idea and reminds me of the old story of creativity about the little boy who suggests letting air out of the tires to get a truck unstuck under a bridge. I just finished laminating this chart and can really see that it is a tool I will use often until the fretboard is imprinted in my brain from a practical standpoint from use, rather than from memorizing the locations separately from making music.

Giving credit where credit is due...you did a very creative and useful thing here, and then gave it away freely for the rest of us to benefit from.

Thanks,

Tony
 
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Great chart! It fits well with the accelerated approach to learning the fretboard explained here:

http://oneukulele.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/how-to-learn-13-of-ukulele-fingerboard.html?m=1

Your chart helps show the C "megacluster" in the middle of the fretboard, and how the C fretboard whitenote pattern is rotationally symmetrical, like a narrow crossword puzzle Also note the FACE diagonal starting with F on the 10th fret.

If you look at the bottom notes of the megacluster, you'll notice they spell BEAD, which coincides with a section of the sequence of fourths: ...C#F# BEADGCF BbEb.... No surprise, since the uke is tuned in fourths, except for the major third in the middle (accounting for the jog). The visual shape of this pattern (n:0011) is important to recognize, because, among other things, it will help you figure out how chord roots move when chords resolve in progressions. (It's the core part of a larger, useful 4ths visual pattern.) Anyway, if you look two frets beyond the two borders of the mega cluster, you'll note that that same shape is repeated by other white notes (starting at the 2nd and 9th frets), with no white notes in between those outlying jogs and the megacluster. Thus, you can extend the megacluster into a gigacluster of known white notes, which leaves only four white notes to learn the locations of: the F-B diagonals near the nut and 12th fret.

The notes beyond the 12th fret have exactly the same names as in first position, so the entire fretboard has now been transformed from a daunting empty expanse into some simple visual patterns.

Sadly, the baritone and D fretboard don't have the same elegant symmetry, but the baritone does have a C supercluster, starting with BE (answering Hamlet) at the 9th fret, in the region where people have the most trouble remembering notes and positions.

The coloring also makes it easy to see and assimilate the fretboard zigzag pattern that you use to find same-named notes. For instance, look at G at the nut, then look up the neck for the other purple circles in sequence. They trace a (cyclic) 3-4-3-2 zigzag that visits each string once per octave. Other notes follow this same pattern, adjusting where you start the pattern to which string you're on. Outside to outside (S1 to S4) is 2 frets, inside to inside (S2 to S3) is 4, and going up from S4 or S3 you jump a string and go up 3. It's one of the most important fretboard patterns to learn and make automatic. The more you see it, as opposed to reading it described, the easier you'll take it in and be able to move in both directions. (To extend this to guitar, the 5th string position lies in the middle of the inside-to-inside jump: 3-2*2*3-2-3... The 6th string is like the 1st.)

This diagram also makes it easy to see all but one of the "box" shapes of the CAGFD/CAGED system.

Since I play tenor/concert, baritone and some guitar, too, and still get confused between the two fretboards, I like to orient myself by playing all the C's, F's and Gs in proximity sequence (across the fretboard roughly on a diagonal). If you know just those notes, every other note is no more than two frets away. (Similarly, if you learn the notes across the 5th and 7th frets, and recognize that the 12th fret names are the same as at the nut, you're always within 2 frets of a known note, except very high on the fretboard.) The color-coding in this chart makes it easy to spot those C-F-G sequences: yellow-orange-purple-yellow...
 
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nice! I need a color printer though!
 
Awesome resource, beautifully done, freely given. You rock! :cool:
 
Thanks. Glad to be of help. If someone needs this as an image, let me know.

As a memorization aid I've also been using an online tool called Fretboard Master. The default setting is for guitars, but with a little tweaking it turns into a ukulele fretboard quiz.

http://www.fretboardmaster.com/fretboardgame.html

Select 4-string bass as the preset, then click Customize on the right to change the tuning. This needs to be done every time you open up the page. I'm sure this tool has been mentioned somewhere before, but might as well add it here in case someone new checks out my chart.
 
Great chart! Definitely printing and laminating this one. Any plans for a bari one?....that would be sweet
 
Great chart! Definitely printing and laminating this one. Any plans for a bari one?....that would be sweet

Here are couple, not quite as nice, but they'll do the job.

First, a baritone (G tuning) ukulele chart with just the "white notes" indicated. The C's are highlighted.
http://www.ukulelescales.com/img/scale/4_C-major_baritone.jpg
I found it at http://www.ukulelescales.com/ , which has a whole bunch of similar fretboard maps, accessible through the ukulele scale finder on the home page. The only tricky thing is that the default settings are for "C Aeolian" (read, C minor). For major, you have to select "Major" in the third dropdown. The "Major" section heading in that dropdown is a bit of a misnomer, as fewer than half of the modes listed there are major; what they must mean is "relative modes to the major scale."

This one's a guitar chart—try to ignore the two leftmost strings. It's colored, but oriented vertically.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_fZdun2578...t09I/s400/Fretboard-Diagram-Natural-Notes.jpg
 
Baritone fretboard memory aids

A few tips on getting oriented on the baritone fretboard.

First, mnemonics for the notes across key frets:
nut: D G B E = Dogbone
5th: G C E A = Go Cream! (Silly, but it helps me.) Same as the standard C tuning
7th: A D #F B = Ads fib (Ad sf ib)
12th: D G B E = Dogbone, same as at the nut; this is the octave
(17th: G C E A same as the 5th)
With these mnemonics, every position on the fretboard is no farther than two frets from a known note. The rest is filling in the gaps, using visual shapes as an aid.

On the 7th fret, I wrote #F instead of F# to remind you that the S in "ads fib" goes with the following F (as a sharp is normally written before a note; only with letter names does it usually follow—grrr). If this bothers you, substitute "Ad for sub."

Additionally, we can import another mnemonic from the C-tuning:
10th: C F A D = C-fad
Since too many mnemonics can be as confusing as too few, I didn't want to list it with the others. Get comfortable with the other mnemonics first, then add this one. This row is an integral part of the C megacluster mentioned below.

Everything you know about the soprano/concert/tenor fretboard applies on the baritone 5 frets up (5 semitones = the interval of a perfect fourth). So it's not surprising that we find the C tuning at the 5th fret, CFAD at the 10th fret (as at the soprano 5th fret) and DGBE at the 12th fret (as at the soprano 7th fret). If you know the movable shapes that correspond to C open-position chords, envision the 5th fret as a virtual nut, and all your soprano chords translate to the region above. If you're spotty on movable chords, just capo at the 5th fret and play as if you were playing in C-tuning; all your note and chord names will match.

The 4th string 5th fret note is the same as the name of the baritone tuning: G. (This holds for all typical uke tunings.) That's a reminder of which mnemonic applies to this fret (G = Go Cream! = G C E A). And two frets up your mnemonic begins with the next white note: A = Ads fib = A D #F B. A is also the last note of companion row 5 (GCEA).

The C supercluster described in this article ( http://oneukulele.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/how-to-learn-13-of-ukulele-fingerboard.html?m=1 ) begins with BE at fret 9 and includes the across-the-fret notes you should recognize from the 10th and 12th fret mnemonics.

Note the BE/CF boxes that begin and end the supercluster. There is another BE/CF box at the nut/1st fret.

Note the symmetry of the white note pattern between the nut and 10th frets, centered around the 5th fret, whose notes you now know.

Note the "lonely" B and F right before and after this central row—they're the only notes on their rows.

Note the diagonal F A C E starting with the 3rd and 15th frets and going leftward.

Note the right-triangle of notes on the 2nd and 3rd fret bottom strings. From the FACE diagonal you know two of the notes. The corner note is right before F, so it's E (flying in the FACE of FEAr). Look at the 7th and 8th fret top strings: they form a similar right-triangle, symmetrical to the lower FEA one. It's corner note is C. The note before it must then be B and (since those strings are tuned a 4th apart) the note next to C must be G, the chord that typically resolves to C.

This leaves only two white notes yet unlocated: D and G on the 3rd fret top strings. You can remember this either as "dog/dig" or "god", depending on which direction you tend to read the strings; of course, the surrounding notes on the same string should keep you straight.

The 4th through 8th frets almost form a white-note megacluster except for those blasted F#s, carving a chink out of the 4th fret bottom and a diamond around fret 7 string 2. Actually, they do form a megacluster with the same pattern as the higher C megacluster, but in the key of G. The F# is of course bracketed between F and G, and C is nestled in the right upper corner of the diamond (1st string, 8th fret), forming that right triangle I mentioned above.

The notes zigzag in the same pattern I described for the C tuning.

Hope at least some of this blather helps.
 
Thank you so much for taking the time and best of all sharing!
Uke's are some of the best people. So happy I "discovered" the ukulele, as so many of you attest "it is hard to play with a frown on your face".
 
If you click here

It will take you to an amazon chord chart you can buy. They have a few to choose from.


[Mod edit: Affiliate tracking removed.]
 
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If you click here

It will take you to an amazon chord chart you can buy. They have a few to choose from.

That URL has an affiliate link from your website. Will you STOP with this underhanded scamming s** already! Your only interest in UU is as a source of revenue. Who suggested this, one of your Wealthy Affiliate pals?
 
If you click here

It will take you to an amazon chord chart you can buy. They have a few to choose from.


[Mod edit: Affiliate tracking removed.]


jminor409, Most of your posts either contain affiliate links or refer people to your site. The rest are very brief and add little to conversations and appear to be vehicles for getting your sig links out there.

If you have real contributions to make to the forum then I look forward to reading them. If your posts continue to look spammy they are likely to be treated accordingly and a ban is possible.

If your contributions are genuine then please take the time to make them more substantial.
 
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