Recommendations on chord changes to practice?

cre8tive1

cre8tive1

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I'm trying to improve my speed moving from one chord to another. I time myself for 60 seconds and see how many times I can play a good clear set of chords. For example C/F/C or C/G/C.

However, my knowledge of music theory is very limited and I don't know which chord changes/progressions are common or even realistic.

Can anyone make some suggestions on chord combinations that are very common and I turn sound useful to practice?

Mahalo
 
Just look at the I,IV, and V chords from any major key so:
C, F, G
G, C, D
D, G, A
etc...
 
In addition to boot camp, there are these exercises from howlin' hobbit.

Also, there is Ukulele Exercises For Dummies, which I got for Christmas and would highly recommend, and which contains chord change drills as well as lots of other cool stuff.
 
IMO, if you're practicing, play all the chords in every order. No matter if they sound good or not, get them under your fingers. Then, once it's easy to play them all in any way, it's easy to do them in keys/nice sounds.

Idea seed: Rip a piece of paper into 12 pieces. Write every major chord on the pieces. Put them in a hat: pick them one at a time until you have a pattern. Play through it slowly until you can do it right. Bonus: do it for every chord type you are studying! Minor and 7th should probably be a given and go along with majors. That's, what, 36 pieces of paper...? That's a lot. So maybe break it into 3 sets of 12.

Then do it again.

When in doubt, practice.
 
I'm not one to practice without purpose. I practice the ones that trip me up in the songs that I want to play.
 
Rllink said:
I'm not one to practice without purpose. I practice the ones that trip me up in the songs that I want to play.
Click to expand...

I agree. What's the point in practicing a bunch of random chord progressions if you aren't ever going to use them? Play songs that you want to play and you're bound to encounter chord progressions that are going to challenge you or ones that you can play but require practice to play more smoothly. Practice with purpose!
 
+1 on Uncle Rod's materials.

While it's nice to learn while you try playing songs, you also have to work strum pattern and rhythm of the song, which might be overwhelming and discouraging if it "doesn't sound right." If you can learn chord progressions while playing songs, that's great! Otherwise...

Learning the chords and working on muscle memory helps to make that part of learning/playing a song easier and more fun - at least for me. Consider learning the chords in the key of C, get comfortable with them and then try songs in that key.
 
jollyboy said:
In addition to boot camp, there are these exercises from howlin' hobbit.
Click to expand...

I really like Howlin' Hobbit's sheet of chord progressions and I feel it is very usable because you'll find these chord changes in a lot of songs, instead of practicing changes that, while helping your dexterity, you may never actually encounter in a song you're playing.

If spending money is an option, I'd recommend the book "Ukulele Aerobics", which offers weekly sets of exercises which I feel should be seen as learning units rather than something you are expected to "master" within just a week for each set. The sets leave you in the dust quickly if you try to do one set per week. The nice thing about these exercises is that each set contains a few chords (including different voicings) that the other exercises (also the following week's) are based on, so it's all consistent and (mostly) coherent. I get a lot of value out of that book.
 
mikelz777 said:
I agree. What's the point in practicing a bunch of random chord progressions if you aren't ever going to use them? Play songs that you want to play and you're bound to encounter chord progressions that are going to challenge you or ones that you can play but require practice to play more smoothly. Practice with purpose!
Click to expand...

Bootcamp suggests practicing the chord progressions from songs without (i.e., before) actually playing the song. So one or two strums on each chord rather than a few measures of the same chord. It's chord transitions that need to be practiced.
 
Kayak Jim said:
Bootcamp suggests practicing the chord progressions from songs without (i.e., before) actually playing the song. So one or two strums on each chord rather than a few measures of the same chord. It's chord transitions that need to be practiced.
Click to expand...

My "problem" with the Bootcamp is the lack of context, but that is really already in the name: It's a drill, it's repetitive, it is, on the surface, pointless. For some people, this works just fine and is the right approach. For others, and I'd include myself in that group, the drill method doesn't work as well and they benefit from more context: actual songs, coherent exercises that directly build up on each other (as in Ukulele Aerobics), or a more "talk-y" or immersive approach (such as Aaron and Nicole Keim's books and videos).

To use an analogy: For improving fitness, I'd have a better experience jogging through a forest or along a coast line than spending hours staring at the whitewashed walls in my basement while "running" on a stepper. The end result may well be similar, but the experience would be vastly different.

But everyone learns differently, so no one method is universally better than the alternatives.
 
Kayak Jim said:
Bootcamp suggests practicing the chord progressions from songs without (i.e., before) actually playing the song. So one or two strums on each chord rather than a few measures of the same chord. It's chord transitions that need to be practiced.
Click to expand...

I tend to do that when the song has chords that I'm not familiar with or those that I don't play very often. I don't bother if they are chords I know. I agree that it's the transitions that need to be practiced. For me, the bootcamp was of limited value. I found it to be more of a rote exercise than something I look back on as having been a value in helping me play any songs. I can get the same thing out of practicing the chords for a known song so I didn't really get into playing chords that weren't part of something/a song that I knew or wanted to learn.
 
Last edited:
I don't know if you have signed up for Ukulele University, (UU+) but they have a self improvement course that focuses on the chords and chord transitions. I find it very helpful and use it as a warm up when I practice. When I am learning a new song, I practice the chord transitions specific to the song, for instance last night I was working on switching from D to Em. I find that one I do that I can then use what I learned in other songs as well. UU is 150.00 a year which is less than I pay my private instructor for the month. I like to use both UU and my teacher as I often benefit from immediate feedback.
 
Czechmate01 said:
I don't know if you have signed up for Ukulele University, (UU+) but they have a self improvement course that focuses on the chords and chord transitions. I find it very helpful and use it as a warm up when I practice. When I am learning a new song, I practice the chord transitions specific to the song, for instance last night I was working on switching from D to Em. I find that one I do that I can then use what I learned in other songs as well. UU is 150.00 a year which is less than I pay my private instructor for the month. I like to use both UU and my teacher as I often benefit from immediate feedback.
Click to expand...

I'm glad to hear this. I've always tried to learn through lurking around here, Youtube, and books. I'd been wondering about UU+ and if it was worth the cost. I'm really thinking of joining as I find myself hitting frequent roadblocks.
 
What I did early on was go on Youtube and find beginner uke tutorials and mostly all of them have the most commonly used chords. Most people on here stand by tabs and books, but I learn better by video so it's basically all about preference.
 
One thing I do to help with chord transitions is think about guiding fingers. If you can keep some fingers in the same spot, or on the same string, it makes transitioning between the chords a lot easier.

Let me pull an example from a song I've been practicing recently. This is from "Clementine."

C 0003
Cmaj7 0002
C6 0000
G7 0212
Ddim7 1212

So, the Ddim7 and the G7 both have the second fret covered by the pinkie. So I start all the way at the C with the pinkie, slide it down to the Cmaj7, and lift up for the C6. The pinkie hovers right over that second fret, though. Then the pinkie, ring, and middle fingers are placed down for G7. Then, it's just a matter of putting down the index finger to create the Ddim7.

If you analyze the chord structure to see how to move the minimal amount of finger changes are actually needed, that can definitely help you pick up the speed of your transitions.
 
Just about any chord into Em and back is a good workout. Chords that are commonly played with Em are F, C, Am, and Dm but there are others. Sometimes it's good to shift up to second position and sometimes it's good to use the pinky but either way requires some practice. It may not be as tough if you use a strap but without a strap it is tricky.
 
+1 on Howling Hobbit's chord progressions. I like Uncle Rod boot camp but it would have more value if the progressions progressed into different Keys rather than random chords.
I often noodle about paying a strum pattern, while going through the progressions. Since I don't sing it sounds like music to me.
 
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