G chord practice

zztush

zztush

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I am teaching ukulele to my friend since last October. Happy birthday to you was the first song for him to practice. I know key of C is the best for study. But It was key of F. It has Bb chord. We took more than two months to practice Bb and now it is almost ok. Today I gave him this song, Hitachi no ki. This is advertising jingle of Hitachi. The original key is G. I took original key and arranged for him.



MIDI file is here

We practice first two measures today. G chord is bit hard for him so far. His first joints of index, middle and ring fingers do not flex very well. He needs more time to fix it. This is very famous song in Japan and he enjoys it to practice. I think we need more than two month for this song.
 
My cousin also took a while to get to grips with the G chord - she practised moving into it from other chords for 5 - 10 minutes a day and got there.

You should post your arrangement in the tabs section - others will like to see it I'm sure!
 
Thank you Jim for your suggestion! I put it in the tabs section too.

Before I teach him, I did not realize that there are so many unusual finger styles on chords. Now I see that even G has very unusual finger styles especially on first joints of each fingers. G and G7 are big difference. G7 is much easier than G.
 
Some chords are just plain nasty such as the E...G was easy though, I just didn't 'cheat' with G7 instead of G when I started . :)
 
Hi, cml! I like your home made ukulele.

My friend used to play G chord like the left photo below. I hadn't changed his way to play G. Now he tries to play like the right one. His fingers do not flex well on the board so far. I am looking forward to see his G chord in next week.

how to take a screen shot
 
I taught him last night. His G chord is ok now. I think he's practiced very much. His first joints flexed very well and produce very good sound.

images upload

I am thinking that chord is not basic of ukulele. We are practicing solo in our session. We have never strummed in our session but he improves ukulele very fast.
 
If you are just playing the G chord, you can simply barre the first 3 strings on the second fret and play the note on the E string (3rd) fret with the middle or ring finger. It not technically the correct technique in some circles, but it is an easier approach and useful when playing the G chord with a modified shape.

John
 
70sSanO said:
If you are just playing the G chord, you can simply barre the first 3 strings on the second fret and play the note on the E string (3rd) fret with the middle or ring finger. It not technically the correct technique in some circles, but it is an easier approach and useful when playing the G chord with a modified shape.

John
Click to expand...

That fingering also gets you in a good position to change to D7.
 
Hi, John and plastuku. We will have to practice that barre G too.

My friend needs very stiff ukulele support and now his strap is very short. I have not talked it to him so far.

20mb image hosting
 
70sSanO said:
If you are just playing the G chord, you can simply barre the first 3 strings on the second fret and play the note on the E string (3rd) fret with the middle or ring finger. It not technically the correct technique in some circles, but it is an easier approach and useful when playing the G chord with a modified shape.

John
Click to expand...

I was going to suggest this same technique. I only recently discovered it and I like it.

plastuku said:
That fingering also gets you in a good position to change to D7.
Click to expand...

Also helps with Em. I use my middle finger to complete the G chord and then drop the ring finger on the 4th fret of the C string.
 
Of course, you can always play the 4232 G instead...
 
As usual, do not focus on a single fingering only but rather have a look at the surrounding chords and try to find the "most comfortable" G for that occasion.

I usually play G 0232 with my index on C, middle finger on A and ring finger on E strings - which offers pretty easy changes to Em (add the pinky on C 4th fret - it takes a bit of practice to make this feel good though).
If you're facing G - G7 progressions I find it easier to swap index and middle fingers because the chord change becomes a lot quicker and easier:
G = 0 2 (middle) 3 (ring) 2 (index)
G7 = 0 2 (middle) 1 (index) 2 (ring)
Ring and index fingers simply rotate around the anchored middle finger.

So - again - it's all about context and practice......
 
The things I taught him today is shown below. We have done 5 chords so far. They are triad which has root (red in the figures below), 3rd and 5th. They have a order 5, 1 and 3 from left to right. I taught him the meaning of them and checked them on his ukulele. This order is worth to remember. When we find 7th chords, minor chords or other chords, we can use this formula.

upload pics
 
We see the problem of G chord is the location of ring finger. G7 is ok. But we need to set the ring finger ahead of middle finger on G. This shape is difficult for beginners and need to practice.

screen shot windows
 
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