Chord finder and Uke vs. Guitar.

jer

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I was playing today and stumbled upon a chord I don't remember playing before, and wasn't sure what to call it. I was going to make a thread here asking, but thought I'd check online first. I found this really cool free chord finder page:

https://www.scales-chords.com/chord-namer/

I just thought I'd mention it, for anyone like me who hasn't seen it before and doesn't care to dive too deeply into theory. You just check off the notes and it'll name the chord. It has a couple of drop down boxes to control some other parameters.
I also noticed if you click the link that says "name this guitar chord" it'll also show you an uke chord fingering.

There's another one that is a bit different on the same page:
https://www.scales-chords.com/chordid.php

I haven't explored the site yet really, but I'm thinking there are probably a lot of other useful pages on it too.

I found out my chord was a D6/11sus but could also be named as a Bm7#5.
I'm going with the first one because it makes it sound like the most complicated chord I've ever played. :p

I most often play a D chord as: 2225
This D6/11sus version I'm playing is 2232

The second chord there sounds really good after the D to me.

I often stumble upon chords on the uke that I would've never arrived at on a guitar.
That brings me to my next point...
As someone who has played more guitar than uke over the years, I am really starting to appreciate the uke more than the guitar in terms of stumbling upon chords and variations just by experimenting (lift a finger here, add one there, etc.) and also being able to actually play them. I've had ukes off and on for many years too, but for whatever reason it's just now clicking with me more these past months. It may be because I've played a lot more uke than guitar and don't even own a guitar as of right now. It used to be that going from guitar to uke sounded a bit odd and confusing as far as how chords sound and work together, but now it's the other way around.

I know there are others who feel similarly. I remember someone else here, or maybe in an article I read, commenting on playing chords they would've never dreamed of playing on guitar.
Don't get me wrong, I do still like guitar, especially acoustic....but having played both gives me an added appreciation for the uke with what I'm talking about here.
 
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Oh yeah, I love just discovering things on the uke. Sometimes I use an app called GuitarToolkit to figure out what it is - or even to discover things away from the uke.

I think this is possible on the uke because with only 4 notes, chances are pretty good that weird combination you just found is *something* already known to music theory and there are fewer chances for a moved note to completely clash with the other strings - at least relative to guitar where you have two others strings to potentially clash with. That's my theory anyway.
 
besley: Thanks for that link. That is easy to use for sure.

Jim: Your theory makes sense to me!
 
https://ukebuddy.com/chord-namer

I'd call 2232 as Gadd9, also according to the above site. But what to really name a chord with (missing) notes depends of course on the playing situation.
The "hawaiian D7" 2020 is really F#dim as an example.

I too can play with ukulele many such chords, that I would rather get a capo on guitar to play from easier shapes. Or simplify.
There are no difficult chords with uke :)
 
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In ukulele music, with lack of bass leading to inversions everywhere and notes missing from many chords, I have found naming chords appropriately can sometimes be a challenge and a chore.

Online reverse chord finder tools such as the ones listed above can make these mysteries easier to solve, but they don't understand the context of the music and so they may not provide appropriate chord names. They certainly won't help you to select the appropriate one from a list if several are returned.

Be careful with these tools if you want the best name for your chord!


As for naming your 2232 chord:
- standing alone, I'd call it D6sus4. I don't like the D6/11sus notation scales-chords uses. D6sus4 is a better (in my mind) way to write the same chord name.
- following 2225 D, I'd be inclined to call it a 2nd inversion Gadd9
- I can't imagine Bm7#5 ever being an appropriate name for this configuration of notes, but perhaps there is a case?
 
Gadd9 is probably what I will name it then. Y'all have convinced me.
That UkeBuddy chord finder is awesome. That is my favorite one out of all the ones linked above. Thanks!
 
I use ukebuddy.com for chords most time, because of the clean interface.

But it has one weakness. It does not many times recognize/give chords with missing notes.
The most common chord I use for F7: 2310 is not as an example it it's database or algorithm, because it omits the 5th note.

So I bookmarked also besley's link.
 
Ah yeah..Good point. I can see why having more than one source would be ideal.
 
One of my favorite uke sites is a reverse chord finder similar to the second link you mention, but this one also works for ukes:

http://www.gootar.com/guitar/index8.html?4

I thought I'd mention that for $20 you can download an expanded version of this gootar chord finder that works offline on you phone, tablet, or PC. It has a number of other functions too that I've just begun to explore.
 
This chordfinder works both ways (from chord names to fingers on strings, and vice versa) and is online for a respectable 20 years now: https://www.ukulele.nl/chordfinder/

Given only maximum 4 simultaneous sounding notes, and given the lack of a strong bass note (especially in reentrant tuning) most finger positions on a ukulele have multiple names and thus functions. Which is the charming bit about the instrument. Play diminished chords on a ukulele, and it's instant magic (one fingering, four different diminished chords in one!).

Funny you mentioned the missing fifth in that common fingering for F7 (2310) - that's why I prefer 2313. I also prefer the D played as 2225, simply because the root note is doubled in that one.

The Robert van Renesse book was very enlightening in this regard.
 
I use ukebuddy.com for chords most time, because of the clean interface.

But it has one weakness. It does not many times recognize/give chords with missing notes.
The most common chord I use for F7: 2310 is not as an example it it's database or algorithm, because it omits the 5th note.

So I bookmarked also besley's link.

Hey, thanks for that great feedback. I've just added a bunch of no3 and no5 chord variations to the UkeBuddy chord namer.
 
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