Em chord

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seasidesal

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Has anyone ever noticed that a first position Em chord (0432 in standard C tuning) never sounds quite right? It doesn't seem to matter which ukulele I play it on, and I've tried many, but I've never heard this issue discussed.

Thanks in advance for any musical insights about this. I love the sound of Em chords on the guitar and piano....
 
I don't mind it this way on my re-entrant concert, but on my low-G tenor I don't like the open G as a root note, so I play it 4432 which makes it more bearable.
 
seasidesal said:
Has anyone ever noticed that a first position Em chord (0432 in standard C tuning) never sounds quite right? It doesn't seem to matter which ukulele I play it on, and I've tried many, but I've never heard this issue discussed.

Thanks in advance for any musical insights about this. I love the sound of Em chords on the guitar and piano....
Click to expand...

It's not deep sounding, like on guitar, plus IMO def sounds strange if played on a low-G strung uke, with that open G string
 
I’ve not noticed it sounding bad. I play high G on all my ukes though. My issue is with Em7. There are many times when the music calls for Em7 and an Em sounds much better. I mainly notice it when playing from guitar lead sheets in my church band. Maybe a guitar to ukulele translation thing?
 
merlin666 said:
I don't mind it this way on my re-entrant concert, but on my low-G tenor I don't like the open G as a root note, so I play it 4432 which makes it more bearable.
Click to expand...

+1! This is the only way to play it on low G.
 
RafterGirl said:
I’ve not noticed it sounding bad. I play high G on all my ukes though. My issue is with Em7. There are many times when the music calls for Em7 and an Em sounds much better. I mainly notice it when playing from guitar lead sheets in my church band. Maybe a guitar to ukulele translation thing?
Click to expand...

Funny, that I was thinking the opposite. I like using em7, but it may be that I like the color on old jazzy standards.
 
The reason is the location of root (=E) is not the lowest note on the chord of Em on low G ukulele.



But I am ok. I have no problem about Em on ukulele. If you have a trouble just skip 4th string on low G.
 
Last edited:
merlin666 said:
I don't mind it this way on my re-entrant concert, but on my low-G tenor I don't like the open G as a root note, so I play it 4432 which makes it more bearable.
Click to expand...

I was going to say exactly this.
 
I've always got along with Em. I've never played a low G tuned ukulele, so I can't compare the two. I have several songs that jump between the Em and the B7 and that is an easy transition if you just move the Em up one course, so I like it. Actually, the first position Em has always been an easy chord to go into or get out of for me, so that is another reason I like it better than some of the up the neck fingerings.
 
Never had a problem with it, but I seem to play 4432, X432, or 2432, depending on the chord leading into it, or flowing out of it.

The 4232 (G) into 4432 (Em) X453 (Am) 7655 (D), for example, I also play as X232 X432 X443 7655. Either is a nice progression.
 
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