Back to basics

I celebrated 1 year of learning to play the ukulele by returning to Uncle Rod's Boot Camp and the chord charts and not playing any songs. I was finding I could play most songs if the chord forms were noted .. but I had lost the ability to play, as an example, a Dmin7 if the chord form wasn't displayed or if someone said to me play a XYZ chord...... so my practice will now always include FIRST basics and review of some theory.. then maybe a new song or old favorite.. I thought I'd share this revelation on the road to being a better player

Isn't it wonderful how just spending time playing the uke just about automatically helps us
to make progress?

If anyone out there wants the link to the 'Boot Camp', please see the links below my signature.

Happy New Year everyone!

Keep uke'in',

I love Boot Camp! I'm a noobie and find this oh so helpful. Is there an explanation of the kinds of chords in the progressions? I know the first line is 1st, 6th (?), 4th, and 5th, right?

ckellogg said:

I love Boot Camp! I'm a noobie and find this oh so helpful. Is there an explanation of the kinds of chords in the progressions? I know the first line is 1st, 6th (?), 4th, and 5th, right?

Click to expand...

Just bumping this thread. Translation - I've tried to figure out what chords these are and am stuck. sos.

ckellogg said:

I love Boot Camp! I'm a noobie and find this oh so helpful. Is there an explanation of the kinds of chords in the progressions? I know the first line is 1st, 6th (?), 4th, and 5th, right?

Click to expand...

Your terminology may be a little off, but you've got the right idea.

In the key of C, C is the first (root) note of that scale. A is the sixth note, F the fourth note, and G the fifth. It's a good idea to associate chords with their position in the scale---it helps when you want to transpose an arrangement.

The term "sixth chord" means something else. The major sixth chord is the chord formed by the 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 6th notes of the major scale. For example, the chord C major sixth has the notes C, E, G, and A. We can play those four notes at once by strumming the uke without fretting anything---the easiest chord to play!

Hope that helps a bit!

If you're interested in the theory, you might check out some lessons on diatonic triads to understand, for example, why the A chord in that first progression is minor. I think you're on the right track, but what you've got would probably be written vi rather than 6th (along with the rest as roman numerals) - as TheOnlyUkeThatMatters explains about 6th chords.

See also http://www.musictheory.net/lessons if you really want to start digging.

-Scott