best ways to remember the chords?

So I'm pretty much a newb, picked up a uke about a week ago. I can remember the major chords in my book, but now faced with learning the Minor chords and I know there's alot more to follow. The minor seems easy since about half of them are barred or position slides down one fret.

So do you find it easier to remember the finger position first or as pictured in on the chord chart? I'm leaning more towards the finger positions because I have to twist my wirst to get a clean sound.

But now my string are so far outa wack it doesn't even sound right. I have new strings coming from MGM soon. I really hope the new strings last longer then a week!! So I'm also working on my tranistion between each chord without strumming. Along with remembering the chords.

First of all, just learn the chords you use in songs you play. The rest will come with time.

Next, the best way to learn chords would probably be by knowing what notes they are made up of, and how these notes lie on your fretboard. You've probably seen that one chord can be played in various forms all the way up the neck. In the long run, it will be much easier to know roughly what notes you are playing instead of "this form at that fret".

But then again, there is reality and learning forms by heart will work for most amateurs (including me). You might look into "moveable chord shapes" (try a search on this forum and Google) and you'll find a few patterns that come in real handy. Ah, there's a tutorial on that on the UU main page as well.

Finally, I would say that knowing what makes a minor chord a minor chord as opposed to a major one is good stuff to know if you're in a pinch. I saw a very nice table showing what the various chords (m, 7, dim, 6, etc) mean but it got lost somewhere, if I find it I'll edit it in.

So, just practice and the chords will start sticking to your fingers like honey.

I find the best way to learn chords is to use them in a song you know and like, but then again, I am not musical. I play by ear and I find that is best for me. Once I have the song and the muscle-memory kicks in, I don't even think about what the chord is that I'm playing.

You may be better off ignoring this advice as it is probably not the best way to learn music, it's just a habit that works for me.

Try this site . . . and probably the best way is practice and repetition. Now if I can only follow my own advice.

pretty cool site, I'm gonna go through it with uke in hand after work

Kanaka916 said:

Try this site . . . and probably the best way is practice and repetition. Now if I can only follow my own advice.

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That site looks fantastic. Thanks for the link!

I do it the old skool way -

i like that idea deach, but i don't how many songs i can fit on my arm. i'll use
it at our gig next sat.

FHS-72 said:

i like that idea deach, but i don't how many songs i can fit on my arm. i'll use
it at our gig next sat.

Click to expand...

Here you go. You can have a different color for each song.

http://www.onlinesports.com/pages/I,MW-GIWBC.html

if i write small i can get atleast 2 or 3 songs on there.

Forget the chords. . . I'm jotting down Jenny's phone #!!

deach said:

I do it the old skool way -

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