Is there an alternative to Em?

addicted2myuke

addicted2myuke

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Besides the dreaded Bb, the Em slows me down and we all know that hesitation kills an otherwise lovely song. Is there an alternative to the Em chord? Try as I may, I have a really hard time flowing through that chord.
 
Sometimes I find it easier to hold the G chord shape and add on my pinky to the third string fourth fret.

Don't give up on it -- Em is a beautiful chord!
 
connor013 said:
Sometimes I find it easier to hold the G chord shape and add on my pinky to the third string fourth fret.

Don't give up on it -- Em is a beautiful chord!
Click to expand...

:agree:

Only way I can grab Em in tempo.
 
connor013 said:
Sometimes I find it easier to hold the G chord shape and add on my pinky to the third string fourth fret.

Don't give up on it -- Em is a beautiful chord!
Click to expand...

:agree: Bingo! Because the Em is so often played in transition with the G this is a very natural thing to do.

Another thing that works well is playing it with a barre at the second fret instead of "curling" the index finger to fret the first string. Depending on what chords you're mixing it up with this can be much easier and keep your hand in the same position.

John
 
I play Em, but sometimes I will switch things up for a easy transition. Like playing Em7 in Pumped up Kicks to transition to G being the next chord. Still sounds good to me.
 
addicted2myuke said:
Besides the dreaded Bb, the Em slows me down and we all know that hesitation kills an otherwise lovely song. Is there an alternative to the Em chord? Try as I may, I have a really hard time flowing through that chord.
Click to expand...

Here's the most important thing of all. DON'T hesitate. RHYTHM is King. Just because you haven't formed ANY chord exactly as you want is no reason to slow down your strum or picking. Your rhythm stays on time no matter what is going on with your fretting hand. It doesn't matter WHAT mistakes you have made with your fretting hand you keep on going to the rhythm.

No excuses that you haven't formed an Em properly.

I'm a picker and sometimes I deliberately do an exercise where I pick a pattern constantly and see how slowly I can do a chord change and it still sounds OK. You've got more time than you think. There's nothing fast about my chord changes at the best of times.

Anthony
 
I heard of a cheat last week, play 0402 instead.
 
Learned a lot! Thanks to all.
 
this is a great chord to learn it will come with practice,
if you have two songs on the go while you are practicing one with EM and one not it will help, keep EM song slow, and a song you know flowing,

i am using a Bb song in the sme way i can form chord but no flow,
its getting there tho
 
I prefer to just practice it until I can transition to and from it smoothly. Impatience the bane of many a uke player.
 
connor013 said:
Sometimes I find it easier to hold the G chord shape and add on my pinky to the third string fourth fret.

Don't give up on it -- Em is a beautiful chord!
Click to expand...
Agreed - that's a good one, I use it all the time now. Another one if you're changing from C to Em is to hold the C chord with the 3rd finger while fretting the 2nd fret with the first finger, then to go to Em you leave that 1st finger where it is and just swing the the other fingers over. That's a nice easy chord change too. Stck with it, you need that Em chord and it will get easier, I struggled a lot with it myself!
 
I also have trouble grabbing Gm (thank goodness it shows up less frequently than Em). And I've been trying to work on triplets and a Cliff Edwards kinda backwards roll that starts with the index finger instead of the pinky finger...

...so this morning I've put all that together practicing the right-hand techniques while switching back and forth between Gm and Em with the left hand. Pretty efficient and effective as a technical exercise.

Stopping for now, having seen the look in my wife's eyes. And she's been moving closer and closer to the knife drawer in the kitchen. Better break out a major mode love song post haste!
 
I use 0432 but instead of fingering with index, middle and ring fingers I use middle, ring and pinkie. I find it easier for transitions to and from other chords.

The G and then reach over with your pinkie I also find useful.
 
no, there is no alternative, resistance is futile . just keep practicing, . you'll get it. unfortunately there are chords that are worse.
 
ukuloonie said:
I don't know if this helps but I usually check out
this site for different chord shapes of a chord I want to overcome.
CLICK here
From ezfolk.com
Click to expand...

Many thanks for that url. I didn't know about it, but I'm sending it out to our uke club. THANKS!
 
Bb and Em are my favourite chords. They do kill my fingers though but it's worth it to get such a pretty sound out of my ukulele. Just keep practicing them and I'm sure you will find them as easy as loving a ukulele after a bit of time.
 
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