captain-janeway
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Was reading through the uke theory for noobs thread and trying to figure out chord structure. Found this:
"now what is a chord? in layman's terms? its a group of notes that, when played togeter, sound nice. we figure this out by looking at the sequence of notes that you have memorized by now... right? so lets take a A Major chord... or just A. the A note is going to be your "root note". your origin of your chord, if you will. now starting from A, go up the sequence 4 "half tones" (ha, if you you forgot what that is, go back a lesson). now you are at the C# note. now from there, add 3 more half tones, and you will have an E.
so recap: you have your root note: A. your middle note: C#. and your last note: E. these are the notes that make up an A chord! now pat yourself on the back for figuring it out.
now, pick up your ukulele and find those notes, one string at a time:
1st string. A. already part of the A chord, right? so dont touch it.
2nd string. E. also part of the A chord. leave it alone.
3rd string. C. need to turn this into either A, C#, or E. so which would be the easiest to do? C#, because it requires the string to be fretted at the 1st fret. keep your finger there!
4th string. G. do the same thing. you will see that two halftones up from the G note will give you an A note. so fret this string on the 2nd fret. keep your other finger there!
now strum your ukulele. you just figured out the fingering for an A chord and played it. "
Question is: on this A chord example starting with open A makes sense, but why am I then counting up 4 half tones then 3 half tones to get the other notes? Why not 5 then 2? What's the reason between going 4 then 3? My guess is that the total of 7 is because you go from Major to 7th notes but even that I'm not sure about.
Can anyone explain it that doesn't get too crazy technical because I'm a beginner, or know a place to look? Did some googling and didn't have any luck.
Thanks
"now what is a chord? in layman's terms? its a group of notes that, when played togeter, sound nice. we figure this out by looking at the sequence of notes that you have memorized by now... right? so lets take a A Major chord... or just A. the A note is going to be your "root note". your origin of your chord, if you will. now starting from A, go up the sequence 4 "half tones" (ha, if you you forgot what that is, go back a lesson). now you are at the C# note. now from there, add 3 more half tones, and you will have an E.
so recap: you have your root note: A. your middle note: C#. and your last note: E. these are the notes that make up an A chord! now pat yourself on the back for figuring it out.
now, pick up your ukulele and find those notes, one string at a time:
1st string. A. already part of the A chord, right? so dont touch it.
2nd string. E. also part of the A chord. leave it alone.
3rd string. C. need to turn this into either A, C#, or E. so which would be the easiest to do? C#, because it requires the string to be fretted at the 1st fret. keep your finger there!
4th string. G. do the same thing. you will see that two halftones up from the G note will give you an A note. so fret this string on the 2nd fret. keep your other finger there!
now strum your ukulele. you just figured out the fingering for an A chord and played it. "
Question is: on this A chord example starting with open A makes sense, but why am I then counting up 4 half tones then 3 half tones to get the other notes? Why not 5 then 2? What's the reason between going 4 then 3? My guess is that the total of 7 is because you go from Major to 7th notes but even that I'm not sure about.
Can anyone explain it that doesn't get too crazy technical because I'm a beginner, or know a place to look? Did some googling and didn't have any luck.
Thanks