Song Help Request 12 chords, with only 2 shapes

Ukecaster

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Saw this tutorial video of Satin Doll by James Hill. Very cool, 12 jazz chords with only 2 chord shapes. Holy crap, I could actually play a cool jazz standard? I'm hoping to learn this one, but for the life of me, the chord on the 9th fret just sounds wrong to my ears. I'm music theory illiterate, and sure James has it right, but just can't figure out why it sounds wrong to me. Maybe my ear expects a lower version of the chord, but that one just grates on me. Ideas/suggestions?

 
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I'll watch it when I have a moment, but according to the pic on the video, isn't it the 10th fret?
 
I'll watch it when I have a moment, but according to the pic on the video, isn't it the 10th fret?

He goes from 3rd fret to 5th, then 10th to 9th.

Oh, and fingering all 4 strings without barre chords, cramming all fingers across one fret? Yikes!
 
Going from the 10th to the 9th is a chromatic walkdown, so some dissonance will be heard (and likely the point of that particular walkdown to give it that jazzy feel).

Four fingers on four frets does take practice but is needed for the second chord shape ease.
 
In the past I was thinking along the same lines as Mike $ and it altered how I managed chords. Like most people I had memorized the scads of discrete first position chord shapes. Eventually I tossed out that system and for every chord quality that I valued, I found four movable shapes, one for each string. Now for every shape, I have fifteen chords. And now when I want to play a Bm7, I just go to whatever B I want on the fret board and surround it with the appropriate m7 shape. It is very liberating to move around like James Hill does--although without as much fluidity and style.
 
I'm a jazz standards enthusiast, so I watched this. It's genius in its simplicity, and JH gets kudos for making the video to boost interest in jazz uke and his class.

But there's a lot of territory between a "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" treatment of a song and a Lyle Rich arrangement. I'm sure he wanted to make a brief video to garner interest, but musically, it wasn't great.
What would have been great would be to hear the bare bones and then a version that added a bit more. It could have been done without scaring anyone off b/c there are arrangements of the song are a bit more challenging, but not that difficult.

However, that's what his course material is for and I understand and respect that.

Bluesy.
 
I'm a jazz standards enthusiast, so I watched this. It's genius in its simplicity, and JH gets kudos for making the video to boost interest in jazz uke and his class.

But there's a lot of territory between a "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" treatment of a song and a Lyle Rich arrangement. I'm sure he wanted to make a brief video to garner interest, but musically, it wasn't great.
What would have been great would be to hear the bare bones and then a version that added a bit more. It could have been done without scaring anyone off b/c there are arrangements of the song are a bit more challenging, but not that difficult.

However, that's what his course material is for and I understand and respect that.

Bluesy.

Yes, it is about knowing your target audience. It does serve a good purpose and introduces people into the vocabulary and style of jazz. Glen Rose has similar kinds of stuff. It is such a broad field that one could go father if they choose, or be happy with this approach. I like the fact that it opens the door for people in a very approachable way. It is easy to be scared off by the potential complexity of jazz standards.
 
My experience is that getting jazzy chords to sound right up the neck depends quite heavily on having an instrument with excellent intonation. You only need there to be a small intonation error for the chords to sound wrong.
 
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