chord progressions amd strum practice

Hi team - i was wondering if not a daft question whats the best way to pick chords o strum that sound nice together for me to practice strum patterns aswell as chord changes?

Do you just tend to pick some music up and just strum the chords from the tune ot is there specific sites etc to help me with this issue.

Apologies for such a menial question
Cheers
Phil

PhilW said:

Hi team - i was wondering if not a daft question whats the best way to pick chords o strum that sound nice together for me to practice strum patterns aswell as chord changes?

Do you just tend to pick some music up and just strum the chords from the tune ot is there specific sites etc to help me with this issue.

Apologies for such a menial question
Cheers
Phil

Click to expand...

what i tend to do is pick a song i like, with chords i've learned, then do my practice that way, i am learning song at mo with a strum pattern i know but the practice is getting it to fit song DDUUDU, it is less forgiving than straight 4/4,

Bottom diagram on here will help you - the circle of fifths

http://www.gotaukulele.com/p/ukulele-chord-charts.html?m=1

The chords that immediately adjoin naturally sound good together (eg in key of C, that would be F, G and Am) strumming and changing between those will sound natural as will all other similar combos. You can also add in those that link diagonally, but they take more careful placement in the sequence.

You'll also find that 90% of popular music and virtually all rock and roll follows this pattern

It's not a complete rule by any means but I think will give you what you were asking.

The other alternative is just to download chords for songs you like, but the circle of fifths will help you understand why so many songs use these patterns - ie that certain progressions just work well.

bazmaz said:

Bottom diagram on here will help you - the circle of fifths

http://www.gotaukulele.com/p/ukulele-chord-charts.html?m=1

The chords that immediately adjoin naturally sound good together (eg in key of C, that would be F, G and Am) strumming and changing between those will sound natural as will all other similar combos. You can also add in those that link diagonally, but they take more careful placement in the sequence.

You'll also find that 90% of popular music and virtually all rock and roll follows this pattern

It's not a complete rule by any means but I think will give you what you were asking.

The other alternative is just to download chords for songs you like, but the circle of fifths will help you understand why so many songs use these patterns - ie that certain progressions just work well.

Click to expand...

hi Barry thanks for the link. Will look properly tomorrow on a proper screen rather than my phone. Will also have a look at those books you have written tomorrow on amazon too-blimey didn't realise you are famous

Ha, don't be daft!

The circle is a very good thing to print off and stick in your uke case.

A simple 12 bar blues progression is a nice one, Four bars of C, Two bars of F, Two bars of C, One bar of G7 (or G) one bar of F, two bars of C, repeat. You can transpose it up or down as you see fit. Works with anything you can throw at it, too. Different time signatures, picking patterns, strumming patterns.

bazmaz said:

Bottom diagram on here will help you - the circle of fifths

http://www.gotaukulele.com/p/ukulele-chord-charts.html?m=1

The chords that immediately adjoin naturally sound good together (eg in key of C, that would be F, G and Am) strumming and changing between those will sound natural as will all other similar combos. You can also add in those that link diagonally, but they take more careful placement in the sequence.

Click to expand...

Thank you for posting this Barry. It shook loose some knowledge I had stored in my brain from music theory and guitar classes I took way back in high school. This gets me on track to practicing in a more purposeful, or at least more pleasant sounding, manner. I downloaded your kindle book this morning too. If only pesky work didn't interfere with me digging right in.

Thank you!!

I personally have problems picking to song when I have not mastered the "picking pattern." For some complicated strums and picking patterns, it has helped me to mute the strings and just master the strum(s) or picking pattern during TV commercials, etc.. Very hard for some of us to learn a song and a new strum or picking pattern at the same time. Same goes for new chords and chord changes, etc. (See Uncle Rod's Ukulele Boot Camp)

There are some nicely organized chord progressions on Howlin' Hobbit's website.
http://www.howlinhobbit.com/ukulele/
I like this document especially:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1125378/ukulele docs/uke_chord_progressions.pdf
It makes it easy to transpose different chord progressions from one key to another.

–Lori

And with talk of circle of fifths, Lori is being polite - you can get a really handy mini circle to attach to your case in her store!

http://shop.ukeleash.com/Circle-of-Fifths-C5.htm

The most basic chord progression is I - IV - V.

Chords being represented like this, and the actual chords for the key of C:
I - ii - iii - IV - V - vi - vii°
C Dm Em - F - G - Am Bdiminished

In general you can replace a major chord with its relative minor (I - vi, IV - ii, V - iii). Which leads to the most common pop chord progression: I - vi - IV - V
That would be C - Am - F - G in the key of C (easiest key for uke)
If you want to exert a stronger pull of the V chord to the I chord you can add the dominant seventh resulting in the V7 chord, which resolves naturally to the tonic (I) chord.
The IV chord can be replaced by its relative minor giving you a I - vi - ii - V progression. The ii chord in C is Dm. You can also experiment with the jazzy ii - V - I.
There are many variants of three chord progressions, such as:
I - IV - V - V.
I - I - IV - V.
I - IV - I - V.
I - IV - V - IV.
and you can mix those up by replacing the I with vi, the IV with ii and sometimes the V with the iii chord.
I hope this gives you some ideas.