Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Building Your Own Ukulele Chords

When learning the ukulele, one of the first challenges is learning the chords. One page chord charts become indispensable for the beginner. (Here's one.) However, as you gain experience, you realize that there are multiple ways to finger each chord.

Why learn different variations of the chords? As an example, think of a two chord song. You can add interest to the song by using different forms of those two chords. Even in more complex songs, it may still be useful to change to a different form of a chord from one bar to the next. (Here's a good video demonstrating switching between alternate forms of G and C.)

Here are some examples of some alternative fingerings for a couple of common chords:
(I especially like the 0454 form of A7. Think of the main chords in the key of D: D, G, and A7. When changing from G to A7, you just have to slide your fingers 2 frets up the fretboard.)

How does one figure out different chord variations? I've put together a couple of charts to help me come up with different fingerings. You can always learn the patterns for barred chords. However, if a chord includes one or more of G, C, E, or A, these charts can help you find easy alternatives using open strings. You can download the charts from here.


The first chart lists the notes for many of the chords we use. The notes are identified by Roman numerals. If you haven't seen that notation, just think of the notes by their other names: do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, and do. For example, a major chord consists of three notes: I, III, and V. (Or do, mi, and sol.)

The second chart represents the notes on a ukulele fretboard. The notes shaded in yellow are the notes of the open strings. The white area is for the notes on a standard soprano ukulele. The other notes (blue) represent notes found on bigger ukuleles, as well as an additional extension for convenience so you can see full octaves on the chart, even for the key of G#.

After printing out these charts, fold over the top edge of the second page (or cut it off) so that the top of the page is the edge of the fret board. The idea is that you can place the fretboard chart over the chart of chords and have columns line up.

How does this work? As an example,  let's say you want to find a fingering for the Am7 chord. Line up the fretboard chart with the "min7" row on the chord chart. The root note of Am7 is A, and so line up the I column with an A on the top line of the fretboard. You can now read off the notes of the chord: A, C, E, and G. You'll recognize these as the open notes of all four ukulele strings. But let's find an alternative so your left hand has something to do.

The next step is trickier. We must now find A, C, E, and G from different places on the fretboard. It's really guesswork at this point, but let's start with the C at the 5th fret of the G string. We're now left with the task of finding A, E, and G. We see an E at the 4th fret of the C string and a G at the 3rd fret of the E string, leaving us with an open A. These notes are all close together, making the 5430 a really easy way to form the Am7. (Since discovering this form of Am7, I seem to be using it a lot!)

Some notes: First, note that what is commonly called the "diminished" chord is really a "diminished 7th". The row labeled "dim" is the true diminished chord, and not the diminished 7th. Second, the keen observer will note that the 9th chords have five notes. Since the ukulele only has four strings, you need to delete one of the notes. Usually, the III or V is omitted.

I always enjoy finding interesting chord alternatives. I hope you find these charts as useful as I do.

Cheers! Hans

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Santa Claus Arrives in Kingston, Twice

In the Kingston area, there are two Santa Claus parades. The first in the middle of November takes place in Amherstview, a quiet bedroom community immediately to the west of the city of Kingston. The big Kingston parade takes place a week later.

Santa arrives in Kingston
Santa, of course, arrives at the end of both parades. And both parades feature many of the same groups and floats. But there are differences. The Amherstview parade takes place during the day, while the Kingston parade takes place after dusk. In Kingston, thousands of people crowd along the parade route along Princess Street, while in Amherstview, spectators can enjoy a more relaxing event.

A clown at the Amherstview Santa Claus parade

So far, since moving back to Kingston, we've been to both parades for both 2010 and 2011. Here are some more of my observations: First, the clowns in the Kingston parade are noticeable by their utter absence. No clowns? How can you have a parade with no clowns? Second, the Kingston parade is much more commercial, and loud.

Holding the parade at night is an interesting twist. The Kingston parade ends up at City Hall, and Santa helps with the official lighting of the Christmas tree in the market square. This year, we watched the parade at the corner of King and Princess, so we saw how popular the Christmas tree lighting was.

Considering that both parades feature much the same content, I'm surprised that more people don't attend the Amherstview parade. It's less noisy and less commercial, and it's easier to find a parking place on a side street close to the parade route. In a way, the Amherstview is Kingston's best kept secret of the holiday season. On the other hand, many Kingstonians like a good downtown party.

Friday, November 18, 2011

A November Photo Walk

I've been rather antsy lately, so I really wanted to get out and do some picture taking. In the morning, I saw a blue sky. But the clouds started rolling in after lunch. That's fine, I thought. If the weather is a bit dreary, I'll just desaturate the photos.



November is one of my favorite times for photography. The sun is always low in the sky, the trees have shed most of their leaves, and it's not too cold yet. There are always good opportunities for photos. If it's cloudy and dreary, I still take photos. But in those cases, I try to take advantage of the conditions. I've always liked black and white photos. And I like the pure white sky you can often get in overcast conditions. But today, the sky was especially dramatic.


Here are some of the photos I took in downtown Kingston today. I wandered through the historic Sydenham Ward where you can find moody old buildings. And I braved the cold wind coming off the lake to snap some photos along the waterfront. You can find some more of the photos I took today at Kingston - Nov 18, 2011.