‘Ukulele Chord Shapes E-Book
This is what happens when worlds collide.
You have a standard chord book that shows you thousands of individual ‘ukulele chords. Great, but that’s a lot to remember.
On the other side you have the bare bones theory that tells you 1, 3, and 5 make a major chord. Also great, but that’s a lot to sit and figure out.
Somewhere in the middle lies ‘Ukulele Chord Shapes. My new take on using one chord shape and learning to apply it in 12 places (all the keys!).
The concept is simple, really. Each chord has a shape – a topographic footprint. Isolate that, and you can move it around to play the chord in twelve keys. Just line the root note of the chord up to the desired name place on the fretboard and rock out.
The hard part is knowing where the root is in each shape. In this e-book I’ve put together chord charts that show at least four inversions for each chord type. Each finger dot in a shape shows how the note is related to its name-scale. The root note is shown in a square instead of a circle so that it is easier to find. Just line the shape’s “variable-root-note” up with a note on the fretboard and your chord is named after that note. The shapes look like this:
This one is a Bb major where it is, but you can move the shape up or down the fretboard to get more chords. Just line either of the root squares up with any note on the G or A strings to get a chord named after the note. If you started the shape on the 5th fret, it would become a D major, from the 10th fret, a G major.
‘Ukulele Chord Shapes is a unique way of visualizing the fretboard and will not instantly show you specific chords. If you want to a chord box for each chord (this is a C#, this is a Bbm, etc), you should look elsewhere. But for those interested in expanding their knowledge of chords in a simple and quick manner, this e-book will give you the resources you need.
25+ chord types are included with four or more voicings for each shape: Major, minor, diminished, augmented, dim7, 7b9, 7th, 7sus4, maj7, min7, maj6, min6, 7b5, 7#5, maj7b5, maj7#5, min7b5, min7#5, min/maj7, dim/maj7, 9th, 6/9, sus4, sus2, add4, add2. There is also information on how to build chords, chord formulas, chord symbols, reading chord charts, how to find chords using the “shapes” method, slash chords, progressions, and more.
Examples in the e-book are for GCEA tuning. However, the shapes are universal and can be also used with baritone and English tunings. A fingerboard note chart is provided for GCEA.
By Brad Bordessa
22 pages
$4.00 – Available through Lulu. Help support the site and send me through college!
