Color Tones and Chords

The Big Six chords include: Seventh 7, Major Seventh, Minor Seventh, Half Diminished Seventh or Minor Seven Flat Five diminished 7 , Diminished Seventh and Augmented Seventh. These six chords form a core set of chords.

A chord extension or upper partial are the chord tones above the octave and not one of the fundamental 4-part chord tones. These are the ninths, elevenths and thirteenths of chords. All chord extensions on ukulele will displace a fundamental chord tone. This is even true for guitar with the ability to add the extension to another string.

The "fifth", "ninth", "eleventh" and "thirteenth" of a chord can be altered. Alterations can be applied 1, 2 and 3 at a time. The alternations give a chord added color or tension.

The Big Six Core Chords - Level I: "F7" is created from the "1 3 5 b7" of the major scale, based on the root of the chord. For "F7" the chord tones are: F A C Eb. This lesson introduces the four "F7" voicings on the string set, strings 1, 2. 3, and 4. The Chords are shown for C Tuning, Low and High G.

Learning the locations of the chord tones - the actual names of the "F7" chords, the foundation chord for our Big Six Core Chords.

The Big Six Core Chords - "F7", four voicings. From shape to chord tones to intervals and back again. Really, learning what a chord is made of.

An alternate approach to determining the chord tones of any chord. Bottom-line is, it's the notes that make the chord, not the shape. A C chord is C, E, G - NOT this or that shape.