UPDATED
Jan 23, 2020
Core Chords - The Big Six - Building a Solid Chord Foundation
An introduction to the series of lessons for building your core, essential 4-part chords.
PUBLISHED: Jan 2, 2005 UPDATED: Jan 23, 2020 • VIEWS: 143 • LESSON CODE: UL42-7 •
Instruments: ukulele Subjects: jazz • intermediate • advanced • chords • core
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Core Chords - The Big Six - Building a Solid Chord Foundation
Core Chords is a series of lessons for building your core, essential 4-part chords. These chords commonly called jazz chords, are really just 4-part chords used in a wide range of musical styles.
The Big Six chords include: Seventh 7, Major Seventh maj7, Minor Seventh m7, Half Diminished Seventh or Minor Seven Flat Five diminished 7 m7b5, Diminished Seventh o7, and Augmented Seventh +7. These six chords form a core set of chords.
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Core Chords is a series of UkuleleLessons for building your core 4-part, aka “jazz” chords. These chords commonly called “jazz” chords, are really just 4-part chords that are used in a wide range of musical styles.
These lessons present a highly organized and efficient approach to the mysterious subject of advanced chords. Chord dictionaries are not the answer. Even chord theory does not offer any insight into unraveling the complexity of Ukulele chord voicings.
Building Your Core Chord Foundation
Sometimes called a “Dominant 7th” chord, the 7th chord provides a great foundation for building your core chords.
From the following four 7th chords you can build a set of chords which include: Seventh (7), Major Seventh (maj7), Minor Seventh (m7), Half Diminished Seventh (ø7) or Minor Seven Flat Five (m7b5), Diminished Seventh (°7) and Augmented Seventh (+7). These six chords form a core set of chords.
Beyond
Basic Open Position Chords ,
Basic Movable Form Chords and
Core Set Of 4-part Contemporary Chords there are just too many chords shapes too memorize. Learning the principles of how chords are constructed and the ukulele fingerboard are the way to go. Then you can create more advanced chords like 9#11, 7#5-9, 13b5, 7+9 on the fly as needed.
Seventh chords are the chords that have the most possible variations. 9th, 11th, 13th, b5, #5, b9, #9. And, combinations of the same.
From four F7 chord voicings or shapes, your can build your massive 4-part, a.k.a., “jazz” chord vocabulary.
Click on any one of the individual F7 chords above to start the lesson for that particular voicing or shape.
Why this F7?
Why this F7? Why not a C7, E7, G7 - the other open position seventh chords that these core chords are based on?
This F7 is based on the E7 and the only one of the E7, C7, A7 and G7 open position chords that the Big Six Core Seventh chords, in their first position, first fret (1) transposable versions are a natural letter chord name. That way you don't have to worry about Enharmonic Equivalents such as C#7/Db7, A#7/Bb7, or G#7/Ab7. An yes I know that there is E# - however that is very rare.
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Videos
Videos for Core Chords - The Big Six - Building a Solid Chord Foundation.
Learning Core Seventh Chords on `Ukulele
Beyond basic open position chords, basic movable form chords and a core set of 4-part chords. There are just too many chords shapes too memorize. Learning the principles of how chords are constructed and the ukulele fingerboard are the way to go. Then you can create more advanced chords like 9#11, 7#5-9, 13b5, 7+9 on the fly as needed.
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Related Lessons
Related Lessons for Core Chords - The Big Six - Building a Solid Chord Foundation at this time.
Transposing Individual `Ukulele Chords • Updated: Jun 15, 2019
Transposition is the process of moving a note, chord, scale or any musical passage from one key to another key. All music can be transposed, from a single note to a complex musical score. This lesson deals with transposing chords on ukulele and transposing chords.
Building a Solid Jazz Chord Foundation for `Ukulele • Updated: Oct 12, 2015
Commonly called jazz chords, these more sophisticated, contemporary chord voicings find their way into a wide variety of music forms and styles. This lesson is the first on the series that builds your core foundation for these chords. This is an expanded and improved version of my Building A Solid Jazz Chord Foundation for Ukulele workshop that I've presented several times at various ukulele festivals over the past several years.
Chord Substitution on `Ukulele • Updated: Apr 1, 2014
A chord substitution is when one chord replaces another chord or is used in addition to a current chord.
This lesson covers some of the underlining principles that are used to substitute one chords or a series of chords for another.
This particular lesson is for ukulele. However the chord substitution principles relate to any instrument.
Types of `Ukulele Chords - Chords, Chords, Chords • Updated: Dec 31, 2019
Naturally, for ukulele, all chords need to be voiced using only the four strings available. You would think that this is limiting when in actuality it's quite liberating when you learn the makeup of chords. This lesson covers the types of chords possible on ukulele. Chord can be categorized into four categories: open position chords, movable form chords, 4-part - a.k.a. jazz chords and free from chords.
Altered Seventh Chords on `Ukulele • Updated: Apr 4, 2014
Beyond basic open position chords, basic movable form chords and a core set of 4-part chords. There are just too many chords shapes too memorize. Learning the principles of how chords are constructed and the ukulele fingerboard are the way to go. You can then create more advanced chords like 9#11, 7#5-9, 13b5, 7+9 on the fly as needed from your core set of chords.
Related Books
Related Books for Core Chords - The Big Six - Building a Solid Chord Foundation at this time.
Related Lesson Series
Related Lessons Series for Core Chords - The Big Six - Building a Solid Chord Foundation at this time.
The Big Six Core Chords - Level One
Updated: Jan 1, 2003
The Big Six Core Chords - Level One include: Seventh 7, Major Seventh maj7, Minor Seventh m7, Half Diminished Seventh or Minor Seven Flat Five diminished 7 (m7b5), Diminished Seventh °7 and Augmented Seventh +7. These six chords form a core set of chords.
The Big Six Core Chords - Level Three
Updated: Jan 1, 2003
The The Big Six Core Chords - Level Three series of chords that build on the Bix Six Core Chords and form the foundation for ALL your jazz chords include: Diminished Major Seventh ( dimL7 ) and Augmented Major Seventh ( augL7 ).
These chords are rare and used to support a major seventh melody.
Related Lesson Files, Resources and Assets
Related Assets for Core Chords - The Big Six - Building a Solid Chord Foundation at this time.
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