Em - Open Position and Movable Forms

Open Position

Movable Form

Checkout the Learn a Chord a Day lessons for Open Position A for all the information you can get from a chord.

Chord Tones – E G B

The chord tones of a E minor ( Em ) chord are the 1st, flatted 3rd, and 5th scale degrees of the E Major Scale ( E F# G# A B C# D# E' ) .

• 1 – the Root or letter name of Em is E
• b3 – the flat third of Em is G
• 5 – the fifth of Em is B

Transposing Movable Form Chords

These lessons use the root of a chord to transpose to different keys.

Root and Perceived Root

Determine what string the root is on or would be on if not present (perceived root) in the chord's voicing.

Chord Transposition Chart

This transposition chart can be used for any chord where the root, or letter name of the chord is on the C string .

The root is on string 3, the C string.

Use the Root or perceived root of the chord to transpose to different keys.

A larger sized transposition chart is available in the Ukulele Chords book. This is the book these expanded chord lessons are based on.

Derived from Dm

This lesson's chord can be learned relative to the Dm open position chord and its movable for chord presented in the previous lesson 10. It is just a different voicing of the root, flat third and fifth of this minor chord.

Movable Chord Forms

Movable chord forms are chords containing no open strings. These chords can be transposed to different keys by moving each note of the chord the same number of frets up and down the neck.

Movable form chords allow you to play in any key and transpose chords, progressions, and songs to any key. From basic movable form chords, more advanced chords can be created.

The functional range of a movable chord depends on the ukulele's size (soprano, concert, or tenor), the number of frets to the body (10, 12, 14, etc.) and whether you have a cut-away for access to higher frets. Not all chords can be transposed a complete octave (12 frets).

Movable form chords can be used along with open-position chords. As you learn more movable form chords, you'll have a variety of alternate voicings for any given chord.

Movable form chords can be transposed up and down the fingerboard using the root of the chord and a transposition chart, or through knowledge of the names of the notes on the fingerboard.

Chord Fingering

Chord fingering is dependent on several factors. The chord you're currently on, the previous chord, the next chord, your hand, and fingers. All chord fingerings shown are recommended fingerings and not mandatory. Most chords have alternate fingerings dependent on the context. The same chord might even be fingered one way in one part of a song or progression and an alternate fingering in another part.

Derived Chords

7th (pronounced Seventh)

A partial seventh chord can be created by lowering the Root of a major triad two frets.

A seventh chord as a 4-part chord ( 1 3 5 b7 ) and one of the Big Six core chords used to derive other contemporary and jazz chords.

A Seventh chord along with your basic major and minor chords are the msot common chord you will encounter.

sus or suspended Chords

A sus chord implies the suspension of the third of a major, minor or seventh chord. The most common and historical use of this suspension involves raising the third of a major or seventh chord to the fourth for a sus4, or 7sus4. In some contemporary music, the suspension can also be accomplished by lowering the third of a major or minor chord to a second for a sus2 chord.

The term is borrowed from the contrapuntal technique of suspension, where a note from a previous chord is carried over to the next chord, and then resolved down to the third or tonic, suspending a note from the previous chord. However, in modern usage, the term concerns only the notes played at a given time; in a suspended chord, the added tone does not necessarily resolve and is not necessarily "prepared" (i.e., held over) from the prior chord.

Technically a sus2 is not really chord as in traditional harmony a sus or suspension only referred to the third of the chords. So, really a sus2 is most likely a power 5 without a third and with an added 2. And, another chord that, at its foundation is not a chord but a DYAD.

add2/add9 Chords

Technically the add 2 and add 9 are different chords.

Both the 2 and the 9 are the same letters but in different octaves of the scale. On ukulele, for all practical purposes, you can treat both the add2 and add9 chords as the same. Depending on whether you are using a low "G" or high "G", C tuning the added ninth might be a second. Whether you call it an add9 or add2 depends on whether the added note is in the same octave as the root of the chord.

Related to a C Major Scale a D is both a 2nd and a 9th (shown to the right). All depends on where the root is.

Power Five Chords

A Power 5 chord contains the root and fifth of a major scale with an optional octave of the root added for a three note power 5 chord. A power 5 chord is technically not a chord in the traditional sense but a dyad or interval. It's more of an implied chord sometimes major and sometimes minor.