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Learning Ukulele with Curt
Core “Jazz” Ukulele Chords - The Big Six
Core Chords for Ukulele, The Big Six - From four F7 chord voicings or shapes, your can build your massive 4-part, a.k.a., “jazz” chord vocabulary. 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.
Main Category: Chords Main Instrument: Chords
6 August 2026
Core Chords for Ukulele, The Big Six - From four F7 chord voicings or shapes, your can build your massive 4-part, a.k.a., “jazz” chord vocabulary. 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.
11 lessons in the Core “Jazz” Ukulele Chords - The Big Six LessonSERIES :
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.
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.
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.
F7, often called a Dominant Seventh forms the foundation chords that are used to build ALL of our 4-part chords..
The most important notes or chord tones in a chord are the notes that contribute most to the actual sound or “color” of the chord. For a major or minor triad, the third of the chord performs this function. For other chords, any note that makes it different from other chord types with the same root are the color tones.
The remaining chords for The Big Six, Level I Core Chords. The Big Six chords include: Seventh 7, Major Seventh maj7, Minor Seventh m7, Half Diminished Seventh or Minor Seven Flat Five m7b5, Diminished Seventh o7, and Augmented Seventh +7. These six chords form your core set of 4-part chords.
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Chord a Day, January 11th - D7
Learn a new Ukulele chord every day of the year. The chord for January 11th is D7. This partial D7 is ofter referred to as the Hawaiian D7 chord after its use in the Chord sequence C D7 G7, a common turnaround in Hawaiian music. So much so that it's called the Hawaiian Turnaround.
Chord a Day, March 3rd - F7
Learn a new Ukulele chord every day of the year. The chord for March 3rd is F7. We are now entering into the so-called “Jazz” chord, world of chords. Technically “Jazz” chords are simply 4-part contemporary chords that find the use in a wide variety of traditional and contemporary music.
Core Chords - Building a Solid Foundation of Contemporary Chords
"Core Chords" are a concept that I typically apply to 4-part chords and your more contemporary modern chords. This where a solid foundation of a core set of chords really help in learning the massive amount of chords that are required for play contemporary music or jazz on ukulele or guitar. Not such a task on ukulele with on one four string set of strings to build your 4-part chords vs. the theoretically possible 15 sets available for guitar.
Upper Partials and Chord Extensions
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.
Exploring the Blues on Ukulele
A Guide to Blues Chord Progressions for Ukulele from A to Z explores the “Blues” chord progressions. The Blues are at the heart of all American music. It has influenced Country, Rock, Folk, Jazz, Bluegrass and just about every form of American music we listen to today.
