Once you’ve mastered playing one chord, you’ll be eager to learn some more chords. As mentioned in a previous post, a chord is essentially a group of notes that are sounded together. Chords which sound good together are grouped into chord families. Such chords are grouped together because each chord is made up of notes from the same scale. For example, the C family of chords are all made up of notes in the C major scale and this is a good place to start. Then once you’re confident with this chord family, you can expand your chord vocabulary by learning a few more chords every week.
In the diagram above I’ve included four of the chords in the C family (i.e. in the key of C) which are the chords of C, A minor, F and G7. A succession of chords played in a certain order is known as a chord progression. The vast majority of rock, blues and pop music is based around fairly straightforward chord progressions.
When starting to play the ukulele a common difficulty is learning to change between the chords smoothly whilst keeping a steady rhythm. Having your “spare fingers” ready above the places where they’ll sit for the next chord can help to make a smooth transition between chords. In the above photographs perhaps you’ve noticed that whilst playing a particular chord with certain fingers, my other fingers are hovering over the fretboard ready to play the next chord.
You’ll need to practice playing such chord progressions slowly at first. It doesn’t matter if you go at a steady pace. The important thing is to practice changing between the chords and to remember to take a break whilst you’re practising. I’ve found that it’s more effective for me to practice regularly for short periods at a time, say half an hour or so. If I try and practice for a longer period then all I get is sore fingers. Gradually you’ll find that you’ll be changing the chords a little quicker each time. Then after a little while you’ll realise that you’ve learn the chords and can change between them without even thinking about it.
Once you’ve found your way around these chords, there is a vast repertoire of songs which you could dip into. In a later post I’ll suggest some songs which use this chord progression in the key of C.