chord [Ukulele.Space]

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A chord is the intended intermingling of several tones to produce „an indivisible sound unit“. ¹⁾ Chords are used to add harmony to a melody. What type of chords are used depends heavily on the taste of the age and the musical genre. An absolutely valid „right“ or „wrong“ does not exist here (but well-established rules what is fitting when composing and what not). Many pieces of music contain regular patterns of sequence of particular chords called chord progression.

Melody is the body, harmony the clothing that changes with the fashion.²⁾

Chords are build by stacking several notes in certain intervals. In the four-string ukulele, they can appear as triads or tetrads.

Root position and inversions

Each chord has a root note on which the intervals are stacked to the remaining notes. Depending on which string of the ukulele the root note is in the chord, the following reversals (also called descending chords) exist:

root position (root note on string 3)
1^st inversion (root note on string 1)
2^nd inversion (root note on string 2)

Example: C Major

root position: C-E-G

1st inversion: G-C-E

2nd inversion: E-G-C

Chord charts: Root position, 1st and 2nd inversion

Diatonic

A diatonic chord consists only of the seven notes of the scale in which the piece is written.

Chromatic

A chord in which sounds occur that do not belong to the scale of the piece is called chromatic. Chromatic tones are e.g. contained in the Seventh Chords. Chromatic chords generate tension and are therefore an important means of melody guidance (e.g., modulation).

Dyad

A chord consisting of three notes (one interval.

Triad

A chord consisting of three notes (two intervals).

Tetrad

A chord consisting of four notes (three intervals).

Major chord

In a major chord, the root note is followed by a major third, followed by a minor third.

Example: C Major

C-E-G

Minor chord

In a minor chord, the root note is followed by a minor third, followed by a major third.

Example: A Minor

A-C-E

Sixth chord

The sixth chord is used to create harmonic ambiguity. It is often used in pop and Jazz as a substitute for the major chord. Originally, the sixth chord is the same as the 1^st inversion of a major chord; its lowest note is followed by a third and a sixth. In pop music, however, sixth chord designates a major chord to which a sixth (sixte ajoutée) has been added, thus it is actually an added sixth chord which can also occur in its own inversions. The major (added) sixth chord is identical to a minor seventh chord:

Its root position (where the added sixth is on the 3^rd string) corresponds to the minor seventh chord of the 1^st string (1^st inversion);
the 1^st inversion (sixth on the 1^st string) corresponds to the minor seventh chord of the 4^th string (3^rd inversion);
the 2^nd inversion (sixth on the second string) corresponds to the minor seventh chord of the 3^rd string (basic setting);
the 3^rd inversion (sixth on the 4^th string) corresponds to a minor seventh chord of the 2^nd string (2^nd inversion).

The minor (added) sixth chord is used in jazz.

Example

C6: C-E-A

Seventh chord

The seventh chord expands the fifth of a triad to a seventh, thereby becoming dissonant.

Dominant seventh chord

If a minor third is played on a major chord, it is almost the same as the dominant of the root note. Since this is by far the most common form of the seventh chord in the case of ukulele music, the dominant seventh chord is usually (and here too) abbreviated to the seventh chord.

Major seventh chord

A major chord on which a major third is built. It seems softer than the dominant seventh chord and is frequently used in pop, rock, funk and disco music.

Examples

C7: C-E-A#

Cmaj7: C-E-H

Diminished chord

In triads, a diminished chord consists of two minor thirds, in tetrads of two small thirds and a major third (semi-diminished seventh chord) or (extremely dissonant) three minor thirds (diminished seventh chord).

Diminished seventh chord

A chord formed of three minor thirds. It expresses strong tension and can be resolved into the key of every note involved. It is popular in both classical music and jazz.

Example

Cdim7: C-F#-D#

Augmented chord

Augmented triads consist of two major thirds placed on the root. An inversion is therefore not possible; each tone of the chord can be considered the root note. In a tetrad, a minor third may be added. If, instead, another major third follows, only the root is octaved. Augmented chords sound dissonant and are often used (for example, in jazz) to move from one key to another.

Example

Caug: C-E-G#

Suspended chord

In a suspended chord, the first third of the chord is replaced either by a pure fourth (5 semitones = major suspended, sus4) or a large second (2 semitones = minor suspended, sus2). This creates a violent dissonance which according to traditional conception calls for the dissolution in the corresponding third chord. Suspended chords are often used in Folk music and pop music as loosening or transition to another chord; but nowadays, they can as well stand alone. The suspended chord with fourth (sus4) is the inverse of the suspended chord with second (sus2) and vice versa. If in a notation only sus is used, usually the suspended with fourth (sus4) is meant.

sus4

Suspended chord with fourth, consisting of the root, fourth, and fifth of the root (I-IV-V).

Example

sus4 resolving to third (C-F-G-E)
Begin of Heinrich Stölzel: „Bist du bei mir“, BWV 508

7sus4

Suspended chord with fourth and with seventh, consisting of the root, fourth, fifth, and minor seventh of the root (I-IV-V-vii). Is often resolved down to the third triad.

Example

C7sus4: C-F-G-Ais

sus2

Suspended chord with second, consisting of the root, major second and fifth of the root (I-II-V).

Example

Csus2: C-D-G

7sus2

Suspended chord with second and seventh, consisting of the root, major second, fifth, and seventh of the root (I-II-V-vii). Is often resolved to the third triad upwards.

Example

C7sus2: C-D-G-Ais

Added-ninth chord

The added-ninth chord adds a major or minor chord to a ninth. It is popular in pop music.

Examples

Cadd9: C-E-D

Chord progression with Cadd99: G-Cadd9-D-G

Powerchord

Power chords are chords in pop music in which the third above the root is omitted and therefore only the root and fifth (possibly with doubled octaves) exist. This leaves it undecided whether it is a major or minor chord.

Example

C5: C-G

Chord notation

The simplest form of recording a ukulele accompaniment for a song is chord notation: The symbol for the chord is written over the lyrics at the position where is to be played. It will continue to be played until the next chord symbol in the rhythm of the song. For more accurate notations, tablature and score are used.

Example of chord notation


      G           D7 
Happy birthday to you, 
      D7          G 
Happy birthday to you, 
                     C 
Happy birthday, dear (Name), 
      G        D7 G 
Happy birthday to you.


  G     D7    C

Movable patterns

Distributed over the fretboard, there are regularly recurring moveable patterns on an ukulele for each of the different types of chords, each of which plays a chord of a particular type.

Helpful tools

Finding chords

The following tools allow you to find all the chords in the tunes C6, D6 und G6:

Ukebuddy Chord Finder: All chords can be searched here and displayed on a virtual fretboard.
Ukebuddy Chord Namer: Here chords can be entered on a virtual fingerboard and their names can be searched.
Ukebuddy Ukulele Scales: Here you can see the location of many scales on a virtual fingerboard.
Japanese virtual keyboard (understandable without knowledge of Japanese)
Ukulele Chords: Extensive information on ukulele chords and more

Chord tables

References

Richter, Axel: Ukulele Handbook For Soprano, Concert, Tenor, and Baritone Uke. Pacific: Mel Bay. 2004 (Containts the most important chords in each tuning)
Ukulele Chord Encyclopedia. Van Nuys: Alfred Music. 2013 (1,600 chords, but only in C6 tuning)

¹⁾

Septakkorde und leitereigene (diatonische) Auflösungen

²⁾

Kretzschmer: „Über deutsche Musik des Mittelalters.“ In: Berliner allgemeine musikalische Zeitung 4 (1827), S. 139