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UkuleleWorkshop

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20090525.1.0 UL10 $9.95

Created: May 2009 Updated June 2009

Jazz Ukulele

2009 Curt Sheller, Curt Sheller Publications

Jazz Ukulele!

ADVANCED JAZZ-(II,III) - Curt Sheller- Explore just what advanced jazz is. Determine whatfoundation is needed to explore more advanced and contemporary jazz styles on ukulele.Well explore chords, scales and several songs in and advanced jazz style. Intermediate toadvanced players welcome.

What is JazzFrom Wikipedia - Jazz is a musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century

in African American communities in the Southern United States from a conuence of African and

European music traditions. The styles West African pedigree is evident in its use of blue notes,

improvisation, polyrhythms, syncopation, and the swung note.

Building a core, Chord and Scale FoundationRegardless of the style of jazz that you venture into. You need a core foundation of chords and

scales. Open position, movable form chords and just plain old knowing the notes of chords and

scales.

Chords can be categorized as open position chords, basic movable form chords, 4-part chords and

free form chords. The 4-part chords are commonly called Jazz chords. Although their use can be

found in a wide variety of contemporary music.

Jazz ChordsWhat is a Jazz chord. A jazz chord is just a 4-part chord used in a variety of contemporary music

styles. Versus triads or three part chords such as C Am Dm B G+ commonly used in more basic

rock, folk and country music.

Examples of 4-part chords are Cmaj7, Am7, Bm7b5, G7+, G13, Eb7#11, etc. Pretty much chords

with 7, 9 11 and 13ths as part of their names. Chords larger than four parts are still voiced in four

parts.

Core Jazz Chords

A core set of jazz chords are: major seventh, minor seventh, seventh, half-diminished 7, diminishedseventh and augmented seventh. Commonly notated as maj7, m7, 7 m7b5, 7, +7.

As the name implies there are four parts, voices or chord tones to a 4-part chord. These chords

are voiced on any 4 strings. On the ukulele we only have four strings. Guitar has 14 possible four

string sets.

With the possibility of any of the four notes being on any one of the four strings of the ukulele,

their will be four voicings or chord shapes to learn for each chord type. These four chords will form

the foundation of your jazz chord vocabulary.

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UkuleleWorkshopwww.CurtSheller.com www.CurtShellerPublications.com

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Jazz Ukulele2

The Seventh ChordIn the system the seventh chord forms the foundation for all our jazz chords.

Most ukulele players already know the four open position versions of these seventh chords.

C7O O O

A7O O O

E7O

G7O

By moving each note of a chord, including the open strings, one fret higher we have a movable

chord with a new root. At fret one the above open position chords can be called C#7 or Db7, A#7 or

Bb7, F7 and G#7 or Ab7.

C#7 A#7 F7 G#7

Root Root Root Root

on String on String on String on String

Each chord can now be transposed up the ngerboard to any key by moving each note of the chord

up the same number of frets. The name of the chord is whatever the note name is of the root

(circled note in the diagram).

This transposition is easy you know the names of each note or fret on the ukulele ngerboard. As

this is the root of the chord. The better you know the notes of the ukulele neck the fast and easier

this gets.

Learning the Ukulele FingerboardFinally learn names of the notes of the ukulele ngerboard. Learning the notesof your own instrument allows you the exibility of having to remember so manyshapes. There are way too many chord, scale and notes patterns to rememberall the shapes.

Available at select dealers and books.curtsheller.com

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Example Transposition using a ChartUsing rst chord above, C#7 that was based on the open position C7 and the below transposition

chart below. You can move this chord to any key.

7thFret Chord Name C7

O O O

OPENPOSITIONCHORD

MOVABLECHORDFORM

TranspositionChart

(1)

(1)

(2)

(3)

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

(6)

(7)

(8)

(8)

(9)

(10)

(10)

(11)

(12)

(13)

C#7

Db7

D7

D#7

Eb7

E7

F7

F#7

Gb7

G7

G#7

Ab7

A7

A#7

Bb7

B7

C7

Same as fret (1)

Ideally you dont want to have to memorize a chart for each movable chord form. Learning the

notes of the neck is the better route.

Derived Chords, The Six Core ChordsUsing the four seventh chords as a foundation we can build other chords from these chords. In fact,no matter how complex a chord symbol appears we can always go back to the a core seventh chord

and build the chord you are looking for from there.

We build ALL our jazz chords using numeric formulas based on the major scale. Each number

indicates a chord tone taken from the corresponding scale degree of its major scale. ALL numeric

formulas come from the major scale, regardless of the type of chord being created.

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1 3 5 b7 - Seventh Chord1 3 5 b7 is the numeric formula for a seventh chord. For C7 the notes are C E G Bb taken from a C

major scale (C D E F G A B C).Here are the location of each of the chords tones for the four core seventh chords.

5 1 3 b7 b7 3 5 1 3 b7 1 5 1 5 b7 3

Minor Seventhm7 is 1 b3 5 b7

A minor seventh chord is created by lowering the third of a seventh chord one fret.

5 1 b3 b7 b7 b3 5 1 b3 b7 1 5 7 5 b7 b3

Major Seventhmaj7 is 1 3 5 7

A major seventh chord is created by raising the seventh of a seventh chord one fret. This is a very

common chord and should be memorized just like a seventh chord.

5 1 3 7 7 3 3 1 3 7 1 5 7 5 7 3

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Half-diminished Seventhm7b5 is 1 b3 b5 b7

A half-diminished or minor seventh at ve chord is created by lowering the fth of a minorseventh chord one fret. This kind of elevates the minor seventh chord to a very core chord that

should be memorized with out having to go all the way back to the seventh chord to derive this

chord.

b5 1 b3 b7 b7 b3 b5 1 b3 b7 1 b5 7 b5 b7 b3

Diminished Seventh7 is 1 b3 b5 bb7

A Diminished Seventh chord is created by raising lowering the seventh of half-diminished chord

one fret.

b5 1 b3 bb7 bb7 b3 b5 1 b5 bb7 1 b5 1 b5 bb7 b3

Augmented Seventh+7 is 1 3 #5 b7

An Augmented Seventh chord is created by raising the fth of a seventh chord one fret.

#5 1 3 b7 b7 3 #5 1 3 b7 1 #5 1 #5 b7 3

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Application of Chords4-part chords are used in solo settings for creating melody and chord arrangements. In an

accompaniment role to backup a singer or soloist.Chords can smoothly ow from one voicing to another using common tones, called voice leading.

4-part chords are part of your chord vocabulary that should include open position chords, basic

movable form chords, these 4-part chords. And, when you really know what the chords tones of any

chords are and the notes of the ukulele neck are: free form chords.

QuickStart Scale Fingerings for Ukulele, Volume I,Key of C TuningSix essential scales for C tuned ukuleles. Blues, Pentatonic, Dorian, Mixolydian,Aeolian and Ionian scales are covered in all keys with ngerings.


A Guide to Advanced Ukulele Chords Volume I

Commonly referred to as jazz chords. A Guide to Advanced Ukulele Chordsprovides detailed information on voicing 4-part chords.


A Guide to Blues Chord Progressions for Ukulele A to ZThe volume covers the key of C major and C minor, including detailed

accompanying text explaining the principles behind each progression and thechord substitutions. In C and G tuning.


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All the above scales typically contain more notes than are in the chord. By stressing the notes or

chord tones that are also in the chord will lead to more melodic solos and improv.

Basic Blues

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A Jazz Blues

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Jazz ScalesScale selection can be vertical or horizontal. Vertical scale selection is choosing what scale to

use based on the chord type. This is the easiest to determine. Horizontal scale selection requiresdetermining the harmonic function of chords within their progression.

Vertical Scale Choicesmaj7 Ionian, this is the common Major scale .

an alternate scale choice is Lydian

m7 Dorian (Minor) orAeolian (Natural Minor)

7th Mixolydian, this is commonly called Dominant

m7b5 Locrian

7 Diminished+7 Whole Tone

Reference core ScalesThe above scales are a few of the essential scales typically used in jazz. All can be derived from

Ionian (Major) and Aeolian (Natural Minor) scales using the same numerical formula principles as

we used for chords.

3

b3

4 4

5 58

8

6

b6

7 b7

1 1

2 2

Ionian

( Major )

Aeolian

( Natural Minor )

Ionian 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8.

For Lydian raise the fourth in half step.

Aeolian 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7.

For Dorian raise the sixth in half step.

Mixolydian Lower the seventh of the Ionian scale a half step

Locrian Lower the second and fth of the Aeolian scale a half step.

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The Diminished and Whole Tone scales are symmetrical scales using an equal distant

intervalic pattern.

For Diminished it is whole half whole half, etc. ForWhole Tone it is all whole steps.

Using the Scales and Chord TonesAll the above scales typically contain more notes than are in the chord. By stressing the notes or

chord tones that are also in the chord leads to melodic solos and melodies.

Next StepsWith a style so broad as Jazz, a short workshop can only offer a snapshot of what is needed and

outline a path to explore this style of playing.

Here are some suggested books and online lessons of mine that can help with this journey.

Chord BooksA complete listing of all my books for ukulele are at: www.curtsheller.com/books_ukulele.shtml

Exploring Jazz Chords takes the core chords from my bookA Guide to Advanced Chords for Ukulele

and shows their use over a variety of common chord progressions, based on songs from the standard jazz

repertoire.

A Guide to Advanced Chords for Ukulele - Commonly referred to as jazz chords. A Guide to Advanced

Ukulele Chords Volume I provides detailed information on voicing 4-part chords.

A Guide to Blues Chord Progressions for Ukulele A to Z - The Blues are at the heart of all American

music. It has inuenced Country, Rock, Folk, Jazz, Bluegrass and just about every form of American musicwe listen to today.

Studying the blues chord progressions presented in this book will open a wealth of creative possibilities for

exploring chord progressions in all styles of music, not just blues.

The volume covers the key of C major and C minor, including detailed accompanying text explaining the

principles behind each progression and the chord substitutions.

Scale BooksQUICKSTART - Scale Fingerings for Ukulele is a concise, well organized book ideal for any ukulele

player beginning to explore improvisation. Scale Fingerings for Ukulele keeps a sharp focus on six critical

scales, their ngerings and their related chords. All material is covered in every key.

This book is available in C, G and D tuning.

Online LessonsVisit my Online Ukulele Lessons at www.curtsheller.com/lessonsUke.shtml for an ever expanding

selection of lessons.

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Cool Chords - These are the chords do not typically show up in chord dictionaries or song books. These are

the chords players ask, What is that chord?

Using Triads - Triads are a great resource for creating simple melodies and solos...

Chord Shapes and Learning Chords - There is no way one can memorize ALL chord shapes. Even

memorizing a few hundred is time consuming.

A chord shape is a function of a particular instrument and tuning. Know how they are built and the notes

can work on any instrument.

Beyond the basic open position chords and basic movable form chords (major, minor and seventh), one needs

to learn how chords are created. Then you can build ANY chord you will ever need by moving or displacing a

note or notes from the basic chords.

Its the notes that make the chord shape. And, there is no way one can memorize ALL chord shapes. Even

memorizing a few hundred is impossible.

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