I’ve had quite a few people contact me recently with barre chord problems. My main advice is: practice and lots of it. But here are a few more pointers to help you on the way.
What’s a Barre Chord?
A barre chord is any chord that involves playing more than one string with the same finger. For example, the chord on the left shows the index finger barring across all of the strings.
Some common barre chords are Bb, D7, F# and C#.
A few rules that are always true of barre chords:
– The strings on the barre will always be played at the same fret.
– You’ll always play a barre with your index finger.
– Barre chords have no open strings (meaning you can move them up and down the neck).
So why bother? The uke has four strings, we have four finger, right? Not quite. Anyone who has tried playing an E chord will know the frustration of cramming multiple fingers on the same fret. Barre chords make playing chords easier (once you get the hang of them) and allow for stretches you couldn’t perform otherwise.
The Number One Tip
As ukulele players, we are a bit spoilt with a small neck and gentle strings. That means we can play with your fretting hand wrapped around the neck (like the picture on the right). Players of most stringed instruments can’t get away with that and have to play with the thumb on the back of the neck. Take a look at Jacqueline du Pre and Bola Sete for two random examples.
Most of the time, you can get away with wrapping your hand around the neck. But not when you’re playing barre chords. Then it’s really important to bring your hand round so your thumb is on the back of the neck (like the picture on the left).
That does two things:
1) It gives you more squeezing power.
2) It makes your other fretting fingers arch higher over the strings. This makes them less likely to accidentally catch on the other strings and mute them. This can be a big problem with the Bb shape.
Other Tips
If you’re still struggling, try these tips. They don’t work for everyone but they can help:
Bring Your Elbow into Your Side: I can’t figure out why this works, but it does. Most people play with their fretting elbow out from their body. Bring it into your side and you should find it easier.
Rotate Your Index Finger a Little: Some people find that the ridge on their finger at the knuckle means it’s hard to play a good barre chord. If that’s true for you, try rotating your finger anti-clockwise a little so that you’re fretting more with the side of your finger.
A Bit of Re-enforcement: If you need a little extra strength in your barre, you can bring another finger in to help. This is particularly helpful with the C# chord shape (on the right).
Checking Your Barre Chord
Once you’ve got your barre chord in place it’s important to check that every string rings clearly. Play one string at a time. If one of them doesn’t sound right check to see if any other finger is touching it slightly. If not, try adjusting the pressure and position of your fingers until everything sounds right.
Breaking the Rules
As with all rules, the ones I set out before are made to be broken.
You can use a barre to good effect in playing the D chord (with an open string). I almost always play D by fretting the g and C strings with my index finger like this.
And you can play a barre with you middle finger. For example, you can play an Am7 chord 2433, like this.
A Demonstration
Here’s Diane Rubio’s masterful chord solo on Under Paris Skies. She uses many barre chords. Watch closely and you’ll see the thumb at the back of the neck, the re-enforcer and her using the middle finger as a barre.
More on Barre Chords
Once you’re a dab-hand at barre chords you might want to learn what barre chords go where with the CAGFD system.
UPDATE: Richards Tips
Richard left these tips in the comments:
May I suggest two further tips, noticed from my own teaching, that might help.
The first is shown very clearly in your first photograph: the index finger needs to be quite straight to barre effectively. That way you can get a firm pincer grip with the thumb. A number of my students start out with the finger bending at the second knuckle, so that the finger wraps around the corner of the fingerboard. This has the effect of pulling the top two joints away from the strings and also weakens the finger’s ability to push hard against the strings.
The second tip might help with getting a good ringing sound from each string, especially where the crease of the knuckles means that it is hard to press the middle two strings effectively: Feel that the finger is pushing down all along its length; especially imagine that there is a weight on top of the first joint (the one nearest the tip), so that it really flattens out against the strings.
The Vaccines – Wreckin’ Bar (Ra Ra Ra)
Posting So Long and Thanks for All the Fish put my chords-per-song average way out of whack. So time for something nice and simple. Three chords. 80 seconds. Bosh!
The original is in Eb, if you want to make it even simpler you can move it down a fret so it’s in D. Like this:
Wreckin’ Bar in D
Suggested Strumming
You can use this as the main strum:
d – d u d u d u
Play that twice for the Eb (or D); then two downstrums each for Ab and Bb; then back to the main strum once for the Eb. So it sounds like this:
For the other section, play the main strum twice for each chord except the last one – do 8 down strums.
Twiddly Bits
The solo, with a little poking, works well on the uke. Just a bit of bending to contend with.
Which sounds a bit like this:
If you’re playing in D, just move everything down a fret (the tab for that is with the chords).
Right bunch of bloody weirdos this week.
After a week looking at cheap ukuleles, back to the ukes only those of you with vast resources who lounge in their ukulele-shaped pool wearing diamond ukulele necklaces.
Starting off with a Kamaka signed by Eddie Vedder and used on his album. It’s being auctioned off for charity (read the details here) and has already attracted some furious bidding. Not something you could say about this Lanikai autographed by Aunty Genoa Keawe with an optimistic starting price of $10,000.
Two fine custom shop Martin sopranos: an expensive oneand and a (relatively) cheap one (thanks to Phredd).
Pictures: 1800s ukulele banjolele boy, Dick Powell.
The outbreak of ukulele stories from last week rolled on. According to the BBC, Steven Sproat reckons too many people are playing the ukulele. A decent article (i.e. Formby is given more suitable prominence) on the Duke of Uke’s troubles (and Neil ‘Mr Amanda Palmer’ Gaiman, Iain Lee and Jeremy Warmsley have been tweeting their support).
Vaughn De Leath’s ukulele instruction record from 1928 (thanks to Ron Hale).
Festival season: photos from the Belgium ukulele festival and video from the Ukulele Boudoir festival and Ukulele World Congress.
The World’s most dangerous triplet.
Shelley Rickey tells BUST magazine how to make a cigar box ukulele.
Bari and non-bari chord charts from Ukulele Bartt.
The guy who put together the United Kingdom Ukulele Orchestra answers the question, “how did you get the idea of producing a ukulele show?” This is probably only of interest to Brits of a similar age to me, Peter Moss is responsible for the later Grange Hill theme that replaced Alan Hawkshaw’s slice of genius.
Zelda Overworld Theme on Uker Tabs.
Blondie cover Beirut give it a listen here (no uke in their version). Beirut themselves have released a new single (of an old song) and have announced a new album out in August.
Back when I first started the blog I would bemoan the lack of beginner ukulele books. The situation has improved since then. But I still felt like there wasn’t a definitive book that covered all the important aspects of ukulele playing – particularly the way the ukulele is being played currently.
Last year the people who do the …for Dummies books made me put my balls where my blog is and actually write one myself. So for the last 9 months I’ve been working really hard to make this the best beginner’s ukulele book there is out there and now it’s available for pre-order it’s out now. You can find it cheapest (that I’ve seen) on Amazon:
Amazon US
Amazon Canada
Amazon UK
Amazon France
Amazon Germany
And in countries that don’t have Amazon:
The Niles in Australia
Fishpond in New Zealand
A quick guide to what you can expect from it.
UPDATE: Since being released, the book has had a great reaction. You can read a selection of reviews here.
How It’s Going to Make You Awesome
Back in the olden days, people learned to play a musical instrument in a pretty one-track fashion. They’d buy a book and work through it. Or they’d get a teacher and follow their syllabus. But no one learns like that any more. Everyone who learns the ukulele now plays stuff from websites and learns tunes for clubs. So the usual ukulele book that follows the old way doesn’t really work any more.
Ukulele for Dummies is more of a reference book. So – while you can certainly follow through the book in a straight line and learn to play – it works best as a book you can keep nearby and pick up when there’s a particular technique you hear about or you’re trying to play something and it doesn’t quite sound right.
For example:
A website: “Play this bit with hammer-ons.”
You: “What the flipperty-heck does that mean?”
Your Brain: “Look in Ukulele for Dummies. That will tell you.”
*A short read later.*
You: “Thanks, brain. I now know how to play hammer-ons and am thusly much more attractive to the opposite sex.”
If you’ve ever read a Dummies book before, you’ll be familiar with this idea. All the books follow that ‘modular’ pattern where you can read little sections in isolation. Same here. You can read each little bit in on its own and it’ll still make sense.
What You Get
It’s a hefty book: 360 pages all told. So it covers a lot of ground. There’s a list of contents below. Each new bit of technique will have a demonstration of it in a musical context (a lot of the time that’ll be a song or a tune). The book is written for soprano/concert/tenor. It’s not suitable for baritone ukulele.
The book comes with a 98 track CD containing all the musical examples I could cram on it.
If you’ve bought the digital version of the book you can find details of how to download the audio and video here.
Dummies Style
The book is written in the Dummies style rather than mine. The tone is still conversational and laid back. But they’re very keen to keep a consistent style between the books. So if you read something in the book that doesn’t sound like me, that’ll be because it probably wasn’t me.
The big difference is it’s safe for family use. You won’t find any of the swearing, body-part references, ironic uses of the phrase ‘off of’ and calls for an anarcho-capitalist revolution that plague this blog. And it’s also packed with gerunds if that’s your bag.
Contents
The book is put together in a way that lets you zip around and pick out the bits that interest you.
You can download an extract, the contents and the index on the Wiley site.
Part 1: Ukulele Basics
The non-playing section. Covering the fundamentals that are worth getting down before you start.
Chapter 1: Exploring the Ukulele
– Advantages of the ukulele.
– Different sizes.
– Getting to know the ukulele.
– What you can play on the ukulele.
Chapter 2: Tuning Up to Sound Great
– Basic musical terms.
– Tuning up.
– Deciding which tuning to use.
– Methods of tuning.
Chapter 3: Discovering How to Handle Your Ukulele
– Holding the ukulele.
– Preparing to strum.
– Fretting without worrying.
Part 2: Chords and Strumming
Chapter 4: Playing Your First Ukulele Chords and Songs
– Chord diagrams.
– Fretting your first chords.
– A simple strum.
Chords: Li’l Liza Jane, I’ll Fly Away, Wayfaring Stranger.
Chapter 5: Drumming Up More Strumming Patterns
– Strumming Patterns.
– Strumming in genres.
– Playing when you don’t know the pattern.
Chords: What Did the Deep Sea Say?, Shady Grove, Take Me Out to the Ballgame, House of the Rising Sun, 12 Bar Blues, Banana Boat Song (Day-O).
Chapter 6: Meeting the Chords and Their Families
– The C chord family.
– The three chord trick.
– Barre chords.
– Increasing your chord arsenal.
Chords: When the Saints Go Marching In, Man of Constant Sorrow, Irish Rover.
Part 3: Picking and Single Note Playing
Chapter 7: Getting to Grips with Tabs and Notation
– How to read tablature.
– Reading rhythms.
– Getting it all together.
Melody tabs: London Bridge Is Falling Down, I’ll Fly Away, Take Me Out to the Ballgame.
Chapter 8: Fingerpicking Patterns
– Fingerpicking technique.
– Fingerpicking patterns.
Chapter 9: Combining Chords and Melodies When Playing Solo
– Thumb strumming.
– Strumming between the melody.
– Strumming through.
– Fingerpicking.
Melody and chord tabs: London Bridge is Falling Down, Amazing Grace, In the Pines (Where Did You Sleep Last Night?), When the Saints Go Marching In, I’ll Flay Away, Freight Train.
Amazing Grace
I’ll Fly Away
When the Saints Go Marching In
Chapter 10: Picking Up Some Soloing Techniques
– Soloing techniques: hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides, bends, vibrato.
– Picking notes for solos.
– Inventing your own solos.
Part 4: Genres and Styles
This section takes the stuff from parts 2 and 3, applies it to different genres and adds new techniques.
Chapter 11: Rock and Punk
– Rock and punk chord progressions.
– Rock riffing.
– Rock soloing.
Chapter 12: Blues
– 12 bar blues variations.
– The blues shuffle.
– Blues turnaround variations.
– The blues scale in solos.
Chords: Careless Love, St James Infirmary.
Melody: Memphis Blues.
Memphis Blues
Chapter 13: Hawaiian
– Hawaiian strumming: chnking, triplet strum.
– Hawaiian turnarounds.
– Playing Hawaiian tunes.
Chords: Aloha ‘Oe,
Melody tab: Papalina Lahilahi.
Melody and chords tab: Alekoki.
Alekoki
Chapter 14: Jazz
– Jazzy chord turnarounds.
– Jazzing up chords.
– Split stroke.
– Faking a jazz solo.
Chords: Darktown Strutters’ Ball.
Tab: 12th Street Rag.
Chapter 15: Reggae and Jawaiian
– Touch strum
– Thumb ‘n strum.
– Marley-style strumming.
– Skanking.
Chords: Linstead Market.
Chapter 16: Classical
– Strumming and picking classical tunes.
– Campanella playing.
Tab: Ode to Joy, Brahms’s Lullaby, Greensleeves, Romanza, Carulli’s Andante.
Part 5: Buying and Looking After Your Ukulele
For people who don’t have a ukulele yet, this would be a good section to read first.
Chapter 17: Buying a Ukulele
– Knowing what to look for.
– Choosing where to buy.
– Buying more ukuleles.
– Going electric.
Chapter 18: Essentials and Accessories
– Finding the best strings.
– Optional accessories.
– Websites, apps and programs.
Chapter 19: Re-Stringing, Maintaining and Adjusting Your Ukulele
– When and how to restring.
– Keeping your ukulele in tiptop condition.
– Identifying and fixing problems.
Part 6: The Part of Tens
All Dummies books have a section at the end listing ten sets of things. But I can’t count.
Chapter 20: Ten Ukulele Players You Should Know
Quick profiles of:
– Ernest Ka’ai.
– May Singhi Breen.
– Roy Smeck.
– George Formby.
– The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain.
– Israel Kamakawiwo’ole.
– Jake Shimabukuro.
– James Hill.
– Zach Condon.
– Julia Nunes.
– I also did an ‘If you like… check out…’ who are, respectively, John King, Nellie McKay, Bob Brozman, Garfunkel and Oates, Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra, Paula Fuga, Kalei Gamaio, Paul Luongo, tUnE-yArDs and Sophie Madeleine.
Fight about those as much as you like in the comments.
Chapter 21: Ten Ways to Get Involved in the Ukulele Scene
– Joining a ukulele club.
– Visiting a ukulele festival.
– Making a video.
– Playing live.
– Going online.
– Spreading the uke news.
– Entering a contest.
– Teaching someone.
– Writing your own songs.
– Seeing a show.
Chapter 22: Ten Tips for Improving
– Playing very slowly.
– Refusing to rush things.
– Recording yourself.
– Playing with and for others.
– Practicing in sections.
– Knowing when to stop practicing.
– Steal from everyone.
– Varying your inversions and verying your invarsions.
– Opening your ears.
– Enjoying yourself.
– Busting a rut.
Appendices
Appendix A: Chord Charts
Appendix B: Reading Music
Appendix C: Using the CD
How You Can Order It
It’s due out in August and you can pre-order it in these places (and some others):
US
Amazon US
Borders
Barnes and Noble
Australia
Fishpond (Australia)
Got A Question?
Ask away in the comments.
Question Updates
Some pertinent questions from the comments:
Will there be an ebook version?
Yes, there’s going to be an enhanced, downloadable version. You can read about it on iTunes.
Will it be available in (insert language here)?
There have been discussion about translated versions. If you want to sway the decision go on the Wiley website, pick your location, contact them expressing your interest.
Neil Hannon and Joby Talbot – So Long And Thanks For All The Fish (Chords)
This has the longest chord list of any song I’ve done. That’s thanks to a key change, a choromatic middle section, some essential inversions and lashings of jazziness.
I wrote it up at the behest of Ukulelezo. She, quite sensibly, simplified it for her version by ditching the key change and the instrumental section.
Twiddly Bits
The intro sounds a bit daft on the ukulele, but – hey – it’s a daft song anyway.
The outro is dead simple:
If you’re sticking in the key of C – like Zoe does – play exactly the same thing on the g-string.
The Leftover Cuties hit it big when Game Called Life was used as the theme tune to The Big C. Last week they released their debut album Place to Go (which they kindly sent me). If you liked Game Called Life, I highly recommend you pick it up. It’s the same winning combination of instant pop melodies and jazzy setting.
My favourite aspect of the album is how comfortably the ukulele sits in the band. All the tracks on the album feature backing of the classic ukulele-upright bass pairing (along with occasional other uke-friendly instruments: brass, accordion and a smattering of stylophone). I think we’re all familiar with records that announce, “Hey, look at me, I’m playing this on a ukulele,” but here it’s used much more naturally and, therefore, pleasingly.
They’re giving away the albums title track. Grab it on this doodad or on their website:
Ukulele Cutie, Austin Nicholsen generously agreed to field a few of my questions:
How did you first get into playing the ukulele? And what made you stick with it?
I had recently purchased an upright bass and thought it would be silly to pick up the smallest string instrument at that point. I thought violin, ukulele…. ukulele it is! I walked around with it for a few days playing and trying make it sound like it was remotely in tune. Then i realized, this thing is beat. Years went by and I picked it up again and that is when it really started to resonate with me. Success! The ukulele is AWESOME! Looking back at my first encounters with the uke i realized i wasn’t ready for the awesome power of this wonderful little instrument yet.
How did you go about building a band around the ukulele? What did you have to consider?
I showed up at my good friend Shirli’s house in the middle of the night with the ukulele. I guess she had never seen one before then and didn’t know what to make of it. I don’t think she even thought it was a real instrument. Anyhow I started playing a chord progression I had been strumming on and Shirli pulled out a napkin that she had earlier wrote some lyrics on while she was working. We recorded a rough demo the next day and then it was buried for a couple of years. Little did we know that this was the beginning of something far greater than we could ever conceive at the time.
Years later Shirli stumbled across that little demo and felt something special within that little song “Game Called Life”. She played it for some friends and family and the reviews came flooding in, people wanted more of this magic. We did some more bootleg demos and people were stoked! Shortly following the band name came and we were off and running. It was time for this little seed to grow. We decided it was time for higher quality recordings. We met with a great man named Ryan Hewitt who recorded and produced our EP and he said you’re going to need drums if you want to sell records. One man came to my mind for this musical adventure, Stuart Johnson. One of the greatest and most musical drummers in the world without a doubt.
Next came the proper low end bass player, Ryan Feves. A great man who in my mind is a world class bassists, amazing feel and tone that warms your insides. The family kept growing, it took a bit before we found the missing piece but it was worth the wait. Mike Bolger, what can’t the guy do. I mean really, he plays piano, accordion, all brass and who knows what else. But get this he can play them at the same time, that’s right piano in left hand, trumpet in right. I believe this guy has been on a million recordings, maybe more. Oh yeah and he really smokes a mean BBQ, grille master extraordinaire! No consideration when it all started because the uke was the foundation.
What’s in your ukulele collection? Any favourites?
My main uke is an old Kamaka pineapple uke, my guess is 1930 or 31, # 5416 9 – maybe someone out there can help determine the year. I hold this uke near and dear to my heart, I have picked up few ukes that can even come close to the tonal quality.
Also have a label free soprano uke with great tone but chunky fretts, still cool though. And an old soprano supertone from Sears Roebuck and Co. from maybe the 40’s, very fragile little mahogany uke with a cheerful tone. A cookie tin uke that i frankensteined together using a banjolele neck that would never ever stay in tune no matter what and a holiday cookie tin with a wreath on it. An old May bell banjolele from the early 1930’s. A Cigar box uke that I ripped the neck off my first label free Chinese uke for, kind-of dead sounding. A Tahitian uke with fishing line for strings ( a bit bitty ) and last but not least, also not really a ukelele, an old Wurlitzer Tiple made by C.F. Martin from the late 20’s.
The pineapple takes the cake!!!!! Every time
As well as a love of ukes, we’re both enthusiastic cap wearers. What do you look for a good cap?
Comfort and versatility.
What can we expect to hear from the Leftover Cuties in the future?
Who knows what’s in store for us, the sky’s the limit! I am pushing for some remixes on this album. Also there is a lot of great new material on the burner already!
And an entirely selfish question: any plans to visit the UK?
Absolutely!!!!! Some day for sure – hopefully soon.
Visit LeftoverCuties.com. Buy the album on iTunes.
