Chord Choreography

Fingering and switching chords on the ukulele (or the guitar) is akin to the way a pianist changes fingers to play different chords on the left hand. It’s easier to stay in the same position (that part of the keyboard) and play chord inversions than to jump around the keyboard playing root positions (of chords). What slows one down is having to look at the left hand, thereby risk getting lost or playing wrong notes. Similarly, ukulele and guitar players that have to move their eyes from the sheet music to the left hand and fretboard and to the right hand fingers may also risk getting lost or playing wrong notes.

I developed what I initially called “exotic chord progressions” in my first book for beginning ukulele players. One of my students said that a dedicated exercise on chord switching was more useful than learning chords by playing songs. This morning I woke up with an alliteration: chord choreography or chord coordination.

In the above exercise, the numbers below the chord diagrams refer to the frets to press in order of GCEA (4th, 3rd, 2nd, and 1st strings). There are no finger numbers (fingering) indicated in the chord diagrams. Start from the left (G7 chord) and switch chords without looking at your fretting hand, which is the left hand (LH) for most people.

The urge to look at the left hand, particularly going from F#m to F is unavoidable, for beginners. Once you’ve reached the end (Dm) you can go backwards to the beginning (G7). Of course, it doesn’t sound as nice as the following chord progression, which I get beginners to learn to play the G7 chord.

I have since created easier chord transitions, the latest revealed in a question in the 2022 Annual Ukulele Jeopardy Game.

The jeopardy question requires the participant to finger and switch chords from Am to A7 and back without looking at the left hand or fretboard. It’s tempting to look at the left hand when moving from E7 to Bbmaj7 because it’s not a familiar chord. There’s no need if you use the middle finger as a pivot. Similarly, when switching from D to A7, just slide the middle finger to the first fret. Unfortunately, most people instinctively switch to the index finger for A7.

Practising such chord switching exercises with the same strum pattern (so that you don’t have to think about the right hand) will reap the following results:

• Build chord vocabulary
• Build trust in your left hand – I say, “no need to babysit your left hand fingers”
• Explore alternative fingering, such as using the middle finger for the A7 chord
• Get faster at fingering and switching between chords

Without the context of song, we can treat chords as physical exercises to connect sight with sound and movement.

Another question from the recent jeopardy game asks the participant to order the following four chords such that you only move one finger at a time: Am, Dm, F, F7. There is more than one possibility.

Without context of song, the order of chords does not make a chord progression. That is, there’s no music theoretical logic in the order of chords, no cadence or circle of fifths or other “naturally pleasing” harmony. Thus, it may be difficult to memorize the chord sequence aurally.

Consider the following answers to yet another jeopardy question. The participant orders the chords Am, A7, C, C7, Cmaj7 such that the left hand fingers move from index (1) to middle (2) to ring finger (3), index, and middle finger.

The above are the kinds of exercises I introduce in Ukulele Bootcamp and 3 Chord Thursday warm-up lessons. I am publishing a new compilation (in a bidirectionally hyperlinked PDF) of such chord fingering and switching exercises in 2023. The best way to get notified is subscribing to this blog post or get on my ukulele mailing list.