Welcome to Musicandome, how are you? I am Flor
and we have an special lesson today,
because this is not a song Tutorial, but we are going to
learn a bit of music theory applied to the ukulele, and with that I mean some Chord's inversions.
Lessons as this one you will find
only for Patreons, in one of the Tiers.
I am starting a new serie of videos
to talk about useful things about
music theory (super easy explained)
applied to the ukulele playing. So if you have never studied
music in a formal way, you will be able to understand them and apply them in what you are playing.
And also, you will be able to understand
what is happening while we are playing (the process and relationships between the music elements),
in the songs we are playing, like the chords relationships,
how to transpose songs from a key to another,
a complete chart of chord inversions, and
other helpful subjects of music theory that actually
they are really amazing because knowing that will give you more possiblities
to explore when you play the ukulele.
Sometimes we tend to think that music theory may be boring
and that is actually not that. In fact all depends in how it is taught.
Sometimes in many formal music institutes, for example,
well, the ukulele is not an instrument who is taught in this kind of institutions... sadly,
but there are a lot of other instruments that are taught in these music formal institutions
like the guitar, or the piano.
They usually teach you
all the theory, without explaining how to apply it to the instrument you are playing,
and some people get lost in the process or feel that they can't do it at all,
and it is not that they don't have skills, but the teaching is not good.
The things that goes only to the mind, we usually tend to forget. We need to experience them, play them.
So, my idea of creating this
video Serie for Patreons
is based on the requests I've been receiving this lasts months about
explaining complicated subjects
that are also interesting because
this kind of knowledge give us
the possibility to take decitions.
The more you know about a topic, the more decisions you can make about it,
or which changes you are going to do,
or how are you going to play a song.
So, learn music theory is important for example,
to know how to transpose a song that is uncomfortable to sing in the original key.
But actually doing it knowing how to do it, and not just copying it from a tutorial,
knowing how the relationship between chords and scales work, I mean,
the music you are playing.
Understanding how this
complex system,
that is so simple at the same time because aaaaall is related, works.
I invite you to check my Patreon out (link in the description of this video).
In one of the Tiers you will find all the subjects related to the music theory.
And at first I will be publishing
monthly videos with explanations
like the ones you will find in this one.
In this video, I will do things very simple,
and I won't be explaining a loooooot of topics
because I want you to be able to apply it immediately to a song (without confusing you more haha).
The next Patreon's videos will have more detailed explanations.
So we are skiping some steps
and going straight to the point when we applied
the things we learn to our playing.
Today we are going to learn some Chord's Inversions.
The first Chord we are going to invert
is C.
We are going to play this C
in this part of the fretboard.
Why do I say we can find the chords in other 'zones'?
For example, I can play C here... or here.
And that is an inversion.
We have the same notes in all the fretboard,
the musical notes are 7
(or 12 if I take in count sharps/flats,
I mean, the accidentals).
And they will repeat all over
the fretboard.
For example, this is easier if we see it in the ukulele.
We have the C scale,
it is a major scale (has a certain
amount and distribution of half steps and whole steps in its structure...
we are also going to see that subject through theses videos)...
So, in the C scale we have the notes:
C, D, E, F, G, A and B.
And then, the note's name repeats: we have the last note we played, C,
D, E, F, G... and we can keep doing this till the 1st string ends,
or we can also try to look for these notes in other strings.
For example,
in this open string, C,
we can find a D,
and we can also find an E, in its 4th fret.
And that is the same E than the 2nd open string.
It is the same.
So, we can also find the same notes
using the other strings.
And the Chord Inversions use them.
We play the same chords we already know, using different strings and different positions all over the freatboard.
The chords we usually study at first, are the ones that are called 'Triads', because they have only 3 sounds.
The composition of the triads is based on a half tone and whole tone relationship.
I will explain that in detail in the future videos.
Anyway, I explained this subject in the 'Move your 5 fingers' free course.
I leave it here...
for the subject: Half and Whole steps,
and it is very easy to understand.
We are going to see this subjects also in Patreon, in an easy and slow way so
you can learn together with your playing.
What we need to know now is the basic definition for 'Chords
Chords are two or more notes sounding at the same time.
I mean, this note alone is not a Chord.
But if I play it like this, it is a Chord. Why? Because in this example are sounding 4 sounds at the same time (the 4 strings together).
Well, now we know the Chord's definition
we are going to look for the inversion of some basic chords we already know how to play.
We are going to find the C chord...
here.
Using the finger position of a G chord, but starting at the 7th fret.
Do you remember how to play G?
This is going to appear here, in a draw,
so you can see how to play this new chords.
So, we need to play with G position, over the 7th fret.
Before you learn this chord inversions, I recommend you to practice a lot
the basic chords, and the usual way to play them.
I mean the ones that are placed here, near the bone.
I will do another video with all the basic chords so you know where to find them.
Anyway, I recommend you to always practice
applying the chords you learn to a song, because
it is more fun than play them alone, without a goal.
The inversions gives the chords another color.
Playing the chords in other fretboard's places
gives us the possibility of experimenting the same notes
played different. I mean,
the notes are called always the same,
for ecample, the notes of the C chord are:
C, E and G.
And that will be always like that.
(At least in the Triad chords, that are the ones we are playing here).
I know it is a lot of theory in one only video (don't worry, this may seem confusing at first).
So... the chords will always
have the same notes.
But in Triads we have 3 notes, and the ukulele has 4 strings, so one of these notes will be repeated.
So we can find it repeating the C, or the E or the G,
or placing one note more higher (for example C low as the 3rd open string and C high on the 3rd fret of the 1st string)
or just having as a base note
the E note (and not the C that gives its name to this Chord)... so, that means I am playing an inversion.
Summarizing, we have for example the chord C with its notes in order (C as the base or 'root', then E and then G... 1º, 3º, and 5º notes of the scale),
and when we play those notes in different order (in the ukulele, in different places of the fretboard),
we have the inversions.
So, the 1st chord we are going to learn
is C,
playing it with G hand position, over the 7th fret.
Then, we will play
the G chord, but we are playing as if it were the C chord
(yes, I'm not mad, the C chord)
but doing a barre on the 7th fret of all strings, and then pressing tiwh our pinky the 10th fret of the 1st string.
So, G chord inversion: barr on 7th fret and pinky over the 10th fret of the 1st string.
Then, we have F...
We are going to play it the same as the G chord,
but 2 frets near the bone.
(I mean, doing the barre in the 5th fret of all strings)
So, we have C...
G...
F...
And the last one will be Am.
We are going to play an Em hand position
starting on the 7th fret.
There are a lot of hand positions that we already know because we use them for the basic chords,
that we can also use them in other frets
for playing chord inversions.
There are also some other tricks I am going to teach you soon.
For this inversions we need to play always the 4 strings.
So, we have C...
G...
F...
And Am...
that in fact is Am7,
but to apply to a song it works fine too.
And now we can play the Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da song,
(one of my last tutorials)
Notice that the chords inverted sound more high than their are in its 'root' position.
You can also try them with the strumming of the song you choose.
That is for you to choose, and you have to try what you wanna do.
But at least you have now other possibilities for each chord.
Sometimes you can also find yourselves playing a song, at first, here,
and then the song changes (it becomes more sweet,
or it changes its mood, or its rhythm)
and you want to change something to match the song character's change.
You can play then the chords in its inversions
and it will sound differently,
and the effect in your audience's perception will be amazing.
And it is also much more 'copado'
(that 'copado' is an Argentinian's word that means like 'cool')
when we understand what we are playing
and when we are being able of making this choises
because then we can decide over
the musical message we are sending, and in what the
other people is receiving from our performance.
And this is where the different interpretations of a same work start to emerge,
with the different desitions we take
about our playing... as in life itself.
I hope you've enjoyed this video,
it is the 1st of a (hopefully long) serie
(I loooove teaching these subjects,
specially do them more understandable and simple),
and I also know this kind of videos may be a little long, but I think
it is worth to know a bit more about it.
I probably do a Live Youtube Lesson soon
explaining some of this subjects,
so stay tuned :) (I will publish the notification in the Community section of this channel).
And oh, I have a new 'Artist' Channel (I'm not joking they are called like that)
where I only upload my original music.
Also some of the songs there have their own videoclip.
They are also on Spotify (you have all the links in the description of this video).
You can also suscribe to my Patreon and  download all the printable resources I make for ukulele learning,
like Chord Charts, Tabs, Song Sheets, etc.
Patreon.com/musicandome
(link in the description of this video).
You can also request Tutorials and Covers there.
And well, we will see each other in the next Tutorial. Aloha! :)
