Chord Maps

We have seen that the chord shapes can progress down the Neck as long as the root dot is on the note you wish to play.
For each Chord we can draw a diagram of this. Here is the one for the Major chord we have been looking at:
Ukulele Major chord finger map GCEA
(There are higher res images on the Download page for printing)

This diagram shows us the same Major chord but it includes the map for each Note below.
Looking at this you can see that:
  • The shapes do indeed propagate down one fret at a time and they result in different notes.
  • The root notes for each shape lies on that Note on the Fretboard. Check by looking across to the Neck diagram
  • Ignore the single dotted line on the Neck for now - it shows how to get from one note to the next. We'll get to that soon (Chord Signature).
  • Remember the D chord discussion from the last two pages. Here we can see both of those D shapes. They share a common line (3rd fret) and two different positions on the A string. One is the open A (which is a 5th) and the second is a fretted D (which is a Root).
Lets look at the A in more detail:

Ukulele A Major
If we pick a string - say the G - then we look down the neck -  you will see the location of all the A's. There are two. One on fret2 and one on fret 14. The one on 14 is 2 past the octave (12+2=14) and you can see its a repeated shape. So, of course, there will only be one A every octave but luckily we have 4 strings and so there will be 4 A's scattered down the neck, one on each string.

So because the Root is on different strings, the shape to use is different (4).

We can clearly see that all four shapes repeat down the neck. The Map shows the sequence down to the first repetition.

What this actually means is:
If you can identify the Note you wish to play on a string - you can use the correct shape for that string/root and play the chord.

So to play a chord you need to know:
- the four (mostly) fingering shapes for that chord,
- how to get from one note to the next on the Neck.

So just before we look at Chord signatures, lets look at some other chords for comparison. (Examples)
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