Alright UUers! We have a very special Uke Minutes for you this week, bringing you the quick-and-dirty rundown of CHORD FAMILIES!

Ever wonder why certain chords sound good together? Want to write a song in a certain key, and wondering what chords to use? Well this episode of Uke Minutes was made especially for you!

Step 1: Pick a key. Any musical key you want to play in.
Step 2: Find the major scale. Click HERE to review major scales and how to find them.
Step 3: Number the notes in your major scale 1 through 8

Now, numbers 1, 4, 5, and 8 will be major chords. Numbers 2,3, and 6 will be minor chords. And 7 will be a diminished. That’s it! You’ve got your chord family!

All of these chords will sound good together, so if you are writing a song, go ahead and choose which ones you want and arrange them in a specific order. Once you’ve done that you’ve got a new chord progression to your very own song!

This also applies to figuring out the chords to an existing song. If you can figure out what key the artist is playing in, more than likely, many of the other chords in the song will be taken directly from the chord family for that key.

Have fun with this one guys! Also, Don’t forget to SIGN UP for Next week’s OPEN MIC (Wednesday, June 25 2008 - 3:30 pm HST / 6:30 pm PST). It will be broadcast right here on this page for the world to see! See you there!

XOXOXO
- UU Staff

So here we are again, friends. The time has come for us to hang out together, happily enjoying yet another: UKE MINUTES! This time, we’ve brought y’all some Movable Chord Shapes to play around with.

Just in case you missed that 3-second bubbly image of basic Major Chord Shapes and Minor Chord Shapes, here it is again:

*Remember* This process works for all chord types, too, not just majors and minors. You can use it on 7ths, 9ths, Major7ths, diminshed-ths - whatever you want! Any chord that you know can be moved up or down the fretboard (as far as you fretboard allows). Moving a chord shape up one fret raises the key a half step. Two frets up raises the key a whole step.

For your reference, here are all the note names in half-step intervals:

C | C#(Db) | D | D#(Eb) | E | F | F#(Gb) | G | G#(Ab) | A | A#(Bb) | B

Once you get to the end (B), it loops around back to the beginning (C). For example, if you held a Bb chord (3211) and moved the entire chord shape up a half step - or one fret (4322) - then the chord would become a B. If you moved it another fret up (5433), it would become a C. This fingering would be an “alternate fingering” for your standard C chord (0003).

Thanks a lot, everyone. If you have any questions, comments, ideas, things to chime in, please post away at the FORUM! Let the discussions begin!

Love Always,
- UU Stafff

In our unending quest to help UU’ers to shred on ukulele, we bring to you this week’s episode of UKE MINUTES: Finger Stretching Warm-ups! Practice these simple stretching exercises to help you reach for intervals you have never reached before! But be sure to take it easy - this is just a warm-up, not a pain-tolerance test.

For more tips and tricks, checkout our handy-dandy Uke Minutes section, or holla at all our favorite people in the Forum!

As if we haven’t had enough excitement for one day, this week’s episode rolls around with a blazing hot strum technique: the 5-Finger Roll! *Que 70’s style Kung-fu music* Don’t let appearances fool you - this handy uke party trick may seem simple at first glance, but try it for yourself and you’ll realize that it may take some practice. (But what technique would be any good if it didn’t require a little practice?). Give it a shot, then let us know what you think!

-UU