Chords for Ukulele Webcam Sessions (Ep.51) – The Dreaded E Chord!
Tempo:
125.25 bpm
Chords used:
E
A
F#
G
B
Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
Start Jamming...
Hi, welcome to another episode of Webcam Sessions.
This week we're going to be
working on the E chord, which is like the bane of ukulele players existence, and
we're going to work on three different ways to play it, so hopefully you can
find one that works well for you, or another one that you can add to your
arsenal.
I'm going to be playing this ukulele today, which you can actually go
win if you'd like.
We're gonna be doing a giveaway here.
Last week was the 50th
episode of Webcam Sessions, and Connie Lea Ukulele graciously sent me this
ukulele to give away on on this show.
So I'm going to be picking a random entry
based on a lesson idea, and sending this ukulele to whoever I pick.
It'll be
all random, and I'll teach a lesson of that lesson idea, so be sure and check
that out.
It's in the link in the description below if you haven't already,
but I figured I'll use this for today's lesson because it sounds so good.
I'm
gonna miss sending it because it's awesome, I love playing it.
So let's talk
about the E chord.
An E chord is terrifying for most ukulele players, and
rightfully so because it's a really hard chord.
The way that it's traditionally
taught typically will be to take your, all four fingers, but take your middle
finger and stack it up on the fourth fret of the G string, your ring finger on
the fourth fret of the C, your pinky here on the fourth fret of the E, and then
your index here to the second fret of the A, and you might just be looking at
this and thinking there's no way I can do that, and to be honest this I find to
be, even though it's the most popular way to be taught, I find it to be the most
difficult way to do an E chord.
I just think that it's really unrealistic,
especially when you have larger hands to get all four fingers in there, it's
really tough to do.
[N] A couple tips though to make it easier is try to stack the
fingers and kind of scrunch them together, getting as close as you can to
the fret wire here, and just practice kind of getting the flexibility of those
fingers to be put on those points, and then with the index finger it's okay for
it to become more straight back here so it's not bent, you can see that that
knuckle is becoming more straight as it goes on, tries to make it a little bit
easier, so getting right up next to the frets can help, but let's go and work on
a different E chord, and right now I want to work on the the easier E chord, and it
still sounds great, in fact I prefer it in most situations, and what that is is
take your index finger, bar it all the way across the [E] fourth fret of the
ukulele, then take your pinky and add it on to the seventh fret of the A string,
so we have 4 4 4 7, and when you do this if a bar is something new for you, what
you can do is take your middle finger and stack it over that index finger to
give it more reinforcement, and also it helps to go right up against that fret
wire so that you're not coming back here, the more back you are the harder it is
to fret, you want to be right up like that, take the other finger stack it over
and the pinky on the A string, and when you do this your E chord sounds
something like this, [A] right, and so if you're going from like an A chord [E] to an
E, this one is going to work just as well as this one here, but you'll notice it's
going to sound just a little bit brighter, and I like that personally, I
like the brighter sound of that E, I actually think that it sounds more full,
and the reason is because we actually have this octave between our C string
and our A string, which just opens up the chord a little bit more.
Some people
though don't like this version of the E chord as much because of its brightness
and because it's a little bit too kind of high sounding, but it will work
because an E chord is an E chord, every single time you play an E you're going
to have the notes E, G-sharp, and B, and one of those notes on a ukulele will be
doubled, and so when I'm playing my E chord down here, I'm playing essentially
a B note on my G string, an E note on my C string, a G-sharp note on my E string,
and another B note [F#] on my A string, and you can hear the [Em] G and the A strings are
playing the exact same note.
[G] However if I play this new E chord, which I [B] find
easier and I like the sound of more, I've got a B note here, [E] an E note here, G-sharp
here just like before, but now I'm going to have another E note only up top here
on the A string, in the what we call octave to what's on the C, so that just
creates a fatter sound and I [F#] love it, that's my favorite way to do an E, but
let's say that you're really really wanting the sound of the E chord down
here, but you're wanting to to be a little bit easier.
What you can do is
something that I learned here on Ukulele Underground, and Aldrine teaches this
absolutely in the best way because this is how I got over that hurdle, was
watching videos here on Ukulele Underground, [B] and what that is is trying
to use your ring finger to do a partial bar across all four, or excuse me, across
the fourth fret of the G, C, and E strings.
So you're going to take this
finger, you're going to lay it across the string, and you're going to try to have
it come up right where the A string comes off on the ukulele, so you see that
little space there.
So if right now you're touching the A string, what you'll
need to do is move your ring finger up, and if you're finding that you're
not able to hit that G, you need to move it down a little bit, it's just trying to
find [Am] that perfect place where that A string can ring open.
Now fingers aren't
meant to bend backwards right, that's the number one complaint I get, and it's true
they're not, but they will at these sort of knuckle joints right here, they'll bend
just a little bit, you don't need much to be able to clear it, [N]
and so what you want
to do as you're working with this is look at that sort of divot on the
knuckle, and try to place the E string right around in there, so that you can
try to get that A string to be raised off, it looks something like that.
Now a
lot of times people are told to then just take the index finger and push it
here on the second fret of the A string, and I find that really hard, and this is
the cool trick I learned from Aldrine, which is take that index finger and lay
it across all four strings.
Now it really only needs to play the A string right,
because our ring finger is responsible for the others, but by laying it across
all four, it gets our fingers to be kind of this straight up and down motion, and
we can have our middle finger kind of come over the top to help
reinforce that bar, and it takes a little bit of [E] fudging to find the exact
position, but once you do, this is probably the easiest way to play that
traditional E chord.
Yeah it just takes a lot of work to get that to be the
partial bar, it's kind of like yoga for your fingers, and if you can't do it
right now, that's okay.
It's one of those things where you know just like yoga,
you're going to get better with it as you practice and increase your
flexibility, so that's what the goal is.
So I hope one of these three E chords
will help you out, I hope that you know the brighter E up the neck if you
haven't played that before you enjoy it, I love the sound of it.
Next week I'll be
announcing the winner of this ukulele, and doing a lesson on whatever their
submission was, so [A] at the time that you see this video I probably have not
yet recorded the video for the winner, so please feel free to check out that
link below and enter, because I'm just pumped to give this to some lucky person
who hopefully will enjoy it as much as I have in just a little limited time [F] I've
been [G] playing with it, so way cool.
Well have a great week, [F] I'll see you guys next
[C] time on another episode of Webcam Sessions.
This week we're going to be
working on the E chord, which is like the bane of ukulele players existence, and
we're going to work on three different ways to play it, so hopefully you can
find one that works well for you, or another one that you can add to your
arsenal.
I'm going to be playing this ukulele today, which you can actually go
win if you'd like.
We're gonna be doing a giveaway here.
Last week was the 50th
episode of Webcam Sessions, and Connie Lea Ukulele graciously sent me this
ukulele to give away on on this show.
So I'm going to be picking a random entry
based on a lesson idea, and sending this ukulele to whoever I pick.
It'll be
all random, and I'll teach a lesson of that lesson idea, so be sure and check
that out.
It's in the link in the description below if you haven't already,
but I figured I'll use this for today's lesson because it sounds so good.
I'm
gonna miss sending it because it's awesome, I love playing it.
So let's talk
about the E chord.
An E chord is terrifying for most ukulele players, and
rightfully so because it's a really hard chord.
The way that it's traditionally
taught typically will be to take your, all four fingers, but take your middle
finger and stack it up on the fourth fret of the G string, your ring finger on
the fourth fret of the C, your pinky here on the fourth fret of the E, and then
your index here to the second fret of the A, and you might just be looking at
this and thinking there's no way I can do that, and to be honest this I find to
be, even though it's the most popular way to be taught, I find it to be the most
difficult way to do an E chord.
I just think that it's really unrealistic,
especially when you have larger hands to get all four fingers in there, it's
really tough to do.
[N] A couple tips though to make it easier is try to stack the
fingers and kind of scrunch them together, getting as close as you can to
the fret wire here, and just practice kind of getting the flexibility of those
fingers to be put on those points, and then with the index finger it's okay for
it to become more straight back here so it's not bent, you can see that that
knuckle is becoming more straight as it goes on, tries to make it a little bit
easier, so getting right up next to the frets can help, but let's go and work on
a different E chord, and right now I want to work on the the easier E chord, and it
still sounds great, in fact I prefer it in most situations, and what that is is
take your index finger, bar it all the way across the [E] fourth fret of the
ukulele, then take your pinky and add it on to the seventh fret of the A string,
so we have 4 4 4 7, and when you do this if a bar is something new for you, what
you can do is take your middle finger and stack it over that index finger to
give it more reinforcement, and also it helps to go right up against that fret
wire so that you're not coming back here, the more back you are the harder it is
to fret, you want to be right up like that, take the other finger stack it over
and the pinky on the A string, and when you do this your E chord sounds
something like this, [A] right, and so if you're going from like an A chord [E] to an
E, this one is going to work just as well as this one here, but you'll notice it's
going to sound just a little bit brighter, and I like that personally, I
like the brighter sound of that E, I actually think that it sounds more full,
and the reason is because we actually have this octave between our C string
and our A string, which just opens up the chord a little bit more.
Some people
though don't like this version of the E chord as much because of its brightness
and because it's a little bit too kind of high sounding, but it will work
because an E chord is an E chord, every single time you play an E you're going
to have the notes E, G-sharp, and B, and one of those notes on a ukulele will be
doubled, and so when I'm playing my E chord down here, I'm playing essentially
a B note on my G string, an E note on my C string, a G-sharp note on my E string,
and another B note [F#] on my A string, and you can hear the [Em] G and the A strings are
playing the exact same note.
[G] However if I play this new E chord, which I [B] find
easier and I like the sound of more, I've got a B note here, [E] an E note here, G-sharp
here just like before, but now I'm going to have another E note only up top here
on the A string, in the what we call octave to what's on the C, so that just
creates a fatter sound and I [F#] love it, that's my favorite way to do an E, but
let's say that you're really really wanting the sound of the E chord down
here, but you're wanting to to be a little bit easier.
What you can do is
something that I learned here on Ukulele Underground, and Aldrine teaches this
absolutely in the best way because this is how I got over that hurdle, was
watching videos here on Ukulele Underground, [B] and what that is is trying
to use your ring finger to do a partial bar across all four, or excuse me, across
the fourth fret of the G, C, and E strings.
So you're going to take this
finger, you're going to lay it across the string, and you're going to try to have
it come up right where the A string comes off on the ukulele, so you see that
little space there.
So if right now you're touching the A string, what you'll
need to do is move your ring finger up, and if you're finding that you're
not able to hit that G, you need to move it down a little bit, it's just trying to
find [Am] that perfect place where that A string can ring open.
Now fingers aren't
meant to bend backwards right, that's the number one complaint I get, and it's true
they're not, but they will at these sort of knuckle joints right here, they'll bend
just a little bit, you don't need much to be able to clear it, [N]
and so what you want
to do as you're working with this is look at that sort of divot on the
knuckle, and try to place the E string right around in there, so that you can
try to get that A string to be raised off, it looks something like that.
Now a
lot of times people are told to then just take the index finger and push it
here on the second fret of the A string, and I find that really hard, and this is
the cool trick I learned from Aldrine, which is take that index finger and lay
it across all four strings.
Now it really only needs to play the A string right,
because our ring finger is responsible for the others, but by laying it across
all four, it gets our fingers to be kind of this straight up and down motion, and
we can have our middle finger kind of come over the top to help
reinforce that bar, and it takes a little bit of [E] fudging to find the exact
position, but once you do, this is probably the easiest way to play that
traditional E chord.
Yeah it just takes a lot of work to get that to be the
partial bar, it's kind of like yoga for your fingers, and if you can't do it
right now, that's okay.
It's one of those things where you know just like yoga,
you're going to get better with it as you practice and increase your
flexibility, so that's what the goal is.
So I hope one of these three E chords
will help you out, I hope that you know the brighter E up the neck if you
haven't played that before you enjoy it, I love the sound of it.
Next week I'll be
announcing the winner of this ukulele, and doing a lesson on whatever their
submission was, so [A] at the time that you see this video I probably have not
yet recorded the video for the winner, so please feel free to check out that
link below and enter, because I'm just pumped to give this to some lucky person
who hopefully will enjoy it as much as I have in just a little limited time [F] I've
been [G] playing with it, so way cool.
Well have a great week, [F] I'll see you guys next
[C] time on another episode of Webcam Sessions.
Key:
E
A
F#
G
B
E
A
F#
Hi, welcome to another episode of Webcam Sessions.
This week we're going to be
working on the E chord, which is like the bane of ukulele players existence, and
we're going to work on three different ways to play it, so hopefully you can
find one that works well for you, or another one that you can add to your
arsenal.
I'm going to be playing this ukulele today, which you can actually go
win if you'd like.
We're gonna be doing a giveaway here.
Last week was the 50th
episode of Webcam Sessions, and Connie Lea Ukulele graciously sent me this
ukulele to give away on on this show.
So I'm going to be picking a _ random entry
based on a lesson idea, and sending this ukulele to whoever I pick.
It'll be
all random, and I'll teach a lesson of that lesson idea, so be sure and check
that out.
It's in the link in the description below if you haven't already,
but I figured I'll use this for today's lesson because it sounds so good.
I'm
gonna miss sending it because it's awesome, I love playing it.
So let's talk
about the E chord.
An E chord is terrifying for most ukulele players, and
rightfully so because it's a really hard chord.
_ The way that it's traditionally
taught typically will be to take your, all four fingers, but take your middle
finger and stack it up on the fourth fret of the G string, your ring finger on
the fourth fret of the C, your pinky here on the fourth fret of the E, and then
your index here to the second fret of the A, and you might just be looking at
this and thinking there's no way I can do that, and to be honest this I find to
be, even though it's the most popular way to be taught, _ I find it to be the most
difficult way to do an E chord.
I just think that it's really unrealistic,
especially when you have larger hands to get all four fingers in there, it's
really tough to do.
[N] A couple tips though to make it easier is try to stack the
fingers and kind of scrunch them together, getting as close as you can to
the fret wire here, and just practice kind of getting the flexibility of those
fingers to be put on those points, and then with the index finger it's okay for
it to become more straight back here so it's not bent, you can see that that
knuckle is becoming more straight as it goes on, tries to make it a little bit
easier, so getting right up next to the frets can help, but let's go and work on
a different E chord, and right now I want to work on the the easier E chord, and it
still sounds great, in fact I prefer it in most situations, and what that is is
take your index finger, bar it all the way across the [E] fourth fret of the
ukulele, then take your pinky and add it on to the seventh fret of the A string,
so we have 4 4 4 7, and when you do this if a bar is something new for you, what
you can do is take your middle finger and stack it over that index finger to
give it more reinforcement, and also it helps to go right up against that fret
wire so that you're not coming back here, the more back you are the harder it is
to fret, you want to be right up like that, take the other finger stack it over
and the pinky on the A string, and when you do this your E chord sounds
something like this, _ _ _ _ _ _ [A] right, and so if you're going from like an A chord _ [E] to an
E, _ this one is going to work just as well as this one here, but you'll notice it's
going to sound just a little bit brighter, and I like that personally, I
like the brighter sound of that E, I actually think that it sounds more full,
and the reason is because we actually have this octave _ between our C string
and our A string, which just opens up the chord a little bit more.
Some people
though don't like this version of the E chord as much because of its brightness
and because it's a little bit too kind of high sounding, but it will work
because an E chord is an E chord, every single time you play an E you're going
to have the notes E, G-sharp, and B, and one of those notes on a ukulele will be
doubled, and so when I'm playing my E chord down here, I'm playing essentially
a B note on my G string, an E note on my C string, a G-sharp note on my E string,
_ and another B note [F#] on my A string, and you can hear _ the [Em] G and the A strings are
playing the exact same note.
[G] However if I play this new E chord, which I [B] find
easier and I like the sound of more, I've got a B note here, [E] an E note here, G-sharp
here just like before, but now I'm going to have another E note _ only up top here
on the A string, in the what we call octave to what's on the C, so that just
creates a fatter sound and I [F#] love it, that's my favorite way to do an E, but
let's say that you're really really wanting the sound of the E chord down
here, but you're wanting to to be a little bit easier.
What you can do is
something that I learned here on Ukulele Underground, and Aldrine teaches this
absolutely in the best way because this is how I got over that hurdle, was
watching videos here on Ukulele Underground, [B] and what that is is trying
to use your ring finger to do a partial bar across all four, or excuse me, across
the fourth fret of the G, C, and E strings.
So you're going to take this
finger, you're going to lay it across the string, and you're going to try to have
it come up right where the A string comes off on the ukulele, so you see that
little space there.
So if right now you're touching the A string, what you'll
need to do is move your ring finger up, and if you're finding that you're
not able to hit that G, you need to move it down a little bit, it's just trying to
find [Am] that perfect place where that A string can ring open.
Now fingers aren't
meant to bend backwards right, that's the number one complaint I get, and it's true
they're not, but they will at these sort of knuckle joints right here, they'll bend
just a little bit, you don't need much to be able to clear it, [N]
and so what you want
to do as you're working with this is look at that sort of divot on the
knuckle, and try to place the E string right around in there, so that you can
try to get that _ A string to be raised off, it looks something like that.
Now a
lot of times people are told to then just take the index finger and push it
here on the second fret of the A string, and I find that really hard, and this is
the cool trick I learned from Aldrine, which is take that index finger and lay
it across all four strings.
Now it really only needs to play the A string right,
because our ring finger is responsible for the others, but by laying it across
all four, it gets our fingers to be kind of this straight up and down motion, and
we can have our middle finger kind of come over the top to help
reinforce that bar, and it takes a little bit of [E] fudging to find the exact
position, _ _ but once you do, this is probably the easiest way to play that
traditional E chord. _
_ _ _ Yeah it just takes a lot of work to get that to be the
partial bar, it's kind of like yoga for your fingers, and if you can't do it
right now, that's okay.
It's one of those things where you know just like yoga,
you're going to get better with it as you practice and increase your
flexibility, so that's what the goal is.
So I hope one of these three E chords
will help you out, I hope that you know the brighter E up the neck if you
haven't played that before you enjoy it, I love the sound of it.
_ Next week I'll be
announcing the winner of this ukulele, and doing a lesson on whatever their
submission was, so [A] at the time that you see this video I probably have not
yet recorded the video for the winner, so please feel free to check out that
link below and enter, because I'm just pumped to give this to some lucky person
who hopefully will enjoy it as much as I have in just a little limited time [F] I've
been [G] playing with it, so way cool.
Well have a great week, [F] I'll see you guys next
[C] time on another episode of Webcam Sessions. _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
This week we're going to be
working on the E chord, which is like the bane of ukulele players existence, and
we're going to work on three different ways to play it, so hopefully you can
find one that works well for you, or another one that you can add to your
arsenal.
I'm going to be playing this ukulele today, which you can actually go
win if you'd like.
We're gonna be doing a giveaway here.
Last week was the 50th
episode of Webcam Sessions, and Connie Lea Ukulele graciously sent me this
ukulele to give away on on this show.
So I'm going to be picking a _ random entry
based on a lesson idea, and sending this ukulele to whoever I pick.
It'll be
all random, and I'll teach a lesson of that lesson idea, so be sure and check
that out.
It's in the link in the description below if you haven't already,
but I figured I'll use this for today's lesson because it sounds so good.
I'm
gonna miss sending it because it's awesome, I love playing it.
So let's talk
about the E chord.
An E chord is terrifying for most ukulele players, and
rightfully so because it's a really hard chord.
_ The way that it's traditionally
taught typically will be to take your, all four fingers, but take your middle
finger and stack it up on the fourth fret of the G string, your ring finger on
the fourth fret of the C, your pinky here on the fourth fret of the E, and then
your index here to the second fret of the A, and you might just be looking at
this and thinking there's no way I can do that, and to be honest this I find to
be, even though it's the most popular way to be taught, _ I find it to be the most
difficult way to do an E chord.
I just think that it's really unrealistic,
especially when you have larger hands to get all four fingers in there, it's
really tough to do.
[N] A couple tips though to make it easier is try to stack the
fingers and kind of scrunch them together, getting as close as you can to
the fret wire here, and just practice kind of getting the flexibility of those
fingers to be put on those points, and then with the index finger it's okay for
it to become more straight back here so it's not bent, you can see that that
knuckle is becoming more straight as it goes on, tries to make it a little bit
easier, so getting right up next to the frets can help, but let's go and work on
a different E chord, and right now I want to work on the the easier E chord, and it
still sounds great, in fact I prefer it in most situations, and what that is is
take your index finger, bar it all the way across the [E] fourth fret of the
ukulele, then take your pinky and add it on to the seventh fret of the A string,
so we have 4 4 4 7, and when you do this if a bar is something new for you, what
you can do is take your middle finger and stack it over that index finger to
give it more reinforcement, and also it helps to go right up against that fret
wire so that you're not coming back here, the more back you are the harder it is
to fret, you want to be right up like that, take the other finger stack it over
and the pinky on the A string, and when you do this your E chord sounds
something like this, _ _ _ _ _ _ [A] right, and so if you're going from like an A chord _ [E] to an
E, _ this one is going to work just as well as this one here, but you'll notice it's
going to sound just a little bit brighter, and I like that personally, I
like the brighter sound of that E, I actually think that it sounds more full,
and the reason is because we actually have this octave _ between our C string
and our A string, which just opens up the chord a little bit more.
Some people
though don't like this version of the E chord as much because of its brightness
and because it's a little bit too kind of high sounding, but it will work
because an E chord is an E chord, every single time you play an E you're going
to have the notes E, G-sharp, and B, and one of those notes on a ukulele will be
doubled, and so when I'm playing my E chord down here, I'm playing essentially
a B note on my G string, an E note on my C string, a G-sharp note on my E string,
_ and another B note [F#] on my A string, and you can hear _ the [Em] G and the A strings are
playing the exact same note.
[G] However if I play this new E chord, which I [B] find
easier and I like the sound of more, I've got a B note here, [E] an E note here, G-sharp
here just like before, but now I'm going to have another E note _ only up top here
on the A string, in the what we call octave to what's on the C, so that just
creates a fatter sound and I [F#] love it, that's my favorite way to do an E, but
let's say that you're really really wanting the sound of the E chord down
here, but you're wanting to to be a little bit easier.
What you can do is
something that I learned here on Ukulele Underground, and Aldrine teaches this
absolutely in the best way because this is how I got over that hurdle, was
watching videos here on Ukulele Underground, [B] and what that is is trying
to use your ring finger to do a partial bar across all four, or excuse me, across
the fourth fret of the G, C, and E strings.
So you're going to take this
finger, you're going to lay it across the string, and you're going to try to have
it come up right where the A string comes off on the ukulele, so you see that
little space there.
So if right now you're touching the A string, what you'll
need to do is move your ring finger up, and if you're finding that you're
not able to hit that G, you need to move it down a little bit, it's just trying to
find [Am] that perfect place where that A string can ring open.
Now fingers aren't
meant to bend backwards right, that's the number one complaint I get, and it's true
they're not, but they will at these sort of knuckle joints right here, they'll bend
just a little bit, you don't need much to be able to clear it, [N]
and so what you want
to do as you're working with this is look at that sort of divot on the
knuckle, and try to place the E string right around in there, so that you can
try to get that _ A string to be raised off, it looks something like that.
Now a
lot of times people are told to then just take the index finger and push it
here on the second fret of the A string, and I find that really hard, and this is
the cool trick I learned from Aldrine, which is take that index finger and lay
it across all four strings.
Now it really only needs to play the A string right,
because our ring finger is responsible for the others, but by laying it across
all four, it gets our fingers to be kind of this straight up and down motion, and
we can have our middle finger kind of come over the top to help
reinforce that bar, and it takes a little bit of [E] fudging to find the exact
position, _ _ but once you do, this is probably the easiest way to play that
traditional E chord. _
_ _ _ Yeah it just takes a lot of work to get that to be the
partial bar, it's kind of like yoga for your fingers, and if you can't do it
right now, that's okay.
It's one of those things where you know just like yoga,
you're going to get better with it as you practice and increase your
flexibility, so that's what the goal is.
So I hope one of these three E chords
will help you out, I hope that you know the brighter E up the neck if you
haven't played that before you enjoy it, I love the sound of it.
_ Next week I'll be
announcing the winner of this ukulele, and doing a lesson on whatever their
submission was, so [A] at the time that you see this video I probably have not
yet recorded the video for the winner, so please feel free to check out that
link below and enter, because I'm just pumped to give this to some lucky person
who hopefully will enjoy it as much as I have in just a little limited time [F] I've
been [G] playing with it, so way cool.
Well have a great week, [F] I'll see you guys next
[C] time on another episode of Webcam Sessions. _ _
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