Chords on a Stringed Instrument

Chords
Chords are groups of notes played (or fingered) together
which sound pleasant (harmonious) together.



Chord Diagrams
To show what a particular chord is,
it's useful to draw a diagram.

Below, are two chord diagrams -

 
















One shows the chord where all the strings are open.
       
      An open string is one where no finger is placed on it.

One shows a chord where there are some finger positions.

      These finger positions are where you place your fingers,
          -  firmly on the string
          -  just behind the fret,
               which is the metal bar that runs across underneath.

Numbers of Strings
Stringed instruments can have different numbers of strings,
depending on the type of instrument.

Using my ukulele as an example,
it has -
                      4 strings

    so I drew the above diagrams with 4 vertical lines.

Numbers of Frets
To keep things simple,
I drew only down to the Fourth fret.

Notes for the Chord with All Open Strings
As outlined in my blog entry "How I Tuned My Ukulele",
I've tuned my ukulele differently to the norm,
and I've indicated these notes below the diagram.
      (mC  =  middle C)

Notes for the Chord with Finger Positions

I've indicated these notes below the diagram,

as they would be on my ukulele.

      The distance between each fret

      corresponds to an increase or decrease of -

      

                            One Note

So here, my -

                                F open string          goes to F#       

And here, my -

                                G# open string        goes to A#   

(c) Katherine Stuart 2015

Other Darwin Sunsets

I've been taking a few photos of
sunsets lately!
So here is a compilation
of some of the others
over the last three weeks or so.

These have all been taken from the
driveway of the house, in Darwin
(Northern Territory, Australia).

(c) Katherine Stuart 2015

Brilliant Darwin Sunset

Darwin (Northern Territory, Australia)
can have some beautiful sunsets,
but this one on Wed 11 March 2015
was one of the more colourful.

It started off quite subdued,
but went through some nice changes,
including a brilliant orange cloud overhead.

These are the stages that it went through.

(c) Katherine Stuart 2015

How I Tuned my Ukulele

      A while back I bought myself a
      ukulele.

      But, I strung it myself.

      However, on referring back to my
      ukulele handbook,
      it would seem that I've strung it
      in a completely different way to the
      usual.
   
      But, I strung it the way it made
      sense in my head.
     
      So, what does that mean about me?

      As the way that I've done it,
      makes it sound to me a bit like the
      traditional Japanese stringed
      instrument.

      Does genre come from the different
      ways people's minds are tuned?
     
      In that case, I must be traditional
      "something". I don't know what that
      is yet.

   
      Anyway,

      Keyboard
      I've used my keyboard to tune from,
      as it won't go out of tune like a piano,
      and hence, is more reliable. As well as
      being able to see all the notes (keys) at
      the same time.

                                                                                          Ukulele
                                                                                          This ukulele is a tenor ukulele,
                                                                                          as far as I know.
                                                                                          (This is all knew to me)

                                                                                          Strings
                                                                                          I used clear nylon soprano ukulele
                                                                                          strings,
                                                                                          which I was told would still be ok
                                                                                          on the tenor ukulele.

                                                                                          Order of stringing
                                                                                          As I'm right handed, I strung from
                                                                                            -  left to right of the ukulele
                                                                                                 (if you are facing it)
                                                                                            -  from thickest string to thinnest
                                                                                                string -
                                                                                                    .032,  .030,  .022,  .020

                                                                                          Tuning
                                                                                          I thought I was tuning it the way it
                                                                                          was supposed to be tuned,
                                                                                          but in the end,
                                                                                          I settled on how the 4 open strings
                                                                                          sounded ok to me.

                                                                                          Then, I went back to my keyboard
                                                                                          and found out what those notes were.

                                                                                          As you can see in the images above,
                                                                                          the 4 open strings are tuned to -
                                                                               
                                                                                                B      D      F      G#

                                                                                          left to right, if you are facing the
                                                                                          ukulele.

                                                                                          The C in the image,
                                                                                          is Middle C.


(c) Katherine Stuart 2015                                                               
                                                                                                                                                   
   

Hackers

There is a hacker getting into my blogs and changing the position of the text etc
around in them, so if you see anything out of place, this is why.

I'm powerless to stop this from happening, and it's a never ending story trying to
correct the mistakes which keep popping up   :(

Sorry about this everyone.

(I know who it is)

Tidying up my blogs

I apologise, to anyone who has been trying to get on to my blogs in the last couple of
weeks or so, and hasn't been able to.

I've been tidying them up. Sorry  :(