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Jazz Ukulele - Scales
Learning to play jazz on a ukulele. What are the scales need to explore this form of music?
A scale is not really a “Jazz” or “Blues” or “Rock” scale. A scale is just a collection of notes.
It's how a scale, or these collection of notes are used this's more important. Some scales are more common in one style vs. another – but all are useful for studying and in the right hands work across a variety of styles.
In Jazz you can base all the scales that your will need from the Major (Ionion) and Natural Minor (Aeolian) scales. From theses two scales you can create or derive additional scales.
Here are a Major and Natural Minor scales and shapes to memorize.
The circled note or birdsyeye is the root or letter name of the scale. Knowing the root of a scale allows you to transpose it to different keys.
A scale that uses all seven notes, in order without skips or repeats is called full diatonic. Both the Major and Natural Minor scales are full diatonic, and use all seven letters of the music alphabet (A, B, C, D, E, F, and G), in order, with no skipped letters or repeated letters. This why there are such things in music as double flats and double sharps.
For the C Major scale the notes are C, D, E, F, G, A, B, and C' The final C is really just a resolution of the scale and the start of the next octave - not a duplicate letter.
For a C Natural Minor scale we lower or flat the 3, 6 and 7 scale degrees of C Major. The notes are C, D, Eb, F, G, Ab, Bb, and C'
For rock, blues, country, and bluegrass you can get aways with using six (6) essential scales.
The six essential scale are:
- Blues
- Pentatonic
- Dorian
- Mixolydian
- Aeolian
- Ionian
These are the scale covered in the QuickStart Scale Fingers for Ukulele book.
To cover the standard jazz repertoire there are 15 essential scales:
Traditional Scales
- Blues (Minor Pentatonic*)
- Pentatonic (Major Pentatonic)
- Harmonic Minor
- Jazz Minor
- Diminished
- Whole Tone
Scale Modes
- Dorian (Minor scale)
- Phrygian
- Lydian
- Mixolydian (The Dominant scale)
- Aeolian (Natural Minor scale)
- Locrian
- Ionian (The Major scale)
Altered Scales
- Mixolydian plus 4 (Lydian Dominant)
- Mixolydian flat 2, flat 64
* Alternate scale names. There is not shortage of crazy scale names you'll run across.
There are other scales but these will more than cover the harmonic variety found in the standard jazz repertoire.
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QS1UKES-IONIAN
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QuickStart Scale Fingerings for Ukulele, C Tuning - Ionian Scale
The Ionian or Major is one of six essential scales for ALL ukulele players.
One octave scale fingering solutions for strings four and three and any finger with the Ionian scale chords are covered in all keys. Sample chord progressions for practice are included.
Tunings: C with low or high G - (GCEA or gCEA).
This book includes four studio recorded backing tracks for exploring the scale and improvisation in a variety of settings. Tracks are also great for practicing your chords against.
More info, samples, table of contents, audio, video and more...
ISBN-13: 978-1-60321-029-4 Published: November 2009 Pages 38
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QS1UKES-IONIAN
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QS1UKES-AEOLIAN
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QuickStart Scale Fingerings for Ukulele, C Tuning - Aeolian Scale
The Aeolian or Natural Minor is one of six essential scales for ALL ukulele players.
One octave scale fingering solutions for strings four and three and any finger with the Aeolian scale chords are covered in all keys. Sample chord progressions for practice are included.
Tunings: C with low or high G - (GCEA or gCEA).
Book includes four studio recorded backing tracks for exploring the Aeolian scales in the book.
More info, samples, table of contents, audio, video and more...
ISBN-13: 978-1-60321-025-6 Published: November 2009 Pages 38
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QS1UKES-AEOLIAN
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Alternate Fingerings for F7
Lesson Code: UL118
Published: December 31, 1969
Updated: December 31, 1969
Lesson Info
Alternate fingerings for F7 in C tuning. The same fingerings would apply to C7 in G tuning and G7 in D tuning.
These are taken from the Ukulele Chord of the Week lessons presented 2007.
Lessons Link
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Alterted Seventh Chords on Ukulele
Lesson Code: UL102
Published: December 31, 1969
Updated: December 31, 1969
Lesson Info
Beyond basic open position chords, basic movable form chords and a core set of 4-part chords. There are just too many chords shapes too memorize. Learning the principles of how chords are constructed and the ukulele fingerboard are the way to go. Yu can then create more advanced chords like 9#11, 7#5-9, 13b5, 7+9 on the fly as needed from your core set of chords.
Lessons Link
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An Introduction to Creating Solo Ukulele Arrangements
Lesson Code: UL125
Published: December 31, 1969
Updated: December 31, 1969
Lesson Info
Creating a solo ukulele chord arrangement is as simple as harmonizing a melody by playing a chord that has the melody note as the top note of the chord. This style of playing is called Chord Melody or Melody and Chord. The hard part comes with - What chord voicing? When should I play a chord? When are single notes OK? And a few other issues usually pop up.
Luckily we don't have to wait for monster chops, a massive chord vocabulary or endless hours of practicing scales and chords to play the ukulele in this style. Although practice is a good idea and never hurts, all we need are a few chords and single notes to have hours of ukulele fun. What you already know can lead to hours of enjoyment.
Lessons Link
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- Go to full lesson: An Introduction to Creating Solo Ukulele Arrangements
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Building a Solid Jazz Chord Foundation for Ukulele
Lesson Code: UL103
Published: December 31, 1969
Updated: December 31, 1969
Lesson Info
Beyond learning basic openposition ukulele chords. Most ukulele players struggle with advanced chords. These more sophisticated voicings, commonly called jazz chords, find a wide use in all forms of music and styles. These 4-part chords are the bread and butter of jazz ukulele.
Lessons Link
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Lesson Info
Two Feel, bVImaj7 bIImaj7, Basie Ending, Single, Double and Triple Tags, Chromatic, Take the 'A' Train Ending, Shave and a Hair Cut, Lawrence Welk Ending, . . . These are common songs ending that are used over and over in the standard song repetoire.
Lessons Link
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- Go to full lesson: Classic Endings for Ukulele
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Lesson Info
Cool Chords - These are the chords that don't typically show up in chord dictionaries or song books. They might show up in software programs that produce chords based on some underlying computer algorithm.
These are the chords players ask, "What is THAT chord"?
Bennt Chong is a master of these chords.
Lessons Link
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Lesson Info
A cool chord is most likely a Free Form chord. These free form chords typically include open strings, wide stretches, displaced chord tones and or chord voicings. Plus they just sound cool.
Here is a cool sounding G7 chord.
Lessons Link
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- Go to full lesson: Cool Ukulele Chords - G7
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Core Chords - Creating the Big Six from F7, 1st Voicing
Lesson Code: UL42a
Published: December 31, 1969
Updated: December 31, 1969
Lesson Info
Taking a movable F7 chord, you can derive each of the 'big six' essential chords. 7, maj7, m7, m7b5, dim7, and aug7.
Lessons Link
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- Go to full lesson: Core Chords - Creating the Big Six from F7, 1st Voicing
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Core Chords - Creating the Big Six from F7, 2nd Voicing
Lesson Code: UL42b
Published: December 31, 1969
Updated: December 31, 1969
Lesson Info
Taking a movable F7 chord, you can derive each of the 'big six' essential chords. 7, maj7, m7, m7b5, dim7, and aug7.
Lessons Link
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- Go to full lesson: Core Chords - Creating the Big Six from F7, 2nd Voicing
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Core Chords - Creating the Big Six from F7, 3rd Voicing
Lesson Code: UL42c
Published: December 31, 1969
Updated: December 31, 1969
Lesson Info
Taking a movable F7 chord, you can derive each of the “big six” essential chords. 7, maj7, m7, m7b5, dim7, and aug7.
Lessons Link
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- Go to full lesson: Core Chords - Creating the Big Six from F7, 3rd Voicing
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Core Chords - Creating the Big Six from F7, 4th Voicing
Lesson Code: UL42d
Published: December 31, 1969
Updated: December 31, 1969
Lesson Info
Taking a movable F7 chord, you can derive each of the “big six” essential chords. maj7, m7, m7b5, dim7, and aug7.
Lessons Link
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- Go to full lesson: Core Chords - Creating the Big Six from F7, 4th Voicing
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Core Chords - The Big Six - Building a Solid Chord Foundation
Lesson Code: UL42
Published: December 31, 1969
Updated: December 31, 1969
Lesson Info
Core Chords is a series of lessons for building your 4-part chords. These chords commonly called jazz chords, are really just 4-part chords used in a wide range of musical styles.
The Big Six chords include: Seventh 7, Major Seventh maj7, Minor Seventh m7, Half Diminished Seventh or Minor Seven Flat Five diminished 7 (m7b5), Diminished Seventh o7 and Augmented Seventh +7. These six chords form a core set of chords.
Lessons Link
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- Go to full lesson: Core Chords - The Big Six - Building a Solid Chord Foundation
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Creating Introductions and Turnarounds for Ukulele
Lesson Code: UL01
Published: December 31, 1969
Updated: December 31, 1969
Lesson Info
Introductions are a composed or improvised piece of music that introduces - sets the stage for - a song or composition. Introductions, or intro for short, are used in all types of music. In this lesson, the focus is on introductions in contemporary music.
Intros can be various lengths but are typically four measures long. They are mainly harmonic in nature, using chords without a melody. Single notes and intervals can be added for melodic color.
Lessons Link
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Diminished Scale for Ukulele - C Tuning
Lesson Code: UL25b
Published: December 31, 1969
Updated: December 31, 1969
Lesson Info
The Diminished scale is a symmetrical scale with a repeating pattern of whole steps and half steps. You only need to learn the Diminished scale in three keys to cover all 15 keys.
Lessons Link
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Lesson Info
Wikipedia defines Jazz as a musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions. The style's West African pedigree is evident in its use of blue notes, improvisation, polyrhythms, syncopation, and the swung note.
At a minimum to explore jazz or contemporary music on a ukulele you need a core set of chords and scales. It's this foundation or core that you can build on.
This lesson contains links and resources for developing as a jazz ukulele player. And, a great overview of what is needed as far as chords, scale and the essential elements that are needed to explore jazz on a ukulele.
Lessons Link
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- Go to full lesson: Exploring Jazz Ukulele
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Lesson Info
A Chord can have alternate names based on how it is being used. A chord's function is an important determining factor in naming a chord. So unless you know the harmonic function you might not be able to accurately name it.
Lessons Link
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- Go to full lesson: Naming Chords on Ukulele
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Practice Cycles and Sequences
Lesson Code: UL18
Published: December 31, 1969
Updated: December 31, 1969
Lesson Info
Sequences and cycles for practicing scales, intervals, melodic sequences and arpeggios.
These sequences also help in learning where any interval is of a given note, the chord tones of chords and aide in memorizing scales.
Lessons Link
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- Go to full lesson: Practice Cycles and Sequences
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Six Essential Scales for Ukulele
Lesson Code: UL04
Published: December 31, 1969
Updated: December 31, 1969
Lesson Info
The six essential scale are: Blues, Major Pentatonic, Mixolydian, Dorian, Aeolian, and Ionian.
There are two scales that can be the memorized and all other essential scales referenced from these two. These two scales are the Major and Natural Minor scales. The Major and Natural Minor scales are traditional scales and common scales in all forms of contemporary music. This lesson explores the Major and Natural Minor scales and their derivations.
From these two scales the Blues, Major Pentatonic, Mixolydiand and Dorian scale can be created.
Lessons Link
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- Go to full lesson: Six Essential Scales for Ukulele
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Lesson Info
The Major Scale or Ionian scale is a diatonic scale, made up of seven distinct notes, plus an eighth which duplicates the first one octave higher. In solfege these notes correspond to the syllables "Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti/Si, (Do)", the "Do" in the parenthesis at the end being the octave of the root.
The simplest major scale to write or play on the piano is C major, the only major scale that does not require sharps or flats. The C major scale uses only the white keys on the piano keyboard.
Lessons Link
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- Go to full lesson: The Major Scale
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Lesson Info
Transposition is the process of moving note, chord, scale or any musicial passage from one key to another key. All music can be transposed, from a single note to a complex musicial score. This lesson deals with transposing chords. This lessons covers transposing chords.
With the supplied ukulele fingerboard chart and knowing thenames of any chord. You can tranpose a chords to different keys.
Lessons Link
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- Go to full lesson: Transposing Chords
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Lesson Info
Upper Partials or extensions are the 9th, 11th, and 13ths of a chord. The 9, 11 and 13 can be altered chord tones depending on chord type: examples b9, #9, #11, b13.
Lessons Link
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- Go to full lesson: Upper Partial Chord Tones
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What is the different between a Scale and a Mode?
Lesson Code: UL110
Published: December 31, 1969
Updated: December 31, 1969
Lesson Info
A scale and mode can contain exactly the same notes. So when it is a scale and when is it a mode?
This lesson explores the content that determine when a scale is a mode.
Lessons Link
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- Go to full lesson: What is the different between a Scale and a Mode?
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Whole Tone Scale for Ukulele - C Tuning
Lesson Code: UL25
Published: December 31, 1969
Updated: December 31, 1969
Lesson Info
The Whole Tone scale is a symmetrical scale with an equal distance been each note or scale degree. Each scale degree is a whole step from the previous. You only need two whole tone scales to cover all keys.
Lessons Link
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- Go to full lesson: Whole Tone Scale for Ukulele - C Tuning
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Hard Copy Book: $9.95
PDF Download: $4.95
Whether your interest is in Blues, Rock, Jazz, Country or somewhere in between QuickStart Scale Fingerings for Ukulele is a valuable addition to your musical library.
QuickStart Scale Fingerings for Ukulele, Volume I, C Tuning
Learn to create exciting solos in a variety of contemporary styles!
Scales are used to improvise, create melodies and riffs. With a broad knowledge of the essential scales that are used in contemporary music and a mastery of the ukulele's fingerboard and fingering principles you're well on your way.
Master these fingerings and unlock your potential as a ukulele player!
Available for Standard Soprano, Concert and Tenor ukuleles tuned to (G C E A) Key of "C" tuning and Tenor and Baritone ukuleles tuned to (D G B E) Key of "G" tuning.
QUICKSTART - Scale Fingerings for Ukulele is a concise, well organized book ideal for any ukulele player beginning to explore improvisation. Scale Fingerings for Ukulele keeps a sharp focus on six critical scales, their fingerings and their related chords. All material is covered in every key.
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