UkuleleMag.com

Fretboard Domination A guide to four basic moveable dominant chords

BY ALEC “CHEEF” POLETSKY

UkuleleMag.com

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1. The D7 Shape For this shape, the root can be found on the C string. The third is on the E string, the fifth on the G, and the lowered seventh on the A. Doing this chord shape on the first fret will make a Db7, on the third fret an Eb7 chord, and so on.

2. The B7 Shape The root of this chord voicing is on the A string, the third is on the C, the fifth on the E, and the lowered or flat seventh is on the G. Playing this voicing on the third fret makes a C7 chord, on the first fret makes a Bb7, on the fourth fret a Db7, and on the fifth fret a D7.

3. The F7 ShapeThis shape is voiced with the root note on the E string, the third on the G, the fifth on the A string, and the flat or lowered sev-enth on the C string. If you move this chord up one fret, it will be a Gb7; if you played it on the third fret it would be a G7.

Chord shapes that you can move up and down the fingerboard can expand your

tonal palette. In this lesson, we’re going to look at moveable dominant 7 chords. (Pre-vious lessons have examined moveable minor and major chord shapes.) This les-son starts with a bit of music theory, but stick with it and try to master these basic chord shapes—you’ll be rewarded with an expanded range of tones.

UsageA dominant chord is rarely written as “dominant” (for example, C dominant 7 or F dom 7). Instead, you’ll see it notated as a chord name followed by a number (such as C7, D11, or E13). To keep things simple, I’ll discuss only the basic dominant-chord voicings, or “seven” chords.

Dominant chords are often used as “turnaround” chords, usually appearing right before the major tonic chord (for ex-ample, in the key of C, you would have a G7 followed by a C major). A good example of this is the dominant chord played over the last line of “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” in the lyric “fleece was white as snow.” In the key of C, the tune uses a G7 for “fleece was white as . . .” and resolving on a C major over the word “snow.” How Dominant Chords Are BuiltDominants are built using four notes from the major scale. One way to look at this is to take the starting note of the major scale, often called the first (do), and com-bine it with the third (mi), the fifth (sol), and the lowered seventh (ti) note. Mean-ing, if the seventh note is a B, you will use the note that comes right before it, or one fret lower, the Bb. Therefore, the formula for a dominant seven chord is 1, 3, 5, b7.

The C7 chord would be built as C-E-G-Bb.

That may seem a bit confusing, so in the following examples, I’ve supplied you with four completely moveable voicings for a seven or dominant chord. All you have to know are the names of the strings, the root note (the letter name of chord—for example, the D in D7 or G in G7), and the musical alphabet: A, A#/Bb, B, C, C#/Db, D, D#/Eb, E, F, F#/Gb, G, G#/Ab.

FRETBOARD DOMINATION

4. The A7 Shape This shape is voiced with the root on the G string, the third on the A, the fifth on the C, and the lowered seventh on E string. Playing this chord on the third fret will yield a Bb7, on the fourth fret a B7 chord, and on the sixth fret a Db7.

And there you have it: Four moveable dominant chord voicings that will make playing the ukulele a lot easier. Applying these last three lessons on moveable uku-lele chords should open you up to a whole new world of song selections, regardless of what key they may be in.

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