Dividing the fretboard into zones? (Like shifting positions on a violin)

[ploverwing]

My suggestion is to take a break from playing single note melodies.

Focus on playing chords in first position. Then chords in other positions up the neck.

This will let your subconscious remap to where the notes are on the ukulele fretboard.

I guess I will have to spend more time with this. I found that I have learned more of the fretboard with single note melodies, thus far, than chords. To me, chords are shapes, and I don't think of the notes within (yup, I know I totally should - was like that with piano, too), so this is a completely different thing that I have to work on, because it's absolutely alien (to me). Thanks a lot for your thorough and thoughtful suggestions in this thread.

 

[greenfrog]

More stuff:
D. Baritone tuning vs standard ukulele tuning.
E. Switching from violin single note melodies frameworks to baritone ukulele chordal frameworks
F. Exploring the elephant
G. Strategies, tactics, mechanics
H. This semester, next semester, future semesters

Wow!! Thank you for this extremely helpful roadmap of ways forward with this, and all the inspiring videos!!!

My baritone ukulele arrived today! Happy to say I remembered seven chords (G, C, D, D7, A, am, em) from previous attempts at learning, so was able to have some fun this evening getting re-acquainted. I think I see at least two potential I/IV/V combinations in that list, although I only realized the second one just now as I wrote down the chords!

Looking forward to exploring the different approaches and learning more!

 

[greenfrog]

To me, chords are shapes, and I don't think of the notes within (yup, I know I totally should - was like that with piano, too)

Can you think about where the main note that gives the chord its name is located in the chord?

That’s the way my brain works on piano - I can’t sit there and think “D - F# - A” but I am at least aware which note of the chord I would play if I could only play one, which makes it a little easier moving between note names and chords.

I’m not there right now on the ukulele, but I’m suddenly remembering a piano exercise I feel like I should try. It involved inversions and was something like “play the root/name note, play three notes from low to high (or high to low on the way down), play the root/name note again, then move to the next inversion”. There was more of the exercise than that, it cycled through major and minor each octave and could change keys once you had gone up a few octaves and worked your way back down, but that’s as much as I can remember right now…

 

[Jan D]

I guess I will have to spend more time with this. I found that I have learned more of the fretboard with single note melodies, thus far, than chords. To me, chords are shapes, and I don't think of the notes within (yup, I know I totally should - was like that with piano, too), so this is a completely different thing that I have to work on, because it's absolutely alien (to me). Thanks a lot for your thorough and thoughtful suggestions in this thread.

Ploverwing, don’t give up on single note melodies. When I first started playing ukulele, I learned a whole bunch of chords up and down the neck. Did I know which individual notes comprised each of those chords? Absolutely! Did I pay attention to where all of the individual notes were located on the fretboard each time I strummed a chord? Nope. Because, like you, I think of chords as shapes. And if they are shapes, then I don’t need to know where the individual notes of a chord are actually located ... knowing the shape gets me there faster. It wasn’t until I started playing single note melodies that I became motivated to learn the location of individual notes. I started with the “neighborhood” I was already familiar with - near the nut. Then, when I found myself playing melody notes on the “A” string up around the 10th and 12th fret, I realized that I needed to explore some new ”neighborhoods” nearby so that I didn’t have to move my fingers so far to play the next notes. The more melodies I played, the more familiar I became with new locations of various notes. Frequency and repetition (and the occasional scale playing) eventually embedded the information in my brain.

I’m not suggesting you ignore the alternate methods that others have articulated in this thread. There are many different ways to learn something, and you’ll never know if something doesn’t work for you unless you try it. But you indicated some success with the single note melody method, so I wanted to encourage you to stick with it - along with whatever other methods you decide to explore.

 

[ploverwing]

I mostly used linear C tuning for this practice, so I could match the lowest fiddle notes, and so that I'd be forced to use the 4th string when the melody dipped down. In re-entrant tuning, 4th string notes duplicate pitches on the 1st and 2nd strings in the same position, so you have to make an effort to include the 4th string in your practice.

I've been practicing some pieces written for linear on my reentrant, and that's been really interesting: I hear in my head both versions and explore the differences between the quality of the pieces when played on the different tunings.

I’m not suggesting you ignore the alternate methods that others have articulated in this thread. There are many different ways to learn something, and you’ll never know if something doesn’t work for you unless you try it. But you indicated some success with the single note melody method, so I wanted to encourage you to stick with it - along with whatever other methods you decide to explore.

Thanks Jan. Personally, I prefer single note melodies so I'm more likely to play them than working on chord melodies anyway. You are right, though, there are many ways to learn and it's valuable to try things that I'm not comfortable with/initially interested in. I really appreciate the UU community, there are so many knowledgeable people here, and it's so good to connect with other noobs, too, to share our experiences.