Ukulele versions

neczli

Hello, everyone in the community. I'm trying to put together a gypsy jazz repertoire I can play on a tenor ukulele (Low G). Do you have any tips? And if so, any resources where I could find them?

Buco

For a while I played a concert uke quite a bit. Learn songs, any song in the repertoire can be played on the uke. I'm not sure what other tips or resources did you mean?

B25Gib

Ukulele jazz chords playing GJ need careful choice of each chord position choices to harmonize with the head/vocal melody voice and still rhythm wise drive the chord progression. I refer to this excellent source -

Michelle Kiba's "Pa Mele O Hokulea Ukulele Academy" STUDENT UKULELE CHORD CHART

"gcea" Standard Tuning"

spatzo

Personally on the Tenor Ukulele I play the chords on the three low strings only (Low G, C, E) and not fretting on the first string. Then it's like playing on strings 4-3-2 on the guitar from the 5th fretted fret (G C E)

spatzo

The advantage of such method is to use as few fingers as possible three or two only and to be able to fret the chord as quickly as needed. A simple position is also easy to memorize. But also and above all the sound is kept more compact and discrete not too high-pitched. You must back-up the soloist and not disturb him or invade him.

Let's have a closer look to the matter!

Here's an example on Django Reinhardt's composition DAPHNE (A section): Uke tuning Low G C E A - One bar = 2 chords

spatzo

And in case it's too hard to begin with, here's a simplified version that also works very well to play on choruses, same thing = 2 chords = 1 bar

spatzo

I think you can easily find the chords of Daphné's bridge in Eb. (if you have problems just ask)

As you can see chords must be kept as simple as possible and the chart has to be simplified also (as Django always did) but you must respect the harmony of the tune. For example a I - VI - II - V progression is nothing else harmonically speaking that a I - V progression. Many simple chord progressions have been "dressed" by the musicians by adding passing chords or intercalar chord sequences in order to sustain the interest or to fit a special arrangement but by doing so they might sometimes havecomplicated the whole and the chart might have now a weird look. So those sequences must be analysed and "undressed" first and then you can embellish the remaining simplified harmony (only when and if needed).

Chords can be sometimes used rootless as here A9 or D7 for example. That's not a problem: in fact once established that we are in D major when D7 arrives it's more important to hear the note C (7th) that leads to the third of the following resolving major chord G than merely the D note that simply "names" the chord.

Now you might easily be able to play other tunes such as "Coquette" for example...the only missing chord being E9. Have a try also on "Confessin'" (hint: in that case D7#5 is identical to Ab9).

By the way Coquette is very simple, here's Django's true version:

(A) => [D] [%] [A9] [%] [A9] [%] [D] [A7]

(A) => [D] [%] [A9] [%] [A9] [%] [D] [%]

(B) => [D9] [%] [G] [%] [E9] [%] [A9] [%]

(A) => [D] [%] [A9] [%] [A9] [%] [D] [(A7)]

And Confessin' ????

Have fun!

Buco

Wow this is fantastic @spatzo , thank you. I'll dust off my uke. For a while I've gotten very good with uke voicings but it's been some years. I included J'attendrai to play on the uke live with my band.

When choosing appropriate voicings, I just went with sounds good to me. Sometimes looking up variations and picking what I like, sometimes just building a chord myself pbased on what I know from the guitar and what I want to hear on uke.

Which is an advantage for guitarists learning the uke, you're using the same shapes you just need to transpose the names. Since uke is using same tuning formula, a fourth down. So when you play on uke what is an open D voicing on guitar, it's G on uke. So everything you already know carries over you just need to expand the voicings knowledge and train your brain to think differently. Which was confusing at first and I had to constantly translate but after a while I didn't have to. My brain would just switch back and forth.

Another advantage is that that are many uke voicings that aren't commonly used on the guitar so you can transfer those and try them out on the guitar.

spatzo

That's exactly what I have done, searching the sound that works and considering we have only three notes...so some decisions and choices must be made and that's pretty interesting!

Let's see now Confessin' a simple version (But of course waiting for your versions and ideas!). I base all the voicings on Django's exact versions with the Hot Club de France... You can try to play along with Django's records and you will see it fits perfectly what they do... Strum must be very lite but convincing as Ukulele has really a strong voice. Always the same pattern: two chords one bar( four beats)

spatzo

We go on with A2 - of course A1 is also A3... The song structure being AABA

spatzo

And last but not least B of course... I kept the thing simple but it can easily be "dressed" up...

Enjoy! (But do not forget the last A played as A1). I think that playing the same song both on guitar and Ukulele is really complementary and gives a key on how to play freely then on guitar...It can also be interesting to hear for example what Erroll Garner does with his left hand on piano on those standards, "1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4" and how he moves the thing... An hint: => of course here it can be interesting to go down from C chromatically to Bb7 to end on A9...