Learn to play ukulele : Ska/Reggae for the Uke: Barre chords and transposition

*THIS IS NOT A LESSON ON HOW TO PLAY SKA OR REGGAE*

If you want to learn to play ska or reggae, here are grest videos:

Miles Ramsay Ska Lesson

Brad Bordessa Reggae Lesson

I've been a huge fan of playing ska/reggae on the uke ever since I picked it up. But I always ran into trouble when it came to playing songs I love: Almost all of them have open chords! I could've learn how to mute using my fretting hand's pinky, but that would be to easy. So, I set out to find a way to play barred chord versions of many songs I love. Eventually, I came up with two methods to solving this problem:

1. Using higher chords on the fret board

2. transposition of chords.

1. So, How do you play open chords in barre formtations?

Sadly, most Chord charts and books (that I've seen) do not show the barre chord formation of many chords, so I will put a chart here now for you to use. Some of these everyone knows already, but others are hard to come by unless you know music theory. Either way, here are some chords in barre form:

Major Chords:

A Chord:

A - - - 4 - -

E - - - - 5 -

G - - - 4 - -

C - - - - - 6

C Chord:

A - - 3 - -

E - - 3 - -

G - - - 4 -

C - - - - 5

D Chord:

A - - - - 5 - -

E - - - - 5 - -

G - - - - - 6 -

C - - - - - - 7

E Chord:

A - 2 - -

E - - - 4

G - - - 4

C - - - 4

F Chord:

A - - 3 - -

E - - - - 5

G - - - - 5

C - - - - 5

G chord:

A - 2 - -

E - - 3 -

G - 2 - -

C - - - 4

*I left out B, Bb and other major-b chords due to the fact that they are naturally barre chords*

Minor Chords:

Cm Chord:

A - - 3 -

E - - 3 -

G - - 3 -

C - - - - 5

Dm Chord:

A - - - - 5 - -

E - - - - 5 - -

G - - - - 5 - -

C - - - - - - 7

Em Chord:

A - 2 - -

E - - 3 -

G - - - 4

C - - - 4

Fm Chord:

A - - 3 - -

E - - - 4 -

G - - - - 5

C - - - - 5

Gm Chord:

A - - - - 5

E - - 3 - -

G - 2 - - -

C - - 3 - -

*Left out Bbm, Bm, and other minor-b chords because they're naturally closed chords*

**Left out Am, don't know it yet XD**

I will update this list later when I'm not to lazy, but this should get you started.

2: I don't want to learn new chord formations, That's boring. Is there another way?

If you don't want to learn new formations, your best bet is to do what I did when I began playing Reggae: Transpose everything you play up two frets. This will make you have to sing in a different key, and can cause problems if you're playing with other people, but it still makes things easier

how to do it:

So you want to play what I got by sublime, right? easy song, goes D chord to G chord.

but wait! I wanna do it reggae style!

So, instead of playing D normally (A string open, E string 2cnd fret, C string 2cnd Fret, G string 2cnd fret) pull that puppy up a full step by using A string 2cnd fret, E string 4th fret, C string 4th fret, G string 4th fret (an E chord). Do the same with G, just bring the whole formation up two frets (will be the A barre chord formation)

easy, right?

If you want to keep evertyhing in key (so you can play with friends) just tune your ukulele down a full step (F,A#,D,G) and use this method

Hope this helps! good luck!

AND LET ME KNOW IF I NEED TO ADD OR EDIT ANYTHING!

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