Playing in a band reading charts, starting together, staying out of the way

A chord chart is the plan of a song: chords and bars, no notes. Each box between two vertical lines | is one bar. Two chords in one box share the bar, half each. A % or a slash means “play the previous bar again”. Letters like V, C and B name the sections (verse, chorus, bridge).

V   | G | G | C | D |
C   | G D | Em C | G D | C % |

Working players write the same chart in numbers (the Nashville system) so that a change of key needs no rewriting. The number is the chord’s place in the key, as on Chords in a key. In G, G is 1, C is 4, D is 5, Em is 6m.

1. Find the key of the song. List its chords and find the row of the key table that contains all of them. (Method on Find the key of a song.)
2. Write each chord as its number: G C D Em → 1 4 5 6m. Minor chords keep an m.
3. The verse above is now | 1 | 1 | 4 | 5 |. The chorus is | 1 5 | 6m 4 | 1 5 | 4 % |.
4. To play it in another key, write the chord for each number from that key’s row of the table. In D: 1 = D, 4 = G, 5 = A, 6m = Bm. In A: 1 = A, 4 = D, 5 = E, 6m = F♯m.
5. Check yourself: play the verse in G, in D and in A without looking at the letter version. If you need a capo to keep the shapes you know, see Transpose with a capo.

Do this to three songs from Play along and you will be able to follow a chart someone hands you ten seconds before the song.

A band starts together because one player counts and everyone else plays the next beat 1. The count must be at the speed of the song, because it tells everyone the tempo before a note is played.

1. Decide the tempo before you count, not while you are counting. Hear the first bar of the song in your head and tap it on your knee for four beats.
2. Count one bar aloud, evenly, 1 2 3 4, loud enough for everyone.
3. On the next 1 everyone plays. Nobody plays the “4” of the count as a note.
4. Practise alone: set the practice bar to 90 BPM, listen to a few clicks, turn the click off, count one bar aloud at that speed, and play four bars. Turn the click back on and see whether you were with it. Do this ten times and write down whether your counts run fast or slow.
5. Record your count and the first four bars. On the recording, the count and the first bar should be evenly spaced, with no hurry between the 4 and the 1.

A song gets bigger because the player plays it bigger, not because the chords change. You have five levers. Use them in this order, one at a time:

1. Where you strum. Over the end of the fingerboard the sound is soft and round. Nearer the bridge it is thinner and brighter, and carries further.
2. How hard you strum. Brush lightly with the pad of the finger or the thumb, or dig in with the nail.
3. Mute. Resting the side of the strumming hand on the strings after each stroke makes it small; lifting it makes it open. The chunk on 2 and 4 is on Strumming.
4. How busy the pattern is. Quarters are quieter than eighths, and eighths quieter than sixteenths.
5. How big the arm moves. A bigger swing makes a bigger, more open sound.

Try it on G D Em C, two beats per chord, eight bars per section. Play each section, record all three, and compare.

Section	Where	Pattern	Attack and mute
Verse	Over the fingerboard	Quarters, down only	Light, muted
Pre-chorus	Over the soundhole	Eighths, D–DU–UDU	Medium, mute lifted
Chorus	Toward the bridge	Eighths, accents on 2 and 4	Hard, open, let the chords ring
Bridge or last verse	Over the fingerboard	Quarters	Light again, for contrast

The test: on the recording the three sections must sound clearly different in volume. Most players find that what felt like a big difference as they played is barely audible. If so, exaggerate until the difference is obvious on the recording.

The rule: when someone else has a part, you play less. A singer, a lead instrument and a bass are all easier to hear when the ukulele steps back, and a ukulele that fills every gap makes all of them harder to follow.

You can practise this with the backing band tool. It plays drums, bass and the rest of the band and leaves the ukulele out for you.

1. Open the link, press play, and strum one chord on beat 1 of each bar for four bars. Listen to how the bass and drums fill the bar. That is how little a rhythm part needs.
2. Next play beats 1 and 3, then the full D–DU–UDU pattern.
3. At each step listen for the bass line. When you can no longer hear its notes, your ukulele is covering it. Go back one step, or play on the top two strings only.
4. Where there is a vocal, play quieter and simpler under it. When the singer holds a long note or stops at the end of a line, you may play a little more: a fuller strum, or a short fill.

Two ukuleles playing the same part in the same place sound like one blurry ukulele. Make them different in register (high and low) or in rhythm (long and short), and the sound gets bigger.

Method 1 · Same chords, different place on the neck

1. Ukulele 1 plays the open chords of C G Am F (I V vi IV in C).
2. Ukulele 2 puts a capo on fret 5 and plays G D Em C shapes. With the capo on 5, G sounds as C, D as G, Em as Am and C as F, so Ukulele 2 plays exactly the same four chords as Ukulele 1, but voiced higher up the neck, where it is thinner and brighter.
3. Play the same pattern together. One ukulele now fills the lower register and one the higher, and the sound is wide without being loud.

Method 2 · Same chords, different rhythm

1. Ukulele 1 plays steady down-strokes on every beat, slightly muted.
2. Ukulele 2 plays only the & up-strokes, short and light, on the two strings nearest the floor (the skank from the Rhythm room’s Off the beat).
3. Neither ukulele plays on the other’s moment, so the two together make a groove neither could alone.

With no one to play with, record Ukulele 1, then play Ukulele 2 against it. The recording page shows how.

A ukulele is one of the quietest things in a band, and a sound that is lovely alone can disappear next to a drum kit. Set it up with these steps.

1. If your ukulele has a pickup, plug in and start with the amp’s bass, middle and treble at noon and the volume low. If it has none, a small clip-on microphone or a microphone on a stand does the same job.
2. Strum a chord hard. You should hear each of the four strings. If the sound is boomy, turn the bass down. A ukulele has little to say below 200 Hz anyway, and the bass guitar and kick drum already cover that part.
3. If you are buried, ask the drummer for lighter sticks or brushes. That works better than strumming harder, which only makes you sharp and late.
4. Set the volume by listening to the others. You should hear the singer clearly, and the kick drum. If you cannot, you are too loud. If you cannot hear yourself at all, point the amp at your head instead of turning up.

Most songs fall apart at the end because nobody agreed on it. Settle these before you play:

1. How many times through? Write it on the chart: “V C V C C”.
2. How does it end? The three common ways are a hit on 1 (everybody plays the last chord together on beat 1 of the final bar and lets it ring), a ritard (everyone slows on the last bar), or a tag (repeat the last line three times, then hit on 1).
3. Who cues it? Choose one player, usually the singer or the drummer, and one signal: a nod, or a hand held up with four fingers meaning “one bar left”.

Practise alone: play the chorus with the click, play four bars, and finish with a hit on 1 that rings for exactly one bar. Record it. The last chord should start on the click and stop cleanly.

Move on when all of these are true:

• You can turn a four-chord chart into numbers and play it in three keys.
• You can count a band in at a tempo you chose, with no click, and be within a few BPM.
• A recording of your verse and chorus shows a clear difference in volume.
• You can play a part with only beats 1 and 3 and still hold the song together.