And an opportunity to explore the ukulele fretboard. It is a four string instrument the baritone version (which I have) of which is tuned like the highest four string of a guitar. So there is one major adjustment - to the lack of the two base strings I have discovered one can get some good harmonic progression and a modicum of bass using “double stops”.
Mandolin is not an easy instrument on which to strum chords - so one popular approach is to play two adjacent strings (any of the three pairs will do but the lower ones work better) thus picking out two of the (at least three) notes in the chord. In major chord (1+3+5) this would be 1+5 or 1+3 or 3+5. Individually the chords definitely sound shallower – and more tonally ambiguous – than if all three notes are played. But double stops work because they sound good in a progression – both for establishing the harmony and creating diverse melodic lines especially in the base.
Let us start with the ubiquitous one-five-four (1-5-4)progression. These are all major chords. There are three (easy) ways to finger a major chord (some may be rather high up the neck) on the ukulele (and guitar) and there are three double stops (pairs of adjacent strings) for those three fingerings so theoretically one has nine double stops available for each chord.
Starting with the one chord find anyone of its nine double stop manifestations. One and five share the fifth so there is just one finger to change in the 1-5 progression. Four is just a two fret slide down from five in the 5-4 progression.
With this basic framework of knowledge I am moving ahead on the following explorations.
1. Figure out all nine of the one-five-four double stop progressions. Note the melodic lines of each of the two voices.
2. Extend the progression – One-Five-Four-Five, One-Five-Four-Four-Five, One-Five-One-Five. Western music – blues, rock, folk – all use varieties of this basic progression.
3. Look for ways to change double stops on the same chord. This is one way to enhance the melodic line of the two voices.
4. Check out the the closely related and even more ubiquitous One-Four-Five progression.
