Fresh Jams! How to Keep the Same Old Songs from Getting Stale on Ukulele

BY SARAH MAISEL | FROM THE SUMMER 2024 ISSUE OF UKULELE

When I used to go to a weekly group called the Moonlight Beach Ukulele Strummers at a pizza restaurant in Encinitas, California, I had so much fun, and early on it was a great way to learn so many new songs. But we would usually play a lot of the same tunes week after week, in the same keys, and eventually it started to get less exciting. 

If you find yourself in a similar position, this lesson will show you some ideas to help keep things interesting, allow you to practice things you’ve been learning in the group setting, and make your jam even more fun.

Many of the concepts here may not be new to you, but this will give you a template to improve your playing and enhance the sound of your group at the same time. You’ll notice that I reference past Ukulele magazine lessons, just to give you even more resources to pull from for your sessions.

Chord Inversions

I can’t stress this enough: If you want to get past playing the bottom three frets, start adding different voicings to your jam. This is quite easy to do, so long as you take it one chord at a time. It’s vitally important you remember to take things slowly here. Start with C major, using five different shapes, as shown in Example 1. Note that some of the voicings use the open fourth string, which might sound better in high-G tuning.

Play the rest of the chords where you know them, to ensure you can make it through the song without getting too frustrated. Once you are feeling confident going to your new C chord voicing, then you can start adding in another chord the following week, and then another, until you can play a song or two in different positions on the instrument. You’ll be surprised at how quickly you’ll be able to use these new chords if you practice them with your group every week.

Passing Chords

It’s fun to move between chords to give the song movement. I wrote about this in an article in the Summer 2023 issue of Ukulele, using an exercise I call chord-melody scales. It shows different inversions of one chord linking all of them together moving up the neck. 

You don’t need to take it that far, however; you could do something a little simpler during a song, like linking just two chord inversions, as shown with G7 (G B D F) in Example 2.
If you are stuck on G7 for four beats or more, you can use this trick to pass through to the next position. The G7sus4 (G C D F) is only played for a short time, but it contains a note—the suspended fourth (C) on the first string—that helps lead you to the next chord. 

You can use either of the last two G7 chords, but as before, the penultimate shape with the open string sounds best with a high G. 

Moving on to an F major chord (F A C), Example 3 helps create movement and gives you new voicings to try out. Note that in the first shape, your basic open F, there are two As, on strings 1 and 4, but in the second shape, the note C is doubled on strings 1 and 3.

Chord Substitutions 

Using chord substitutions is something I’ve taught extensively—see my lesson in the Summer 2018 issue of the magazine. An easy way to delve into substitution is to change a major triad (1 3 5, or C E G for C) to a major sixth (1 3 5 6/C E G A) or major seventh chord (1 3 5 7/C E G B). 

Start with a C major chord, as shown in Example 4. Just remove your third finger to play C6 (played all on the open strings) or move that finger down one fret for Cmaj7. Listen to each of these and really focus on the chord quality. Next time a C chord is listed in a song, try using one of these instead. In doing so, you are adding harmonic color, since these chords include an extra note that is not found in a C major triad. Now repeat the exercise, this time replacing a D minor triad (1 b3 5, or D F A for Dm) with a minor seventh (1 b3 5 b7/D F A C) or a minor sixth chord (1 b3 5 6/D F A B), as depicted in Example 5. 

The last substitution we will try is swapping out a dominant ninth chord (1 3 5 b9 or G B D F A for G9) for a dominant seventh (1 3 5 b7/G B D F), as shown in Example 6. Because the ukulele has just four strings, a typical ninth chord voicing on the ukulele omits the root. Take the first two shapes, for instance. If your neighbor is playing an open G7 (bottom string to top: G D F B) while you play the G9 (A D F B), together you are creating a larger and more textured chord. 

You’ll also notice with these substitutions that some chords look the same but have different names. You might think, Why can’t I call this chord the same name all the time? It has to do with context—the key you are in and which chord comes before and after it will give the chord its name in a given situation.

Consider these substitutions as your first round of options. There are many more viable chords out there to swap out, but these are easy to do and generally sound pleasant in a group setting.

Hammer-ons and Pull-offs

Getting hammer-ons and pull-offs under your hands is definitely a game changer, especially when playing in groups. My good friend Daniel Ward wrote a lesson on this for the Fall 2020 issue. You can be strumming away on chords and find that if you just start adding in fingers at the right time, you can get some pretty cool sounds from your instrument. Example 7, for instance, involves a series of pull-offs adjacent to an open C chord. Moving to an open G, Example 8 surrounds the chord with pull-offs, followed by a hammer-on, in the manner of James Taylor on guitar. 

Many of these ideas are things that have been referenced in previous Ukulele articles. Utilizing them will help you play to your full potential. If you can look at your jam as an opportunity to practice new techniques and ideas, you’ll be surprised how fun and fresh it will feel again.