Chord Grids and Neck Charts

Update

I didn't realize how popular this post would be.  As a result, I'd like to offer everyone a blank chord chart and neck chart for helping me get traffic to the site.  Have at it!



/End Update 



During our monthly jam session and workshop for the North Kansas City Ukesters (NUkesters), a question came up that caught me off guard.  Not because I didn't know the answer, but because I didn't think to explain it.

I showed a neck chart with the G min pentatonic scale on it and it met with blank stares.  Little did I know that neck charts, which are second nature to me now, were completely foreign to some of my students.  Luckily, a quick explanation and we were back on our way.

I felt a little bad about it during the lesson, because this fundamental slipped past.  As an instructor, I should have made sure that everyone was on the same page before moving forward.  Lesson learned!

With that experience, I thought it best to do a short lesson on two methods of showing information on a the neck of ukuleles and guitars: Chord Grids and Neck Charts.

Chord Grids

When we learn new chords, we usually are given them in what are know as chord grids.  These are vertical representations of the instrument's neck showing only a few frets a time.

In the example here, we see the "C" major chord.  If you imagine that the headstock (the part at the top with the tuners) of the instrument is on top and the body is on bottom, then the strings would read (left to right) G, C, E, A.  We have dots representing where you put fingers.  In this case, a black, filled in dot represents a finger on the A string at the third fret.  At the very top, below the "C", we see three open dots over the G, C, and E strings. This indicates that we are playing these strings in the open position (no fingers).

Our second example is an A#m chord. Note that the top line is no longer thicker than the others.  That is because in the C major chord above that thicker line indicates the nut of the fret board (where the strings rest after they leave the tuners).  The nut is considered open.

Here, the shape of the chord happens so far up the neck that in order to keep the diagram clean, we only show the few parts where the shape is located.  There is a small "6" indicated next to the dot on the G string which indicates to us that this string is to be fingered at the 6th fret.  Using that as a guide, we can see that the C string is fingered at the 5th fret, the E string at the 6th, and the A string at the 4th.

If we were looking at this for a guitar, it would be exactly the same.  Left to right we move low to high and it would be six strings at E, A, D, G, B, and E.

It is also important to note that there are many, many variations on the basic theme of chord grids.  In some cases, the individual notes of each chord will be indicated at the bottom underneath their corresponding string.  In other cases, there will be numbers on the dots either to indicate which finger to use to press the chord or (a little rarer) to indicate which degree of the scale/chord that each note is.

Neck Charts

The next diagram that is very useful for guitar and ukulele players is the neck chart.  These are very similar to chord grids with one, very important difference: with neck charts, you can put more than one fingering on each string. Another, less important but common difference, is that most neck charts are shown horizontal (though sometimes they are vertical too).

Neck charts are used primarily to indicate scales or fingering shapes rather than chords.  By putting all of the possible fingerings on one chart, this allows you to visualize the shape for a scale or fingering in relation to the rest of the shape/fingering.

In the example (G min Blues Box #4) we see a neck on its side with the headstock being to the left and the body to the right.  This would mean that the G string is on bottom, then the C, then the E, and then A on top.  When represented on their side, they are almost always shown with the highest string on top and then descending down.

In some cases, you will see smaller neck charts on containing a small portion of the neck, maybe four or five frets, to show the shape.  This can be useful to help visualize the chord outside of the key you are in since almost all shapes on neck charts and chord grids can be transposed.

Conclusion

So there you have it!  Two of the most useful diagrams for ukulele and guitar explained.  In your own practice and method you can use these grids to help keep notes of shapes you learn (chord grids) and scales you know (neck charts).

~Danny