These minimalist chord shapes form the basis of almost all moveable chords. They can be played as-is or embellished into other chord shapes.

Three fundamental shapes with roots on three different strings are applied to the three most common chord types (major, minor, and 7). Originally derived on ukulele, but useful on guitar as well.

Here’s my approach to “position playing” on the ukulele, by which I mean the ability to play every note and every chord in a given key while keeping the fretting hand in a fixed location over the fretboard.

The CAGED system is a convenient way of thinking about moveable chord shapes on guitar. On ukulele, it’s called CAGFD. Same system, just harder to say.

A tool for creating fretboard diagrams.

An app for exploring the relationships between chords all over the fretboard. Supports both guitar and ukulele.

A tool for exploring the ukulele fretboard inside the moveable C-major chord shape for the I, IV, and V chords. This shape is useful because it outlines a one-octave box containing the entire scale and all diatonic chords in the key. See Position playing on ukulele for more information.

This is a new site for sharing any useful things I come up with as I study ukulele, guitar, and music theory. There’s not much to see here yet. So far the site is mostly just a placeholder for a javascript app I wrote to explore some useful positions on the ukulele fretboard. Check it out.