Barre Funk!

• A Barre chord is when you use your first finger to cover all the strings, straight across within one fret.

• On the ukulele they make a minor 7th chord.

• Usually you use your first finger. Take a look at the photo below.

	First finger, straight across all the strings, pushing down hard! Watch out for the spaces created by the folds in your fingers where your joints are. They can cause...CHICKENS!!! A dead sounding note that doesn't ring properly...and we don't like CHICKENS!!
	When you are first beginning to learn Barre Chords you may want to use your second finger to 'piggy-back' on top of the first to help push the strings down even harder... ...and to avoid those CHICKENS!!!

You can add other fingers on separate strings above the Barre once you are confident to make all sorts of different chord patterns. Click here to learn more about that...

For now we are just going to use the Barre itself.

Now lets try a simple piece using this minor 7 chord shape barre..

First place your barre finger at the 5th fret... Play it twice....do it again!
Next move your barre to the 3rd fret... Play it twice...do that again!
Try playing along with the recording below to help you learn this simple part...

Now let's try a little improvising over these funky chords!

Take a look at these finger charts...

The numbers on the side ('5th' and '3rd') refer to the fret number.

Use the fingers shown in any order, but find a pattern that you like and repeat it. This is like a 'riff.'

For instance;

A --7--5---------|---------5------|--7--5----------|---------5--------|-

E ---------7--5--|--5--7---------|----------7--5--|--5--7------------|-

A --5--3---------|---------3------|--5--3----------|---------3--------||-

E ---------5--3--|--3--5---------|----------5--3--|--3--5------------||-

It sounds like this...

Speeded up a little, and played over the top of the barre chord pattern it sounds like this...

Pretty funky huh?!

But why not make your own riff pattern up using the notes above?

Can you change the barre/ riff position so that it sounds different?

Have fun with it and be FUN-KAAAAY!!

Some chickens are bad...and some chickens are FUN-KAAAAY!!