Week 20 of 24
Goal: You learn A7 and D7 and play songs with five chords.
Review
C ↔ G in time. Does the open G string ring with G?
Step by step
- A7: index finger on the C string at fret 1. Just one finger! Chart: A7.
- D7: index finger lies across the G, C and E strings at fret 2, middle finger on the A string at fret 3. Chart: D7.
- For D7 your index presses three strings at once – a little barre. Lay it straight and roll it slightly onto its side.
- Seventh chords want to move on: A7 likes to lead to D7 or Dm, D7 leads to G. You can hear it nicely in “Weißt du, wie viel Sternlein stehen”.
Time to make music: your piece
“Weißt du, wie viel Sternlein stehen” (C, G7, A7, F, D7) and “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean” (C, F, D7, G7, Dm) – five chords!
Homework for next time
Five days, about ten minutes each:
- Fret and check A7 and D7 five times each.
- D7 → G7 → C slowly round and round.
- “My Bonnie” with “Waits for me”.
- Fun: count stars in the evening and play the star song.
Done when …
- all four strings ring with D7
- you accompany a whole song with five chords
If you get stuck
- With D7 one string sounds muffled? The string is in a crease of your index finger. Shift it a little up or down.
- Too many chords? Mark the tricky spots and practise only those changes before playing the whole song.
For teachers: lesson plan
- ≈ 10 min Warm-up: review “one-finger chords”: C7, A7, Am – who can find them all without a chart?
- ≈ 15 min Practice: D7 as a “mini barre” – everyone lays the index across, plucks G, C, E one by one, then adds the middle finger.
- ≈ 20 min Song together: “My Bonnie” – the whole class in chorus on “Bring back”.
Differentiation: those who are confident play the piece with down-up or help a partner; those who need more time strum only on beat one of each bar.
For the board: openstring.de/ukulele/en/lesson/20/