Welcome to the Uplay2 domain where you play too.  To begin, its best to have an instrument tuned to make it easy to play.  For a guitar we recommend Open C Tuning.  Go there to tune now to CGCGCE; and here is how we make chords. 

It really helps to label the frets on your guitar; both fret numbers and chord letters are helpful, like these shown on a low cost half size guitar for which the Uplay2 method works very well.

Get Back  

One Love

Proud Mary

The Harder They Come  

After you click on a song, scroll down to find the lyrics with chord prompts and playing hints, or click on a link in the left column to a video with subtitles which shows the lyrics and chord prompts added to a Youtube video.

Notice:  Youtube stopped its videos working with Overstream which I used for the subtitles; this has since been restored for some of the videos.

Read on to find out the Uplay2 Story and our Answers, and Songs in Progress.  We now have the Uplay2 Group for interested persons to cooperate on creating uplay2 arrangements.  If you would like to contribute please email  br@uplay2.org and indicate some songs you wish to contribute.

For those with some musical experience more explanation is in the Uplay2 Method.  We are interested in your feedback and assistance to add to or improve the method; please email br@uplay2.org.     

The video prompts for the songs above are the beginning of implementing our Play-along invention and we also hope to work with implementors to make them even better as explained in the open letter Playalong COOPYtunity.  

We would like Uplay2 arrangements with Playalong renditions to become available for all songs.  To avoid conflicts of interest, the page format we are trying out for songs contains no other advertising than links to buy the song or its music or other associated merchandise such as albums which benefit the owners of the song.   We hope this will enable copyright holders to permit it and we welcome your feedback.

The Uplay2 Story

I have found in practice with dozens of friends and family who have never played an instrument that we all play too.  We all enjoy accompanying our favourite songs.  We all enjoy jamming along with a performance of artists we love.  We all enjoy jamming with each other. 

We each have a unique rhythm, they are all beautiful and they all work together, as Brian Jobson a musician friend explained it to me, and it feels great to express it.

Many of us have picked up a guitar and or sat at a piano and wanted to play, even tried for a while, then given up.  

This is because traditional methods for learning and making music need a very high upfront investment with little gratification for a long time, until we have learned and practised a whole lot.

And the guitar makes our finger tips hurt.

The Answers

I have found that by tuning a guitar or similar instrument to an open tuning everyone can play immediately.  I favor an open C tuning (CGCGCE low sound to high) as it fits with the piano, has a great sound from creating the same harmonics as an organ, has additional bass notes, and makes playing along with minor chords easy. 

We use bar chords and number the frets from 0 which is the open position (not needing your fretting hand), up to 11 and then repeating, corresponding to the 12 notes in the chromatic scale. 

When I am showing someone face to face I will play along and call out or sing out the fret numbers in time with the music.  You don't need to press with your finger tips in strange configurations, just use any finger (or thumb if it works better for you) flat across the frets and if you can't reach them all then just play the strings you do reach.

To help remember the numbers and prompt us to play them at the right times, I put the numbers in the lyrics where they are surprisingly readable or as a reminder, I just list the string of numbers.  When written down, frets 10 and 11 are represented by * and # like on a telephone. 

Various songs are in process and I email them to songs@uplay2.org which you can access via songs.  You can forward a song from there to your own email, try it out, improve it if you can, and forward it back to songs@youplay2.  Here are some notes on the Uplay2 Method which are under construction but may be helpful.

I can give contributors a free email address like br@uplay2.org.  Email me there if you would like one.  This is a normal email account powered by gmail and you can use it for working on songs without revealing your personal email address.

When teaching a beginner I usually go through several steps starting with the songs easiest to play and have found that everyone can immediately master steps 1 and 2 with no learning or practice required.  After going through steps 1 and 2, almost everyone can move up to steps 3 and 4 all within an hour or two.  

Try it

Those of us that can play already might wish to try the Uplay2 method so you can show a friend.  I have found the best way is to build up the difficulty in steps.

Step 1 explains how to hold the instrument and jam along to Get up Stand up by Bob Marley, a beautiful song which uses only one chord.  How to cope with major and minor chords is also explained. 

Step 2 focuses on playing two chords in a repeating rhythm.  Here we play a number of beats in the open position, then our fingers press all the way across a fret, a number of frets up the guitar neck, and we strum a number of beats, then our fingers release again and we strum the same number of beats.  This stage introduces our Uplay2 fret numbering scheme from 0 to 11.  A good song to start with is Time Will Tell which uses a 0 5 repeated pattern which is similar to the chorus of Lively Up Yourself.

Step 3 is about playing with still just two chords and now with varying rhythms eg Montego Bay in songs, Brown Girl in the Ring.

Step 4 moves to three chords and now the repertoire widens.  Get Back is a good song to start this stage with, as the third chord is played rarely (only in the turnaround) and can be omitted: video with subtitle prompts Get Back by Beatles in A for C tuning.  Other good ones to try are Pressure Drop, repeated 0750; Twist and Shout, repeated 0577; The Tide is High. repeated 0057 except for the break.

Step 5 when we can play 3 chords in a repeating pattern, we are ready to learn songs with two or more repeating patterns.  Let It Be, One Love are favourites

Step 6 after we enjoy playing a few songs at Step 5, we can try anything. There are songs with 4 chords, 5 chords, 6 and above.

Background

It is a joy to accompany oneself in a song and a shared joy when several people are playing and singing together. 

To the non musicians among us I say you may not be practiced in traditional instruments but using Uplay2 you can play immediately and enjoy playing whenever you want to.  

To musicians I ask you to share the joy by showing a non-musician how to play along with you; I hope the Uplay2 method will help you do so.   

This site is to introduce the Uplay2 method and various Uplay2 arrangements.  I would like you to try it and see if the method is helpful to you and if so I would be delighted to show and index your renditions by emailing them to songs@uplay2.org with the email subject being the title of the song.

I would also love for you to use the Uplay2 method to create Uplay2 arrangements for songs you like and alternatives or improvements to the ones we have done and contribute them by likewise emailing to songs@uplay2.org. 

If you create any improvements to the Uplay2 method itself please also contribute them by emailing to songs@uplay2.org with a subject including the word "Uplay2". 

For those interested in contributing regularly I can create an account for you at uplay2.org; email me at br@uplay2.org.

Thanks to those who have been my guinea pigs as I developed the Uplay2 method and to the songwriters and performers of the great songs who have been my inspiration and motivation.

Songs are subject to copyright laws and an arrangement of a song is a derived work of that song and also subject to copyright laws and so I ask that you ensure that you have purchased the original song for any arrangement or rendition you contribute or perform. 

Also, because song arrangements themselves are subject to copyright laws, I am licensing the Uplay2 method and my arrangements and renditions to you under CC+COOPY (Cooperative License originated by Family Systems).  See side panel for more details.

Also see Uplay2 planning notes