All about Chords on the Ukulele

Open Position Chords

Open position chords are the basic, first chords most ukulele players learn. These chords are played in the fret one, two, three and four area of the ukulele and include at least one open string in the chord.

Here are a few FREE basic open position chord charts to get you started. C tuning, G tuning and D tuning charts

Learning Chords

There are two approaches to learning chords.

One is to pick a song that you would like to learn and those are the chords you need to learn. Look them up, ask a friend or take a lessons or two. Then practice away.

Another approach is to learn the common chords that show up in common keys and songs. This is especially helpful for occasions where you might have never played a particular song before or are reading the chords as you go. This happens a lot at jam sessions and club play-a-longs.

For Folk, Rock, Pop, Country and and Bluegrass some common major keys are C G D A and E.

For most simple songs the chords all are from the main key and stay in that key.

Common Chords for Common Keys

The chords for a key, come out of the major scale for that key. If we number each scale degree of the major scale from 1 to 8 we have the chord's position and harmonic function in the key. When talking about chords these position numbers are typically indicated using the roman numerals: I II III IV V VI VII. This position will help with transposing to other keys and to recognize similarities between songs and chord progressions. There a quite a few common chord progressions that are used in popular music.

Using triads, three note chords, the chords for all major keys are:

1. major
2. minor
3. minor
4. major
5. major
6. minor
7. diminished

On the ukulele these triads are commonly played with one of the notes doubled. Giving us a four note chord that matches perfect with the four strings of the ukulele. Allowing you to strum all the strings.

Common Chords for the Key of C Major and the C Major Scale

1. C major
2. D minor
3. E minor
4. F major
5. G major
6. A minor
7. B diminished

The diminished chord rarely shows up and when it does a diminished seventh chord can be substituted for it. Diminished Seventh chords are a 4-part chord covered in a later section.

With major chords being the most common chord the "major" part of the chord is typically not said or notated. The minor chord type is shortend to "min" or "m". The diminished notation is shortened to "dim" or a degree sign. Leaving use with an easier to read list.

1. C
2. Dm
3. Em
4. F
5. G
6. Am
7. B°

Any one of the chords can be a seventh chords C7 D7 E7 F7 G7 A7 and B7. These are 4-part chords containing four notes with no duplicate notes. All but the G7 are chords outside of the key of C major but some are common.

Here are all the possible open position seventh chords. A few do not contain any open strings and their basic movable form is shown.

Movable Form Chords

Movable chord forms are chords with no open strings. Sometimes called barre chords These chords are transposable by moving each note of the chord the same number of frets up and down the neck.

Each movable form is based on a common open position chord. Movable forms allow you to play chords not found in the open position.

4-Part Contemporary Chords

4-Part Contemporary Chords - Beyond learning basic Ukulele chords most players struggle with advanced chords. Commonly called “jazz” chords, these more sophisticated voicings find a wide use in all forms of music.

"Core" Chords

Core Chords - Level 1, Part 1 - Building a solid foundation of 4-part chords..." Beyond learning open and barre chords, most uke players struggle with advanced chords. Commonly called "jazz" chords, these more sophisticated voicings find a wide use in all forms of music. Building a "core" set of basic 4-part chords will allow you to create ANY, yes ANY chords you ever encounter.

From these four movable form 4-art chords, more advanced chrods can be created.

I have two companion sites that are intended to explore the contemporary chords more in-depth. One site is dedicated to exploring Jazz using the ukulele and the other is for Blues.

• Jazz Ukulele ( www.jazzUkulele.net )
• Blues Ukulele ( www.bluesukulele.com )

Free Form Chords

Free Form Chords are where you know the names of the notes of the chord and the names of the notes of the fingerboard. You can then form a chord using any combination of the chord tones. And, the chord would not fall into one of the previous three categories

There is a lesson on these type of chords called Cool Chords, Creating those cool chords not found in dictionaries and chord books..

Ukulele Chord of the Week Lessons