Click on sample images to view larger pages.
Sample pages may appear faded, cropped, or partially obscured. Downloaded copies do not include these imperfections and are the most up-to-date versions, including all edits, additions and revisions in a printer friendly format.

Basic Chords - "C" Tuning

What is a Chord?

A chord is a group of three or more different notes sounded together or almost together.

On stringed instruments like the ukulele, chords can be grouped into four categories for learning: Open Position Chords, Movable Form Chords, 4-Part Contemporary or “Jazz” Chords and Free Form Chords. This lesson focuses on basic open position chords and why some might be harder to play vs. other basic chords.

Basic Open Position Chords

An open position chords is one of 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.

Learning Chords

There are two approaches to learning chords, the song based approach and learning the fundamentals approach. I'm a big advocate of building a solid base of the fundamentals. A lot of players new to the ukulele like to jump right in a learn songs.

For the song approach you pick a song learn the chords you need to learn know for the song. A song is like a recipe, the chords are one of the ingredients. Look them up, ask a friend or take a lesson or two. Then learn at least one version of each of the chords in the song.

Another approach is to learn the most 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. You never know what songs are going to be played and would like to participate in every song. No time to look up chords, you need to know chords.

For Folk, Rock, Pop, Country and and Bluegrass common major keys are C, G, D, A, and E. See the Common Chord for C Major chart below.

For most simple songs the chords all are from the main key and stay in that key. There are a lot of songs with just two or three chords.