Mastering Uke : 11 Easy Ukulele chords for beginners

Mastering these 11 ukulele chords for beginners can help you to play thousands of your favourite songs in any language. These chords are easy to master and with little dedication, you will be able to master them easily. There are two things to remember before you embark on your learning journey.

Ukulele Tuning (GCEA)

Before starting the practice sessions make sure your Ukulele is tuned. If your Ukulele is not tuned properly then you will not get the exact sound of the chord, so make sure your Ukulele is tuned.

Holding the notes on the fretboard

Make sure you hold the notes on the Ukulele with the tip of your finger and when you hold the notes, your finger should not touch other strings as this will mute or muffle the sound of other strings and you will not get the exact sound of the chord.

So let us get into learning the chords one by one. We have given the most easiest ones upfront.

C Major Ukulele Chord

The easiest to start with. Place your third finger in A string in the 3rd fret and strum all the four strings together. That is it. Congrats! you now know to play one chord in Ukulele.

The C Chord consists of C, E and G notes.

A Minor Ukulele Chord

Another easy one finger chord and move up the curve. Put your second finger in the 2nd fret of the G String and strum all the four strings together that is an A Minor chord. That is it, you are done with the second chord.

Again why 2nd finger and not any other finger, you will learn the reason when you play the next chord – A major chord.

A Major Ukulele Chord

This is a two-finger chord. You can build this from A minor chord. Let us learn to play in 2 simple steps:

• Step 1: Place your 2nd finger on the 2nd fret in G string (A minor Chord position)
• Step 2: Place your 1st finger on the 1st fret of the C string

Now strum all the four strings and it is A major chord. The reason why insist on playing with particular fingers is that when you have practised the A minor chord with fingers whatever we have said it is easy to play the A major chord. However, one thing to remember is once you master all the chords it does not matter whichever finger your use as long as the sound comes clear. A purist might disagree, and that is why we call them purists. So it is up to which route to take.

F Major Ukulele chord

F major chord is a two-finger chord, and if you have mastered the A major chord shape, you can build on that. Let us learn to play the F major chord in two simple steps.

• Step 1: Place your 2nd finger on the 2nd fret in G string
• Step 2: Place your 1st finger on the 1st fret of the E string.

Now strum all the four strings, and you are done with F major chord.

D Major Ukulele Chord

D major chord is 3 finger chord. We can play this in two methods. First is the easy method.

Method 1 (Easy method)

Take your first finger and barre (use your first finger) the GCE strings in the 2nd fret and make sure that the A string is not muted and play all the four strings that is the D major chord. (Remember the purists, they are going to come on you.)

Method 2

Let us learn to play D major chord in 3 steps (3 finger chord)

• Step 1: Put your 1st finger in the 2nd fret of the G string
• Step 2: Put your 2nd finger on the 2nd fret of the C string
• Step 3: Put your 3rd finger in the 3rd fret of the E string

Play all the four strings together and that is D major chord. The key here is not to touch the A string.

D Minor Ukulele chord

D Minor chord is a 3 finger chord and lets us learn to play D Minor chord in 3 simple steps

• Step 1: Put your 1st finger on 1st fret of the E String
• Step 2: Put your 2nd finger in the 2nd fret of the G string
• Step 3: Put your 3rd finger in the 2nd fret of the C string

Play all the four strings together and that is D minor chord. Make sure you are not touching or muting the A string.

E Minor Ukulele chord

E minor is a 3 finger chord and lets us learn to play E minor chord in 3 simple steps:

• Step 1: Put your 1st finger in the 2nd fret of A String
• Step 2: Put your 2nd finger in the 3rd fret of the E string
• Step 3: Put your 3rd finger in the 4th fret of the C string

Play all the four strings together and that is E minor chord. On a relative basis, this is a little difficult chord to practise, so you may want to spend some time here to master the chord.

B Major Ukulele Chord

B Major chord is the most difficult in this series of chords. It is a 4 finger chord, so let us learn to play B major chord in 3 simple steps.

• Step 1: Place your 1st finger and 2nd fret and hold both E & A strings.
• Step 2: Place your 2nd finger on the 3rd fret of the C string
• Step 3: Use your 3rd finger to hold the 4th fret in G string

Strum all the four strings together and that is B major chord. This will be challenging for many at the beginning, however, with a little bit of effort, you will be able to master the chord easily. But note that this is fundamental to build in a lot more complicated chord shapes if you want to move up the curve.

A sharp or B flat Major Ukulele chord

Once you have mastered the B major chord, A sharp or B flat major chord is easy. It is the same shape but you move the entire position one fret flat (backwards) as shown in the diagram. That is it. You have now done with A sharp or B flat major chord.

G7 Ukulele chord

Easy but a tricky chord shape. G7 is a 3 finger chord. Let us learnt to play G7 chord in 3 simple steps.

• Step 1: Place your 1st finger on 1st fret of the E string
• Step 2: Place your 2nd finger on the 2nd fret of the C string
• Step 3: Place your 3rd finger on the 2nd fret of A string

Strum all the four strings together it is a G7 chord for you.

D7 Ukulele chord

Not the most commonly used, but it is always good to have in your arsenal. It is a 4 finger chord, but relatively easy. Let us learn to play in 2 simple steps

1. Barre all the strings (or GCE string) with your first finger in the 2nd fret.
2. Place your 2nd finger on the 3rd fret of A string (you can also use 3rd finger if you are finding that comfortable to use.

Play all the four strings together and that is the D7 chord for you

Practising Ukulele chords

Mastering these 11 ukulele chords can let you play 1000s of your favourite songs. Many of these chords are easy to practise and you should be able to play with few hours of practise. Remember consistency is key. If you can spend about 30-45 minutes/ day on each chord, you should be able to master all these chords approximately in a months time. If you are looking for online ukulele classes, musicmaster.in offers live 1 to 1 online classes through qualified tutors.