A Few Must-Know & Easy Chords for Ukulele
A Little History on the Ukulele
The ukulele is a four-string fretting instrument so closely associated with Hawaii that at one point it was the official instrument of the Kingdom.
The ukulele was developed in the late 1800s in Portugal under different names and introduced to the Hawaiian islands in the 1900s, where the natives there named it “ukulele” after “jumping flea.” When Hawaii joined the Union in 1959, the rest of America fell in love with a little four-nylon-stringed instrument and from then on the ukulele grew in popularity.
The reason why the ukulele became so popular was due to its relative simplicity and portability.
With only having to work with four strings (and nylon at that), forming chords is not so much a challenge compared to other stringed instruments such as the guitar or mandolin.
Generally, there are four ukulele sizes: soprano, concert, tenor, and baritone. Soprano being the smallest and baritone, the largest. When most people think about the ukulele, they have the soprano in mind. Its small size makes it so players can take it anywhere.
All of this combined has made the ukulele a very popular instrument for people of all skill levels.
Personally, I started playing the ukulele in high school – well, I say “started playing” but in reality what I mean is – I bought a ukulele and I learned a few chords and techniques. To this day I am still able to pick it up and play a few different songs.
Here are a few chords that are easy to form and essential to play pretty much any song. After learning these five chords, you’ll be able to take them and rearrange them in whichever order you want and create your own songs with them.
The Chords
C
This is probably the easiest chord to play because it only requires one string to be pressed down. To play C, you must use your ring finger to press the 1st string on the 3rd fret.
G
Use your index finger to press the 3rd string on the 2nd fret, middle finger to press 1st string on 2nd fret, and ring finger to press 2nd string on 3rd fret.
A
Use your index finger to press the 3rd string on the 1st fret and middle finger to press 4th string on the 2nd fret.
Am
To play Am all you have to do is form the A above and remove your index finger, leaving only the 4th string pressed on the 2nd fret.
F
Similar to playing A except your index finger is on the 2nd string 1st fret while your middle finger stays on the 4th string 2nd fret.
D
This one may be a little tricky but with practice, it should come like second nature. To play D, you will use your index finger to hold down all the strings on the 2nd fret and then use your pinky to press the 1st string on the 5th fret.
You can take these chords and play many songs with them.
When we think about the songs that we like that are catchy, we might assume that they’re complicated to play but it’s actually quite the opposite; most popular songs are popular because they’re catchy and they’re catchy because they’re simple to play. Many popular songs use fairly standard chords, chord progressions and strumming patterns. Below are a few songs you can play with some of the chords you learned above.
I think everybody knows this song. If not, then you would be offending Bono. This song is played with only the chords: C, G, Am, and F. The strumming pattern can be all down or down/down/up/up/down/up.
Again, a very classic song that’s really easy to play. It uses the same chords as the song With or Without You except they’re held for a little longer.
This reggae song uses the same chords as the previous two songs, C, G, Am, F. The difference in playing this song is the strumming, as you’ll want to strum upwards like they typically do in reggae and ska music.
When this song came out in 2008 it was really popular and probably caused a lot of ukuleles to be sold. Unlike the songs already mentioned, this song actually features a ukulele so it goes to show you how mighty the small instrument is. This song also uses the chords C, G, Am, F.
Final Thoughts
There are many songs you can play with the chords mentioned above. A quick Google search will yield you hundreds of more easy songs to learn. Another thing you can do with the chords is jumble them around and make your own music. I know that playing C, Am, F, and G in that order can produce many songs in the ‘doo-wop’ style like the song “Earth Angel” and any other song that sounds similar.
The ukulele is a relatively easy instrument to play because anyone can wrap their hands around the neck, its nylon strings don’t require much force to hold down and the standard tuning is such that mistakes are hard to hear.