How To Read Ukulele Chord Charts
March 19, 2008 · Print This Article
There are a few variations in how chord charts are shown. But, since they’re a fairly intuitive picture of what to do, it’s not hard to work out.
The type of chord chart I use shows the ukulele fretboard as if it’s pointing upwards and facing towards you. The strings are the vertical lines (starting with G at the left) and the horizontal lines are the frets.
Chord shapes are shown by dots at where each finger should go.
For this G chord, you play the C string at the second fret, the E string at the third fret and the A string at the second fret. Wherever there is a ‘o’ at the top of the string, that means the string is played open (it is not fretted at all).
The numbers at the bottom refer to the finger that you use rather than the fret. So a 1 would mean you fret that string using your index/pointer finger, a 2 would mean you use your middle finger and so on.
For example, the G chord. You fret the A string at the second fret with your second finger, the E string at the third fret with your third finger and the C string at the fourth fret with your first finger.
These fingerings are just suggestions. If there’s another way of arranging your fingers, that’s not a problem.
You’ll sometimes see an ‘X’ at the top of the string. This means the string is not played at all. You might need to rest one of your fretting hand fingers against the string (without actually fretting it) to make sure it doesn’t sound.
When a chord is played higher up the fretboard, the lowest fret played is indicated on the left hand side. In this example, the C and A strings are played at the seventh fret, the E string at the eighth fret and the G string at the ninth fret.
This series was derived from my ebook Ukulele 101: 101 Things Every Ukulele Player Needs to Know.
You know, I would pay good money for a decent ukulele chord chart/booklet.
I tend to find songs/chords on Guitar sites, so would love something that had all the sus4s ,sus2s, dim5ths, 9ths, slash chords, etc
I would also like something that was small enough to fit in my case (maybe A5 size)
(oh, and the moon on a stick)
Of course, they’re all slash chords by the time I’m done with them.
I am Rod Hull. Give me my jelly.
Or is it the business man in his suit and tie?
I’ve completely lost my train of thought now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHDCSIJiWCM&feature=related
Drink your weak lemon drink NOW!!!
You’ve both lost my train of thought.
What do you do for something like the Dbm or Dm7 on this chart, with the extra white circles?
http://nfo.net/usa/chart1.jpg
Mike,
i think the white ‘notes’ are the second position for the chord. Im guessing that the are only shown where the second position is actually easier than the first.
So on the Dm7 you could just barre the 4th fret rather than fiddle around for the 1st postion chord.
Zym - I use the Hal Leonard Ukulele Chord Finder book. It is fairly comprehensive and includes 3 fingerings for each chord covered in the book. And it is small enough to fit in my uke case
Min: I think Andy’s right, those white notes are other notes that in the chord. You can play those instead of the black notes without changing the chord.
And don’t worry about what me and zym were going on about. We were just playing silly-buggers.
Elijah: Thanks for the suggestion.
can anyone explain to me how you read the chords when they have the lyrics to the song and the chord over the words? how do you read it? do you just strum on the word that the chord is over? what kind of strum? thanks
Answer to Jen Ritz’ question.
Jen: The answer is, the word above which the chord is found is the place where the chord begins. And you strum that chord until the music indicates another chord symbol or tab. Than you change to that symbol or tab.
The answer to your “strum” question is a totally different thing. Strumming refers to style, and you must strum with whatever style you are intending to play, be it swing, rock, Latin, blues, etc.
Unfortunately most uke groups strum constantly in a “swing” style, because so much of our music, including much of our best know Hawaiian tunes are played in that style.
I hope this helps.
Gerry
Thanks for that, Gerry. Useful stuff.