10 Ways to Play an E Chord on the Ukulele

40 Comments

1. Armelle April 23rd, 2009 9:42 am
   

   I vote for n°2.
   I’m having problems with the versions involving muting a string. The muted string still makes a slight sound.
   As for n°3, my ring finger doesn’t reach the E string.

   And I could use n°4 but I just don’t strum the G chord (like you mentioned on ukulele 101). I still can’t manage to mute it by “touching and not fretting it”.

2. HaileISela April 23rd, 2009 10:41 am
   

   you forget another one:

   2041

   Aloha!

3. Mick Bordet April 23rd, 2009 10:53 am
   

   #6 – it may be far from perfect, but it opens the way for descending chord runs and frees up fingers for melody lines.

4. Bertrand April 23rd, 2009 10:54 am
   

   There’s another nice E chord with the open E string close to the E7, just doubling the fundamental instead of playing the seventh :
   Index finger : G string 1st fret
   Middle finger : A string 2nd fret
   Ring finger or Little finger : C string 4th fret
   and open E string – which gives a powerful E

5. Bertrand April 23rd, 2009 10:56 am
   

   HailelSela was faster than me on this one, although I’d rather write it 1402 (from G to A)

6. J-Hob April 23rd, 2009 11:07 am
   

   Nice idea! ;-)

   I usually play it as the treble up, still find it a bit tricky though – I have problems with the tendons in my hands and too many barre chords in a short space of time makes my hands hurt! I’m hoping that more and more practice this will ease with time.

   There’s some nice other ideas there too, I’ll have to give some of them a shot.

7. HaileISela April 23rd, 2009 11:13 am
   

   oh, sorry if I mixed the order up. I always get confused wether it is 1402 or 2041…

8. ronhale April 23rd, 2009 12:13 pm
   

   If I really, really must I modify no. 1 & use my thumb on the G string. Things are a wee bit less cramped, & I use my thumb quite a bit on that string anyway.
   You’re much too easy on no. 1, the official book method. Unless one has freakishly small hands or is very, very young it is virtually impossible to finger cleanly to get a good sound (on a soprano, anyway). Now, the people who write the books know this, of course, & yet continue to push this fingering on beginners to their utter frustration & dismay.
   No. 6 is one of my favorite shapes & easily is my choice from the offerings. The barre notwithstanding, this should be shown to beginners either along with the official fingering, or better yet, in place of the official fingering. Mark Nelson uses this shape (& not the official shape) in the chord chart in his fingerstyle solos book.
   A uke barre is not much of a hurdle for new players & is not in the same league as the guitar barre, which some players never learn.

9. cardboardfrog April 23rd, 2009 1:23 pm
   

   its gotta be the treble up, if you have the fingers that are long enough its fiiiiiiiine.
   i found E chords tricky to start with but it really is my favourite now, just works so neatly as a barre chord.
   btw woodshed, snazzy jumper!

10. Zakulele April 23rd, 2009 1:31 pm
    

    I’ve trebled up since day one.

11. Howlin' Hobbit April 23rd, 2009 5:16 pm
    

    I mostly use a variant of #3 or #6 (as explained), depending on which sounds better in the tune.

    The variation I do on #3 is to barre the 2nd fret instead of just trying to grab the A string there. This does two things:

    1) It moves your hand around the neck a bit, helping to ameliorate the “difficult angle” problem.
    2) It makes pressing the other three strings with your ring finger easier since you are only holding down a two fret distance instead of four. In other words, the amount of pressure you need to apply with the ring finger is lessened somewhat because of the smaller distance between the string and fret.

    I’m looking at my point #2 there and hoping it makes sense. Basically, if you look at the distance between the strings and the 4th fret when they’re open (i.e. just pressed against the nut) and compare it to the distance when you’re fingering the 2nd fret, you’ll see that it’s a reduced distance.

12. byjimini April 23rd, 2009 6:01 pm
    

    E7 does me fine.

13. todd April 23rd, 2009 6:09 pm
    

    “So here are ten possible ways to play the E chord. Try them out and see if you like any of them (I don’t).”

    you’re speaking for more of us than you think….. ;)

    I’ve always done #6 because I have big meat hook hands, but I’m gonna play around with number 4 a bit and see what happens…..

    thanks,

    Todd

14. Charles April 23rd, 2009 10:14 pm
    

    Number 3 for me.

15. zym April 23rd, 2009 11:02 pm
    

    excellent post.

    I tend to either use the ‘Fourth Fret Lay-Across’ or ‘Treble Up’

    But being naturally lazy, i might start going for the ‘Thumb G-string block’ :D

16. Josh Gordon April 24th, 2009 1:02 am
    

    I do the treble up with my little finger and use the ring finger to help add a bit of pressure. But thanks to Bertand for that open-e version — it sounds the best of any of them.

17. Anne April 24th, 2009 5:26 am
    

    #1 is the only one I can even get to work halfway. My fingers will not bend the other ways!

18. Neil Jackson April 24th, 2009 12:41 pm
    

    I never realised E chord was so problematic until I read Ukulele 101. I’ve always used the method 3 treble up but much appreciated discovering the blocked E7 technique. Particularly after getting a tenor uke for Christmas.

    The fourth fret lay across is one I’m definitely going to use as it’s easy to play.

    I really appreciate the work you’ve done here Woodshed.

19. Woodshed April 24th, 2009 1:17 pm
    

    Armelle: I find #3 quite tricky as well – seems to be a popular choice though.

    HailelSela and Bertrand: That’s a good one. Completely slipped my mind. I find it a bit tricky to switch to from some chords.

    J-Hob: Yes, I am a genius for coming up with it ;)

    Mick: Good point. I do use it a lot in arrangements (although I try to avoid E when I can).

    ronhale: I do understand why it crops up in the books. It’s the only way to do it without introducing new techniques.

    cbf: Rockin’ the argyle.

    Zakulele: I thought that was the hardest one, but it seems very popular.

    Hobbit: Thanks! I’d never thought of doing it that way.

    byjimini: You can get away with it in some places (e.g. the key of A) but it doesn’t work everywhere.

    todd: Those are the two I use most often.

    zym: I think I might write How to Play Lazy Ukulele.

    Josh: It does sound good (so long as you’re bang in tune and the intonation is good).

    Anne: Buy new fingers?

    Neil: Thanks. Glad you found it useful.

20. LonnaB April 24th, 2009 1:39 pm
    

    Great post.

    I had been using methods number one and ten- depending on the song. The treble up feels comfortable, and I’m sure I’ll use that more in the future.

    Photos look great- very helpful.

21. mictoboy April 24th, 2009 4:03 pm
    

    fantastic stuff mr ’shed. this is exactly the kind of thing that I love ukulele hunt for, and the ideas in the comments are also worth serious investigation :)

22. Jeff/HumbleUker April 24th, 2009 5:10 pm
    

    I have another. Play the Bm chord. Index finger barred completely at 2 and ring finger on the 4th fret G-string only. Then flatten the ring finger across the GCE strings. I think it is very much like a #3 but the hand is a little more relaxed.

23. Alice April 24th, 2009 10:01 pm
    

    I have little girly hands, so I can do E just fine *smug face*…

    Well after a few dozen attempts.. And it sounds… okaaayy..

24. Woodshed April 25th, 2009 7:17 am
    

    Lonna: Thanks. I should probably do more photos and videos.

    mictoboy: Cheers!

    Jeff: Thanks. I think that’s the same shape Hobbit uses. I’ve been trying it out but can’t get the hang of it.

    Alice: Show off!

25. Pauline April 25th, 2009 9:42 am
    

    This is interesting. I have been trying to figure out chords so I don’t need to use my index finger. I had surgery on it last year and its now shorter than it should be and painful. I use my thumb a lot but its so tricky

26. Marcy April 25th, 2009 5:36 pm
    

    I do one of three things:

    Do the double up.

    Try E7. If it sounds OK, I use it.

    Transpose.

27. Josh Gordon April 25th, 2009 9:04 pm
    

    When we’re doing circle jams, if the guitarists in front of me have been doing a few too many songs in E, I take revenge by doing a song in F. (The clever ones just capo up, but still.)

28. Dan April 26th, 2009 4:50 am
    

    What about the transpose-the-entire-song-up-a-half-step method? That is the one I use most often.

29. Woodshed April 26th, 2009 9:02 am
    

    Pauline: Sorry to hear about that. I hope the post was some use to you.

    Marcy and Dan: Transposing works well most of the time – particularly when the song is in E or A. But sometimes it creates more problems than it solves.

    Josh: Eb is a good key for pissing off guitarists ;)

30. Olivia May 16th, 2009 1:38 am
    

    Haha, thumb across is actually the one that ends up sounding the best for me, but yeah, it’s not exactly convenient.

    Blocked E7 feels nice, too bad for that ‘thunk.’

31. Woodshed May 16th, 2009 2:02 pm
    

    Olivia: Some people do swear by the thumb technique. There must be something wrong with my thumbs.

32. Blog bebowy» Archiwum blogu » Tonacja “U” :) May 16th, 2009 6:38 pm
    

    [...] strona medalu – okaza?o si?, ?e jedynie s?uszny, rockandrollowy chwyt E dur na ukulele jest niezagrywalny. :] Przynajmniej w chwili [...]

33. sqfnyc June 25th, 2009 4:46 pm
    

    easiest way to do it ever, and extremely comfortable on soprano:

    444x <—as in mute the **A** string, not the g string

    i figured this one out when i was doing an acoustic cover of hey ya on uke. you have to slide up to the e chord wicked fast from d and so it makes their chord shape identical so you can just slip right up there and simply rest your pinky on the a-string. really i don’t know why the e is so dreaded xD

34. Ukulélé Blog : Tout pour bien débuter !» L’accord E (Mi) November 6th, 2009 9:52 pm
    

    [...] ou l’auteur nous donne dix façons de faire cet accord (ou de s’en rapprocher) ! 10 ways to play an E chord on the ukulele. Certaines sont un peu farfelues mais ça vaut le coup d’œil, de plus ce site est pas mal du [...]

35. Hatman November 7th, 2009 9:09 pm
    

    I use my thumb to fret the G C and E strings then use my index finger to fret the A string

36. Spacemonkey January 1st, 2010 9:00 pm
    

    On E, I just mute all of the strings and sing a little louder ;)

37. Kowala February 27th, 2010 12:20 am
    

    I’ve been using the first way (the way the books teach you), but I angle my hand up towards the pegs, so it’s kinda awkward. Of course, I’m a beginner, and might be doing something terribly wrong, but I don’t think so, and it’s easier than any other way I’ve tried.

38. oddycog February 27th, 2010 10:03 pm
    

    I prefer number 6, the fourth fret lay across but sometimes use number 4. However in that case I block the G string with a barre on the first fret on the C, E & A strings but with my fingertip touching the side of the G string which mutes it.

39. Herman Vandecauter March 1st, 2010 10:59 am
    

    You forgot two good sollutions! http://twitpic.com/160ikj & http://twitpic.com/160idz

40. Woodshed March 2nd, 2010 10:20 pm
    

    Herman: Thanks very much for the suggestions.