Movable `Ukulele Chords

20+ Ukulele Chord Lessons

• A • C • F • G • D • E • Am • Cm • Dm • Em • Fm • Gm • A7 • B7 • C7 • D7 • E7 • F7 • G7 • Diminished • Augmented

jump right to the chords below

Beyond memorizing a core set of basic open position chords, a couple of movable form chords as well as a basic set of 4-part chords. You can't possibly memorize all the possible chord shapes available on the ukulele. You need to be able to create chords on the fly as needed and draw from your existing chord vocabulary. With a basic knowledge of the principles of how chords are constructed and knowing the notes of the ukulele fingerboard you CAN create any chord you need, on the fly and in real time. So throw out the chord dictionaries, software programs and your chord charts and get started on REALLY knowing your chords.

You'll constantly read on-line and hear from fellow ukulele players, "What's the best site or software for chords? What's an Em7/A, add, sus4, etc...?"

Well, some bad news. Chord dictionaries, software, and websites are not the answer. Even traditional chord theory does not offer any insight into unraveling the complexity of chord voicings. There's no magic to learning chords on the ukulele or any chord-capable instrument. It's the organization of the material to be covered, knowledge of where and what the notes are and where they are available on your instrument, how chords are constructed, and just work, work, work on it.

Each lesson presents an open position chord and its movable form chord; practice progressions, and additional chords are derived from the lesson's chords. The chord tones and intervals of the chord are shown, and more…

A Ukulele Chord of the Week

This Ukulele Chord of the Week series of lessons is set up to address a common problem I have seen over and over with students learning any new topic, scale, chord, or just about anything on the ukulele. That issue is that simply understanding something gives a student a false sense that it's easy and therefore gives me more. Initial success is no indication of future success when learning chords and switching chords. You have to do the work and explore and actually use these chords.

Understanding something is just the first step and really one of the easiest steps. BUT—and a big but—it's the time needed for the motor skills to develop for anything new and for the new material to get into your more long-term memory. This development of new motor skills, like switching chords or learning new fingerings for a chord, takes time.

There are no shortcuts to developing the physical skills needed to the point that the ear is in control and getting to chords operates at a deeper subconscious level. This takes TIME—you just need to do it over and over and over. Even a marathon runner knows it is more than just putting one foot in front of another faster than the other runners—it takes time. It takes deliberate work and effort.

As far as learning new basic open position chords and basic movable form chords, don't try to absorb more than you can handle. This can happen if coming to the ukulele from the guitar. You must treat the ukulele as a new instrument that just happens to have the same relative tuning as the guitar. The theory and motor skills will transfer, but the names have changed when using the standard "C" tuning for ukulele. And—this is nice—you don't have the strumming accuracy issues that are inherent in the guitar with the additional lower two strings, five and six.

Learning basic open position chords and the basic movable form chords presented in the Ukulele Chord, Movable Chord Lessons will set you up for the more advanced chords, typically called “jazz” chords.

As an advanced jazz guitar student, I had been struggling with more advanced chords such as #11, 9#11, 13b5, 9#5, 6/9, etc. So I asked my mentor and music guru, Chuck Anderson, "How do you remember so many chord shapes?" The answer was quite profound and a real break through in my learning. YOU DON'T MEMORIZE COUNTLESS SHAPES. There are just too many chord shapes to try and memorize. For more advance chords you simply create them on the fly, as needed from a solid base foundation of core chords." It's actually that simple. It's all about deriving new information from known material.

Core Chords

Beyond memorizing the basic open position, their movable form versions and a basic set of core 4-part chords. You create all other chords on the fly as needed. With a knowledge of how chords are constructed and the notes of the fingerboard this is possible. Heck, with this knowledge you can write you own dictionary, software or series of chord lessons. Ultimately your core chords expand to include more chords than you ever thought possible to learn.

Major Chords

Major are the most common chords and so common that they typically pronounced without the qualifier major and simply written as a single capital letter. Can be written as: maj, M, MAJ, or rare the delta symbol Δ. Any other symbol would be rare and you'll need to figure it out based on the content it is being used.

Note: There's no open position B major chord in C tuning. However anyone of the above chords can be transposed, using it's movable form to create a B major chord.

Minor Chords

Minor are the second most common chords and typically pronounced as minor. Can be written as: m, min, -. Any other symbol would be rare and you'll need to figure it out based on the content it is being used.

With the introduction of the first minor chord we can start to do a wider variety of chord progressions.

4-part Seventh Chords

Seventh are the third common chord and pronounced as seven or seventh. Typically written as: 7. Any other symbol would be rare and you'll need to figure it out based on the content it is being used.

Of the three common chords, it's a toss-up between the major and a seventh chords as the which one is more common, In some forms of music the seventh is the most common.

Neutral Chords

An augmented and diminished triad as well as a diminished seventh chord are built using an equidistant interval. They are Neutral chords where anyone of the notes in the chord can be the name of the chord.

🎉 Congratulations on Knowing a Boat Load of Chords 🎊

DONE!!!–At this point you should know a butt load (128 gallons) of chords up and down the fingerboard.