Basic Open Position `Ukulele Chord Chart

A core set of basic ukulele chords that ALL Ukulele players should know - at least - in the five common keys of C, G, D, A and E. As well as the seventh chords for common keys.

The chart is organized in common keys and covers basic chords in these keys. Of the 15 possible major and relative minor keys in music. There are five common keys to get started with: C, G, D, A, and E. These keys allow you to play quite a few popular songs. There's more in common between songs that your might think.

This chord chart is great for beginners and new members to ukulele clubs.

You'll play chords more than anything else on the ukulele.

Understandably this is one of the most popular and top lessons on the site. Chords are what we do the most on ukulele as you can't know too many chords. But, in the long run, there are far too many chord shapes to memorize all the possible chords. You need to learn a bit about how they are constructed and work to get beyond this basic chart.

Master the chords on this chord chart, and when you venture past the third fret, you'll see that it's not as foreign chord territory as you might have thought.

Here are direct links to the Key Signature lessons for the common keys covered in the chart with a lot more information. Each key is a series of lessons covering the primary and secondary chords of the key with common progressions and more!

• Key of C Major
• Key of G Major
• Key of D Major
• Key of A Major
• Key of E Major

Did I mention it's FREE!!!

Several years ago I created a series of lessons called **A Chord a Week**, where each week I took a basic open position chord, which happens to be one of the chords from this chart and went over the chords you can derive from your basic chords.

Here a lot of the chords that are in the first row of the chart and their seventh chords:

What NOT To Do!

Photo from WikipediA

This above photo is intended to show a guitar chord and inadvertently shows several points of bad technique (which equally apply to ukulkele):


• A – Thumb creeping above the neck and out of its support role.

• B – Palm touching the neck, which limits the range and dexterity of the fingers ability to finger the individual notes of a chord.

• C – The pinky on the frets and not right behind it. I'd be surprised if the C note on string five sounded when played. The same can be said for the other C note on string two and the index finger being on the frets and not behind it.

What TO Do!

Photo from Right Here on LearningUkulele.com
Note: For a better camera angle my thumb has creeped up a bit to get the shot - which is not efficient or recommended.

This chord chart is also available for Lefties.

• Basic Open Position Chord Chart for Lefties

End of Lesson - Thanks, Hope You Enjoyed It!

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