Ukulele Chords

If you think that ukulele players have standard sheet music, think again. The ukulele has its own distinctive style of chord charts that a player uses to compose a song. It's up to you to learn to read its chords when you start learning about this fun instrument.

The ukulele is based on special ukulele chord charts that are very easy to use once you learn how to read them. Each chord is visualized with a diagram of the ukulele fretboard as it would look when facing you vertically. So, it looks like a small grid of three by four squares. The vertical lines represent the strings on the ukulele and the horizontal ones represent the squares on the fretboard.

Elements of a Ukulele Chord Chart

Along with the grid that represents the fretboard and the strings on the ukulele, the name of the chord that is being played is put at the top of the chart in letter notation. The strings and locations of the fingers are designated by where numbers are placed on the grid. Each number represents a particular finger on your left hand. The number "1" on the grid represents the index finger. The number "2" represents the middle finger. The number "3" represents the ring finger, and finally, the number "4" represents the pinky.

Which Strings to Strum

If your finger is on a string, it's assumed you are strumming it. If an open string with no number is annotated on the chord chart, you might see a little "o" or "x" at the top. The "o" signifies that the string should still be strummed even though it is an open string. The "x" is less common and is not used very often, but it means not to strum the string. Usually, if there is no "o" it is assumed you won't be strumming the open string.

The chords for ukulele are not hard to read at all, once you understand the diagram. In fact, it may even be simpler to read this type of music than other types of instrumental music sheets. If you are a beginner, you will be delighted with how quickly one can learn to read this music.

But, don't let the simplicity of it fool you, there are many more chords other than the G-C-E-A chords that most beginners use. As you advance in your knowledge of chords, you will begin to experiment with these more and find that the ukulele, while simple to learn, may take a long time to master fully.

Whether you're a beginner or a pro, if you're in the market for a ukulele, I strongly recommend you check out my own new ukulele store right here, or you can check out the only other online music store you should ever need, Musician's Friend.

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