Most new ukulele players don’t realize that you can play hundreds of songs with just a couple ukulele chords.

In fact, in the free ukulele lesson book Your First Ukulele Lesson and Then Some, I teach you how to play songs using these “must-know” ukulele chords.

In this lesson, you discover eleven important ukulele chords for beginners.

As you may have already seen, we’ve been working on building up a ukulele chord library, with hundreds of chords in several different variations. But, as a newer or beginner ukulele player, which ones do you really need to know?

We’ll be looking at the most essential and common ukulele chords. All these chords are in the first position, or first variation, meaning that these chords are located between the first five frets. The frets are the vertical edges that lay across the fretboard.

Here are the eleven must-know ukulele chords for beginners ordered from easiest to hardest to play. Click on any one of the pictures to see it in our chord library.

C major

Suggested fingering: Use your ring finger on the 3rd fret of the bottom string.

A minor

Suggested fingering: Use your middle finger on the 2nd fret of the top string.

F major

Suggested fingering: Use your index finger on the 1st fret of the second string and your ring finger on the 2nd fret of the top string.

G major

Suggested fingering: Use your index finger on the 2nd fret of the third string, ring finger on the 3rd fret of the second string, and your middle finger on the 2nd fret of the bottom string.

A major

Suggested fingering: Use your index finger on the 1st fret of the third string and your middle finger on the 2nd fret of the top string.

E minor

Suggested fingering: Use your index finger on the 2nd fret of the bottom string and your ring finger on the 4th fret of the third string.

D minor

Suggested fingering: Use your index finger on the 1st fret of the second string, middle finger on the 2nd fret of the top string, and your ring finger on the 2nd fret of the third string.

F#/Gb minor

Suggested fingering: Use your index finger on the 1st fret of the third string, middle finger on the 2nd fret of the top string, and your ring finger on the 2nd fret of the second string.

D major

Suggested fingering: Use your middle finger on the 2nd fret of the top string, ring finger on the 2nd fret of the third string, and your pinky on the 2nd fret of the second string.

E major

Suggested fingering: Use your index finger on the 1st fret of the top string, middle finger on the 2nd fret of the bottom string, and your pinky on the 4th fret of the third string.

B minor

Suggested fingering: Use your index finger to bar the bottom three strings on the 2nd fret and your ring finger on the 4th fret of the top string.

Questions & Comments

Are you getting stumped on how to play a chord? Post a comment below.