In today’s video, let’s jam out the chorus of “Hallelujah” to practice our chord changes and strumming.

I give you four beginner-friendly chords and two strumming pattern options to jam this song in 6/8 time signature. I’ll play a rock-steady rhythm to help you stay on track, so you can play along.

Let’s play!

A lot of us can fall into the trap of thinking we need a super fancy, “secret” strumming pattern to play our favorite songs.

But often, less is more.

In the early days of Ukulele Tricks, I covered Leonhard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” on ukulele. If you watch my performance, I start off fingerpicking, but later in the song, I switch to strumming. And when I switch to the strumming, I’m keeping it really simple with just down strums played to a count of six.

I happen to like a simple pattern like this for this particular song because it allows the vocal melody to shine through.

However, as you play along with me, you might want to spice things up, which is why you can add in up strums to the pattern, like so.

Be sure to watch the video lesson above to hear exactly how this sounds.

Chords You Need to Know to Play This Jam

The chorus of “Hallelujah” uses just four beginner-friendly chords.

F Major Chord

To play an F major chord, place the middle finger on the 2nd fret of the top g-string and the index finger on the 1st fret of the E-string. Let the C-string and bottom A-string ring open.

Am Chord

To play an Am chord, place the middle finger on the 2nd fret of the top g-string and let the bottom three strings ring open.

C Major Chord

To play a C major chord, place the ring finger on the 3rd fret of the bottom A-string and let the top three strings ring open.

G Major Chord

To play a G major chord, place the index finger on the 2nd fret of the C-string, ring finger on the 3rd fret of the E-string, and middle finger on the 2nd fret of the bottom A-string. Let the top g-string ring open.

Playing the Chord Progression Together

In the jam, I recommend starting off using the simple down strum pattern I presented above.

For this jam, the chorus of “Hallelujah” is an 8-bar chord progression. We’re going to repeat this chorus section over and over again so you can practice your chord changes and strumming. Remember to count out loud as you’re first learning the progression to lock in with those changes!