Have you ever wondered why certain ukulele chords sound good when you play them next to each other while others don’t? Have you spent time memorizing chord charts only to be frustrated because you don’t know how to put all of those chords together in a way that sounds musical?
Today we’re going to explore ukulele chords in the most common keys. By the end, of this article, you’ll know how to play the chords that work well together for the keys C, G, D, and F, the four keys that I use most often when I arrange for ukulele because they are the most accessible for melody and chords on the instrument. (They’re also some of the most common keys for music in general.)
Before jumping into the lesson, take a second and play this series of chords (don’t worry if you’ve never seen the last one and struggle to play it):
These are the chords of the key of C major. They sound really nice together, and when played in order, you can hear the notes of the major scale within them, even though the chords as a whole may not go low-to-high.
Let’s explore why these chords work so well together.
Quick Music Theory Lesson: Major, Minor, and Diminished Chords
The notes of a major scale can be built into a series of chords by picking a starting note and then stacking two additional notes on top of it (three-note chords are also called triads). You find the additional notes of a triad by picking every other note as you progress up the scale.
So if you are in the key of C and you want to find the notes of the C chord that works in the scale, you start with C, the 1st note in the scale, and then you stack the 3rd (E) and 5th (G) notes of the scale on top of it:
If you play the notes CEG together, they have a major sound, so the C chord in a C major scale is a C major.
To find the notes of the D chord that works in the C major scale, you start with D, the 2nd note in the scale, and then you stack the 4th (F) and 6th (A) notes on top of it:
If you play the notes DFA together, they have a minor sound, so the D chord in a C major scale is a D minor.
Whether a chord sounds major, minor, or otherwise has to do with the intervals (the amount of space) between each note. I won’t get into the nitty-gritty of chord theory here, but be aware that the intervals of a major chord are different from the structure of a minor chord. That’s the reason they sound so distinct. You can rely on the sound of a chord rather than knowing its underlying structure to identify it as major, minor, or otherwise for now.
Major Scale Chord Pattern
You can play this skipping and stacking game starting on each note of the scale, and the resulting chords will be:
- C Major
- D Minor
- E Minor
- F Major
- G Major
- A Minor
- B Diminished
The pattern of majors, minors, and diminished is the same for every major key. The 1st, 4th, and 5th chords of any major key will always be major chords. You will often see these referred to using upper-case Roman numerals: the I, IV, and V chords.
The 2nd, 3rd, and 6th chords of a major key will always be minor chords. Minor chords are often referred to using lower-case Roman numerals: the ii, iii, and vi chords.
The 7th chord of a major key is always diminished. Diminished chords are relatively uncommon, especially in the types of songs you are likely to play on ukulele, but they do pop up occasionally. They are used to add tension to a song, and they resolve (sound really satisfying) when you play them before going back to your root chord (the first chord of your key).
Diminished chords are often written with a lower-case Roman numeral followed by a degree symbol: vii°
Ukulele Chords in Common Keys
Now that we know what types of chords to play, let’s look at the most common keys on ukulele and figure out which chords we would play in each.
We’ve already talked about the key of C, but here’s the list of chords again, this time with the Roman numerals we just learned:
G is another common key on uke. Here are the chords for the key of G:
Here are the chords for the key of D:
And finally, here are the chords for the key of F:
The most common chords in a key are the majors: I, IV, and V. For minor chords, the ii and the vi are much more common than the iii.
Practicing Ukulele Chords
Now that you know the chords of a few common keys, the best thing to do is practice putting them together in different ways. I put together a printable practice sheet with all of the chords from above on a single page, and I included a list of common chord progressions using the Roman numeral system discussed in this article.
Figure out how to play each progression in each key, and then start creating progressions of your own. There’s no wrong answer here. Some progressions will sound better than others, but there’s no harm in trying out every combination you can think of.
A fun practice game is to use a set of dice. Treat the numbers you roll as the chord numbers. There’s no 7, obviously, but that keeps things simpler as you won’t have to worry about diminished chords. There are 1,296 possible combinations if you roll 4 dice, so this can game can definitely keep you busy if you like it.
Click the download button if the embedded PDF doesn’t display on your device. Happy picking!
“Ukulele Cheat Sheet – Exploring Chords in Common Keys” PDF Download
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