This article, “The G Shape Chord,” is the fourth in my CAGED Foundations series. Be sure to read the Introduction article and hop over to the Low G Knowledge Base to see all articles in the series as well as other helpful tools for learning low G ukulele.
There’s a downloadable PDF with all of the chord charts from this article at the end of the second page.
Today we are looking at the G shape chord. There’s a good chance the G chord was one of your first “challenges” on ukulele. As the V (5) chord in the key of C, it pops up all of the time, but it can look pretty intimidating to a beginner next to a C, Am, or F.
Here’s the (hopefully, by now) familiar G major chord:
Major chords are made of the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes of the major scale, also known as the root, the major third, and the perfect 5th. For the G major chord, those notes are:
G A B C D E F# 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Make the Ukulele G Shape Moveable
To make the G major chord moveable, we need to ignore the notes and only think about the intervals, or the numbers behind the notes – that 1, 3, and 5 I just mentioned. Here’s the chord again but with numbers for the intervals instead of the note names:
Now let’s turn the G chord into something you can move around and place anywhere you want on the neck:
This is now the G shape major chord. We call it a “G shape” out of convenience, but really it can be any major chord – you just have to put the 1’s on the root note of your choice. (The chord shown above is actually a G# because it’s shifted up one fret from the standard G chord.)
You’ll often hear this referred to as a “major chord shape with a root on the E string.” It also has a root on the G string, but it’s much easier to visualize the chord starting with the point of the triangle on the E string.
You play this shape by placing your pinky finger on the fret of your choice on the E string, placing your middle and ring fingers one fret up on the C and A strings, respectively, and then barring across all four strings with your index finger two frets up from your index and middle fingers.
That’s how I find it easiest to think of this chord, anyway. You don’t actually have to barre the full neck with your index finger. You really only need to be pressing down hard enough to make a clear note on the G string. I find the full barre gives me good leverage for the rest of the chord, but if you can’t manage it, don’t force it.
For those who find this shape too challenging, either with or without the barre, jump down to the “Make These Chords Easier to Play” section below.
Make the Ukulele G Shape Part of a Scale
Chords are more useful if you understand where the other notes of the parent scale fall on the fretboard. Knowing the relationship between chords and scales allows you to modify the chord without memorizing every conceivable shape and compose/arrange melodies in the key of the chord with ease.
Here’s what the G shape major scale looks like:
And here’s the moveable major chord shape within the scale:
Notice that I’ve shifted these up a fret from the original moveable chord diagram. These charts are actually showing the A major scale and chord so that all of the notes fall on the fretboard instead of having open strings.
Just remember: Wherever you put the 1, you are playing the major scale of that note. And within that scale, you can find all of the possible chords.
Chords live inside of scales. This is an important idea to wrap your head around. We’ll explore it a lot more as we learn to modify the G shape later in this article.
Make the Ukulele G Shape Minor
The chord modification we use most often is the minor. We use it so often that we don’t think of it as a modification of the major chord. We think of it as its own, independent thing, even though major and minor are closely related.
We get a minor chord by flatting the 3rd of a major chord, making the three notes of the minor chord the root (1), the minor 3rd (b3), and the perfect 5th (5).
Here’s what that looks like on the neck as a moveable shape related to our G shape:
The moveable G minor shape is a little easier to play than the moveable G major shape because your fingers aren’t jammed together quite as tightly. Locate the chord by placing your pinky on the root note on E just like the major shape, but this time, you’ll switch the positions of your middle and ring fingers – placing your ring finger one fret up on the C string and your middle finger two frets up on the A.
As with the major, you can form the full barre with your index finger for leverage, or you can just play the single note on the G string. Do whichever works best for you, or if you can’t manage the note on the low G at all, don’t worry, because I’m about to show you how to…
Make These Chords Easier to Play
The major and minor triad shapes of the G shape are essential to playing further up the neck. You’ll see them pop up in arrangements all the time because they work just as well on a high G uke as they do on a low G uke. The G string is left out alltogether, so the triads are functionally identical no matter what tuning you play.
Here’s the major triad shape:
Since you only need three fingers to play this shape, you can leave out the pinky. Play the point of the triangle with your ring finger on the E string. Tuck your index and middle fingers behind it one fret up on the C and A strings.
Here’s the moveable minor triad:
Put your ring finger on the root note of your choice on the E string, reach your middle finger across to grab the C string one fret up, and then place your index finger on the A string two frets up.
Both of these shapes have a full, bright sound that fits in well in many arrangements.
Continue to the next page to learn how to further modify the G Shape…
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