Ukulele Beginner Chord Chart

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Last Updated on July 11, 2026 by folkstrings

Standard GCEA tuning. Verified fingering positions for the 12 essential chords.

Easy

One finger on the third fret of the A string. Everything else open.

Easy

One finger on the second fret of the G string. Everything else open.

Easy

One finger on the first fret of the A string. Great for moving to F.

Easy

One finger on the first fret of the C string. Common in folk songs.

Medium

Two fingers: G string second fret, E string first fret.

Medium

Three fingers on C, E and A strings in a staircase pattern.

Medium

Three fingers on C, E and A strings. Very common in folk and pop.

Medium

Three fingers on the second fret of G, C and E strings.

Medium

Two fingers: G string second fret, C string first fret.

Medium

Three fingers: G and C at second fret, E at first fret.

Harder

G string open. C at fret 4, E at fret 3, A at fret 2.

Harder

G, C and E strings at fret 4. A string at fret 2.

How to read these diagrams: The four vertical lines are the strings (G C E A left to right). Horizontal lines are frets. Filled black circles show where to press. Open circles above the nut mean play that string open. A number to the right of a diagram shows the starting fret position.

Tool by Folkstrings.com — chord fingerings verified against multiple sources

The Chords You Need to Play Most Songs

The four most important chords on ukulele are C, G, Am and F. With those four you can play hundreds of folk, pop and rock songs without touching anything else. Learn those first — particularly the transitions between them — before moving on to D, Em or any of the other shapes.

C is the easiest chord on the instrument — one finger, third fret of the A string. Am is almost as easy — one finger on the G string. F requires two fingers and is the first real coordination challenge. G requires three fingers and is typically where beginners spend the most practice time because the shape feels awkward initially but becomes fast with repetition.

Tips for Learning Chord Transitions

The chord itself is not the hard part — the transition between chords is. Practice moving between two chords slowly before trying to play them in time. The most important transitions to master first are C to Am, C to F, and G to C. Once those feel smooth at slow speed, everything else follows more quickly.

A common mistake is lifting all fingers off the fretboard between chords and re-placing them individually. Instead, try to move all fingers simultaneously as a single unit. This drastically reduces transition time once the muscle memory develops.

For tuning and setup, see our ukulele tuning reference. For playing in different keys using a capo, see our ukulele capo chart.

Author Profile

Daniel Johnstone

Daniel Johnstone is an English writer and folk musician who has been playing stringed instruments for over twenty years. He started on guitar as a teenager before working his way through cavaco, tenor guitar, autoharp, mountain dulcimer, and harp. He founded Folkstrings.com to provide practical, experience-based buying advice for folk instrument players at every level — the kind of guidance he always wished had existed when he was finding his feet.