Moveable Major Chord Shapes Part 1 - Basic Major Chord Shapes

One of the funniest comments I've ever seen on a ukulele video was on a video of a performance by the incredible Taimane Gardner. She played up to what looked like the very last fret on that ukulele neck, and someone in the comments quipped, "Taimane paid for the whole ukulele, Taimane gonna use the whole ukulele." 

When I was a ukulele beginner, I often fantasized about being able to play all the way up the neck of the ukulele, but back then, I had absolutely no clue how to take those basic chord shapes that I was learning and move them around. 

Then around Christmastime, I decided to sign up for a year's worth of online ukulele lessons from ArtistWorks. It was actually kind of perfect - I knew I was going to be laid up for a while after having some major oral surgery, and I was still recovering from two herniated discs in my lower back, so why not take some online ukulele lessons? (I had absolutely no idea at the time that in just a couple of months, the world would shut down due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but hey, I was ready.) 

So anyway, one of the first things that I learned in these online ukulele lessons was - ta-da! - moveable chord shapes. But I struggled. My brain didn't want to understand. I caught on to the moveable C major chord shape pretty quickly, but after that, my brain just turned to pudding and I couldn't figure it out for the life of me. 

Then something happened. Or, actually, a lot of things happened. I took a couple of music theory classes with 4stringboy, aka Sammy Turton, where he taught something called the CAGED method for moving chords up the neck of the ukulele. I have to admit, it took me a little longer than I care to admit to get the hang of it, and again I focused mostly on the C major chord, but I felt it start to click. 

And then I decided to continue my uke-jitsu lessons with Andrew Molina, and we recently started going over what Andrew calls the major chord threads - a way you can move your major chord shapes up the neck of the ukulele by finding the common "threads" in each chord. 

EUREKA! That did it! I finally got it. So now, I'd love to impart some of this fun stuff to you and share what I know about the moveable major chord shapes. (There's more to learn and share, so consider this part 1, and I'll add more posts later when I learn more.)

Let's start by looking at some basic major chord shapes in first position (meaning that we play them near the bottom of the head stock near the first fret):

C Major Ukulele Chord

This is probably the very first chord that most of us learn on the ukulele because it's super easy to learn, and it's the tonic chord of the key that the ukulele is tuned. To play your basic everyday C major ukulele chord, you just press down on the third fret of the first string and give it a strum.

B flat Major Ukulele Chord

The B flat major ukulele chord takes a little bit of practice, but is definitely one of the best chords to master because of the versatility of the shape! To play it, press down on the first fret of the first and second strings, the second fret of the third string, and the third fret of the fourth string. 

F Major Ukulele Chord

F major is another important chord to know, mostly because it's used in one of the classic chord progressions - I IV V - that form the basis for literally thousands of popular songs. To play the F major ukulele chord, you press down on the first fret of the second string and the second fret of the fourth string. 

E Major Ukulele Chord

No other chord strikes fear into the hearts of ukulele players everywhere than the E major chord. (Full transparency here: even after mastering loads of bar chords and other four-finger chords, I still look for ways to transpose or substitute the E major ukulele chord for something else ANYTHING ELSE when it pops up in a song.) To play the E major ukulele chord, you press down on the second fret of the first string and the fourth fret of the second, third, and fourth strings. It's a tricky little doozer and maybe needs its very own blog post and video demonstration with tips for learning and playing it, but here's what it looks like in chord notation.

So what do all of these chord shapes have in common? Well, we're gonna be using them to play up the neck of our ukuleles! I mean, we paid for the whole ukulele, so we're gonna use the whole ukulele, right?

Stay tuned for Part 2 in a couple of days where I'll start talking about how we move these up the neck and then some tips for learning and practicing up the neck of the ukulele.