How do you convert guitar chords into ukulele chords?

Jenny Peters playing ukulele with her son Josh on the guitar.

The easiest way to play ukulele chords on a guitar is to put a capo on the fifth fret of the guitar and then play the ukulele chords on the first four strings of the guitar. Those four strings are tuned in the same intervals as the ukulele. You can think of the ukulele as a smaller and higher pitched younger cousin to the guitar.

A G chord on the guitar is a C chord on ukulele; a D7 on guitar is a G7 on ukulele and so on. Lots of guitar songs are in G major and use the four chords G, Em, C and D7. These songs go over to ukulele really easily as a C, Am, F, G7 progression. The pitch of the ukulele fits my voice better, so I just use the same chord shapes on ukulele that I would use on guitar and I am ready to go.

By the way, you can learn the C, Am, F and G7 chords in our first book, 21 Songs in 6 Days.

If you are going the other way and are playing ukulele with guitar players, go online to get the ukulele tab for that song. Sites I frequently use to download ukulele tab are ultimate-Guitar.com, doctoruke.com, and azlyrics.com.

After awhile, you’ll learn all the basic chords on ukulele, and be able to play with anyone.

Here is another post on reading guitar tabs: how to read guitar tabs. And, here is a post on reading ukulele tabs: how to read ukulele tabs. Both of these posts teach you how to play the melody on your instrument.

Check out our recommended products page if you’re looking to purchase a capo or other ukulele accessories.