Guitar Chords to Ukulele: How to Convert Any Chord

Do Guitar Chords Work on Ukulele?

You already know your guitar chords. Then someone hands you a ukulele, you open a song you've played a hundred times, and the G chord you reach for comes out as a C.

Nothing is wrong with the ukulele, and nothing is wrong with you. You've just run into the one rule that connects the two instruments.

That one number — five — is the whole conversion. Everything else in this guide is that rule applied: a full chart of what each guitar shape becomes, three ways to handle a whole song, and the handful of chords that don't survive the move to four strings.

Why a Ukulele Is a Guitar With a Capo on Fret 5

A guitar in standard tuning is E A D G B E, low string to high. Cover up the two lowest strings and you're left with D G B E.

A ukulele is tuned G C E A. Line the two up and every ukulele string sits exactly five semitones — a perfect fourth — above the matching guitar string. D to G, G to C, B to E, E to A.

Five semitones is five frets. So if you clamp a capo on the 5th fret of a guitar, its top four strings play G, C, E and A: ukulele tuning. Pick a tuning below to see which guitar note each ukulele string really is.

The one asterisk is the G string. On most soprano, concert and tenor ukuleles it's tuned an octave higher than you'd expect, so the lowest note on the instrument is the C, not the G. That's called re-entrant tuning, and it's why a ukulele sounds bright and sparkly instead of like a small guitar.

For chord shapes, that octave makes no difference. A C chord is a C chord whichever octave its G lands in.

Same fingers, new name: a guitar shape on a ukulele is always five semitones higher.

If capos are new to you, the guitar capo chart covers the same idea from the guitar side: every fret you move up is one semitone higher.

Guitar to Ukulele Chord Chart

Every shape below has been checked note by note. Its top four strings on a guitar are exactly the standard ukulele fingering for the chord five semitones up. Pick a shape to see both boxes side by side. The purple strings are the ones the two instruments share.

And here is the whole map in one place:

A few patterns are worth noticing:

• The guitar's G family becomes the ukulele's C family. G, D, Em and C on guitar are C, G, Am and F on uke — the four chords a huge share of ukulele songs are built on.
• The guitar's E shape is the ukulele A, and E7 is A7. Both are easy, open grips on either instrument.
• The guitar F barre is the ukulele B♭. The chord that makes guitar beginners quit becomes the chord that makes ukulele beginners quit. Difficulty travels with the shape.

How to Convert a Guitar Chord Chart to Ukulele

If you have a guitar chord sheet and want to play the song on a ukulele, here is the whole method:

1. 1

   Leave the chord names alone

   A chord chart describes sound, not fingers. A G on a guitar chart is a G on a ukulele, so the key of the song does not change and nothing needs transposing.

2. 2

   Swap each guitar fingering for the ukulele one

   Look up the ukulele shape for every chord in the song. Most songs use four to six chords, and the common ones — C, G, Am, F, D and Em — are among the first shapes every ukulele player learns.

3. 3

   Simplify what four strings cannot hold

   Play slash chords without their bass note, so G/B becomes G. If a 9th, 11th or 13th chord is a stretch, play the 7th chord underneath it instead.

4. 4

   Move awkward keys somewhere friendlier

   If the song sits in a key that is hard on a ukulele — B and E are the usual offenders — transpose every chord by the same number of semitones into an easier key such as C, G or F.

5. 5

   Check the key against your voice

   The key is the same as on guitar, so if the original suited your voice it still will. If not, shift the whole chart up or down until the chorus sits comfortably.

Notice what isn't on that list: transposing the song. A chord chart describes what the music sounds like, not where your fingers go, so the names carry straight across. Transposing only comes in when you want a different key, not because you changed instrument.

Convert a Whole Song: Three Ways

There are three ways to get a guitar chart onto a ukulele, and they don't give the same result. Paste a chart below and switch between them:

• Same names, ukulele shapes. The right answer almost every time. You stay in the original key, you match the recording, and anyone playing from the same chart is with you.
• Same key, guitar shapes. Rename every chord five semitones down and finger the guitar shape for the new name. A G becomes a D shape, a C becomes a G shape. It gets you playing tonight, but the chart in front of you no longer matches anyone else's.
• Guitar shapes as written. Everything sounds a perfect fourth higher. A song in G comes out in C. Fine on your own if your voice likes it up there. Wrong as soon as someone plays along.

Guitar Chords That Don't Convert Cleanly

Four strings can't do everything six can. These are the places the conversion breaks, and what to play instead:

• Shapes with their root on the bass strings. Cmaj7, Am7, Amaj7, A7 and Cadd9 all keep their root note on the A or low E string. Take those strings away and the chord changes identity: the top four strings of a guitar Cmaj7 are just an E minor chord, and Am7's are a plain C. On a ukulele those grips play Am and F — not the Fmaj7 and Dm7 the five-semitone rule promises. Learn the real ukulele shapes for these.
• Slash chords. G/B or D/F♯ means a chord over a particular bass note. A ukulele has no bass string to play it on, so play the chord before the slash: G/B becomes G.
• Power chords and bass riffs. E5, A5 and anything built on the low strings has nowhere to go. Play the full major or minor chord instead.
• Big extended chords. A 13th chord has up to seven notes, and a ukulele has four strings. Ukulele charts quietly drop the less important notes or play the 7th chord underneath. Our transposer does the same.

And even when a shape converts perfectly, the sound won't. A ukulele has no low end, so a song that leans on a big open-guitar strum will feel lighter. That's not a mistake. It's the instrument.

Going the Other Way: Ukulele Chords on Guitar

The rule runs in reverse too. Chord names still don't change, so a ukulele songbook works on guitar as written once you learn the guitar shapes.

If you're a ukulele player picking up a guitar, though, your shapes are a head start. Play them on the guitar's top four strings and they sound five semitones lower:

• Ukulele C shape (one finger on the 3rd fret of the A string) → guitar G
• Ukulele F shape → guitar C
• Ukulele G shape → guitar D
• Ukulele Am shape → guitar Em

Strum only the top four strings at first. Once those feel natural, add the bass strings by learning the full six-string versions. The easiest guitar keys for beginners are a good place to start, since G and C will feel familiar already.

Baritone Ukulele: No Conversion Needed

A baritone ukulele is tuned D G B E: the same four notes, in the same octave, as the top four strings of a guitar. For a guitarist, that makes it the easiest ukulele there is.

Every shape in the chart above is a baritone shape for the same chord name. A guitar G grip on a baritone is a G. No five-semitone rule, no renaming, nothing to convert.

The catch shows up in the other direction. Most ukulele songbooks draw their chord boxes for G C E A tuning. Play those standard diagrams on a baritone and everything sounds five semitones lower. The soprano-to-baritone converter draws both grips for any chord.

Guitar to Ukulele Questions, Answered