guitar to ukulele chords?

austin1

austin1

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hi everyone!

super quick question: I've been looking up simple songs online to play, and there's a few where no one's posted the ukulele chords on the internet. So I was wondering, can you simply play the ukulele off guitar chords? What I mean is, if the guitar chords to a song are g c f (or whatever), can those be played just as they are on the ukulele, or does some sort of guitar-to-uke translation need to go on?

Thanks very much!
 
yay to guitar chords and uke chords being interchangeable.
but...
when i play a "G" on a uke... how come i have to play a "D" on a guitar.
is russ_buss referring to just playing the uke and reading off of guitar music... and playing it in a different key than the guitar?

my question is... are uke chords 3 notes higher than guitar chords?
so if guitar sheet music says play a "D" chord... so on the uke i should play a "G" chord to be in the same key?
 
Choboy said:
yay to guitar chords and uke chords being interchangeable.
but...
when i play a "G" on a uke... how come i have to play a "D" on a guitar.
is russ_buss referring to just playing the uke and reading off of guitar music... and playing it in a different key than the guitar?

my question is... are uke chords 3 notes higher than guitar chords?
so if guitar sheet music says play a "D" chord... so on the uke i should play a "G" chord to be in the same key?
Click to expand...

You're talking about shapes. A G chord on the ukulele looks like a guitar-style D chord, but it's still a G chord.

So if guitar sheet music says play a D chord, you still play a D chord on the ukulele, it'll just look like the way you play an A chord on the guitar.

Does that make sense?
 
austin1 said:
hi everyone!

super quick question: I've been looking up simple songs online to play, and there's a few where no one's posted the ukulele chords on the internet. So I was wondering, can you simply play the ukulele off guitar chords? What I mean is, if the guitar chords to a song are g c f (or whatever), can those be played just as they are on the ukulele, or does some sort of guitar-to-uke translation need to go on?

Thanks very much!
Click to expand...

A GCEA uke is tuned like gutar with a capo at the 5th fret. So if your referece point is the guitar shapes/names. You can figure out what chord sound that shape makes on the Uke. Look at the two lines below

A-A#-B-C-C#-D-D#-E-F-F#-G-G# This Guitar Shape/name played on a Uke
D-D#-E-F-F#-G-G#-A-A#-B-C-C# Makes this chord sound on the Uke

So a guitar chord shape played on a uke makes a chord sound that is 5 semitones or 5 1/2 steps higher than the chord sound made on the guitar.

G = A C = F , etc.
 
austin1 said:
can you simply play the ukulele off guitar chords?
Click to expand...
Yes. There are two ways to play a song with guitar chords:
  1. Play the chord shapes as shown.
  2. Play the ukulele chords that are the same key as the guitar chords (i.e. the guitar chord shows D as 000232 and you play 2220)
Guitar songs may be written for the way a song sounds using those shapes, not just that key. For example, C-Am-F-G on the guitar sounds quite different from C-Am-F-G on the uke, even taking into account the pitch difference. To me it sounds better to play the shapes - which in ukespeak becomes F-Dm-Bb-C. It really depends on the song itself.

You may want to get a chord wheel to help transpose keys, too. You can find serval online including mine here. Useful things to have when trying to swap keys.
 
I have a picking song tab that I want to transpose. But the song is capoed at the 2nd fret and trying to transpose this is giving me a headache. Any ideas to help?
 
Myala509 said:
I have a picking song tab that I want to transpose. But the song is capoed at the 2nd fret and trying to transpose this is giving me a headache. Any ideas to help?
Click to expand...

Post the link to the guitar tabs in the song help section and maybe someone will help ya.
 
Why is this thread still dragging on? The question was answered by the first response. If it tells you to play (for example) a D chord, that's exactly what you do. It doesn't matter whether you are playing a uke, a guitar, a piano, or whatever.

Why is it necessary to consider how you might play it on a guitar? If you are playing a uke, think uke.

Ukantor.
 
ukantor said:
Why is it necessary to consider how you might play it on a guitar? If you are playing a uke, think uke.

Ukantor.
Click to expand...

I think the main reason for the thread was that there seems to be a HUGE wealth of songs/chords/tabs on the internet that you can easily find for the guitar. However finding those things for the ukulele is much more difficult, unless you know what to look for. So I think that's why... Also the thread was still going because the OP sprouted another question by someone else that had not been completely answered. Don't hate appreciate :D:shaka:
 
So who is hating? If it makes it easier for you to think about the uke in terms of a guitar, then do it.

PEACE & LOVE,:music::shaka::rolleyes:

Ukantor.
 
So I just got a Bluegrass Banjo Book, can I use the Banjo chords ?????? :D:D :wallbash:
 
ukantor said:
Why is this thread still dragging on? The question was answered by the first response. If it tells you to play (for example) a D chord, that's exactly what you do. It doesn't matter whether you are playing a uke, a guitar, a piano, or whatever.

Why is it necessary to consider how you might play it on a guitar? If you are playing a uke, think uke.

Ukantor.
Click to expand...

Geez. sorry.

Thanks everyone for your answers!
 
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