Different Chord Same Sound?

I am trying to learn Somewhere over the rainbow. But Chords F and Am both sound the same. Is this correct?

If not what am I doing wrong?

Look at the fingering on the two chords, there is only one note different.
Make sure you have four clear/clean notes on each chord. (no dead notes from sloppy fingering)
Make sure you are strumming all four strings evenly and/or you strings have a balanced sound.

F is F A C
Am is A C E

Without a real bass note in the re-entrant C tuning, gCEA for chords. They will sound the same. They share two notes and are some times used a substitutes for each other.

I you are using the open position Am and F chords. Then try a different voicing, up the neck for one of the chords.

eg (string 4,3,2,1)

Am 2000
F 5553

of 3020 for F and 5452 for Am.

They will sound a little different.

Curt

as noted above the only difference between the two chords is the second string--open in A minor and first fret in F. Fourth string is second fret in both chords.

F chord A min
0-- 0--
1-- 0--
0-- 0--
2-- 2--

The first position F and Am chords on a reentrant-tuned ("normal") uke are both inversions with a C in the bass (that open third string). and there is only a 1/2 step difference between the E and F on the second string. Still, you should be able to hear the difference though it's not extremely pronounced. If you're new to music then your ear is still developing, and if you're coming from a guitar background you're probably just not used to hearing those inversions often. Once you've been playing uke a while your ear will pick up the difference quite easily. Oh, and don't feel bad - I still sometimes have trouble picking out the transition from G to C/G and vice versa on guitar in a live band situation.

John