Are guitar chords supposed to work on the ukulele?

aleksxoxo

Well-known member
Joined
May 30, 2012
Messages
135
Reaction score
0
Location
Puerto Rico
like is an A on the guitar the same as an A on the ukulele?

I heard that somewhere here on the forums, but I looked up the chords to a song I want to learn and only found the chords for the guitar. (not chord shapes, I know they're definitely not the same on both instruments)

See this is the song:


Here are the guitar chords:
http://www.azchords.com/r/reik-tabs-26729/yoquisieraser-tabs-234644.html

When I play those chords on my uke, it does not sound right. So is it that they wrote the chords wrong or chords for the guitar aren't the same for the ukulele?
 
Yes, an A is an A....guitar or ukulele or mandolin or whatever. Same goes for other chords. Just go ahead and play the chords which are in the song you linked to, sing along, and have a blast!

Some funky guitar chords are difficult on ukulele because of the shorter scale and four strings, but those types of chords aren't used in the vast majority of music I play, so knowing a lot of major and minor and some seventh chords will get you a long way!
 
A lot of the chords shown on tab sites are not the original chords used by the artist. They're transposed to a key suited for an individual's vocal range.
 
Last edited:
As long as you know and play the corresponding ukulele chord, play away using the guitar chords.
 
An A chord is an A chord no matter what instrument you play it on (well...no, no, we won't go so deep in the theory as to cover exceptions).

However, it is very common to find chord "lead sheets" on the internet that are in a different key than the song was famously performed and recorded. In that case it will still be "right" if you play it in the different key by yourself - but not if you are trying to play with the recording or with others who are playing in some other key.

Then, there are many, many cases where lead sheets found on the internet are for very simplified versions of a song. A lot of the chord inversions, passing chords, etc., that give a song a special appeal are missing in these simplified arrangements.

Finally, there are many, many cases where lead sheets found on the internet are just plain wrong; imagine that, innacurate information on the internet, who'd have thunk it! :)

John
 
Just remember, the uke is like the guitar capoed on the 5th fret. For example, the guitar fingering of the D chord on the uke is a G chord. If you know guitar chords, then look at a uke chord chart. You'll see what I'm saying.
 
When I play those chords on my uke, it does not sound right. So is it that they wrote the chords wrong or chords for the guitar aren't the same for the ukulele?

Neither. Those are the right chords, and it doesn't matter what instrument you play them on. I just strummed away on my uke with the video using those chords and it worked fine.

So maybe your uke isn't tuned correctly? Or you're not playing them correctly?

Or maybe you're just noticing the differences in the voicing of the chords (the order in which the notes occur, basically) between the guitar in the recording and your uke?

JJ
 
Not all arrangements sound good or and will not all will work and sound good to match your voice.. try different arrangements for the same songs on other uke or guitar links..
Transposing will not improve a bad arrangement...but it will work to match your voice
 
Top Bottom