Beginner songs that utilize C F G7 chords?

bwbollom

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Hi everyone!

I'm very new here...just posted my introduction over in that area if you'd like to know more about me. I'm really loving this site and the forums especially and thought I'd finally stop lurking and join up so I could ask a couple of questions and hopefully be a participating member as I start my ukulele journey.

As I said in my introduction post, I have absolutely no string instrument background, so picking up the ukulele has been quite an experience! I'm loving it, but I'm also kind of lost a lot of the time. The fact that I have basically zero musical instrument background makes things a little difficult, but it's also fun. When something starts to sound almost right it's a serious breakthrough!

Anyway, I have one question that I really am hoping that people here might be able to answer. In a lot of the intro and beginner sites and pages, they teach you to play the C F and G7 chords and maybe a song (ie Twinkle Twinkle Little Star) and then say something to the effect of "with just learning those three chords, you can play hundreds of songs!" But then they don't really show any other examples. I've been looking through lots of sites online and it has been difficult to find examples of songs utilizing those chords (or maybe I'm just not looking in the right place).

I'd like to keep practicing with those chords and maybe add in one other here and there on songs just until I get comfortable with finger placements, strumming, etc. and not have to keep resorting to Twinkle Twinkle and the like. Is there a site that sorts songs by difficulty or by chords? Or maybe that lets you search by chords utilized? Or does anyone have a good list of songs that use those three chords (and maybe adds one additional)?

I'm sorry if this has been asked often. I tried searching and tried going back a few pages and didn't see anything. If there is a link to a previous thread on the subject, that would be great too.

Thanks!
 
Try Twist 'N Shout by the Beatles.

C / F / G7 ///
 
Check out some beginners books at Musicguymike's or on Amazon. Most Ukulele beginner books use the basic three chords C, F and G7 as they are the easiest to learn.

Good Luck
 
my kids' favorite song for a long time, was "on top of Spaghetttttiiiiii, all covered with cheese." I think it starts C-F-C-G7-C
 
Here's 62 two chord songs.
you can use F and C7 or C and G7 or G and D7. If you don't know the tunes, look them up on youtube. Great practice songs for beginners.
 
Three chord songs, G, C, and D.

all shook up
all together now
barbara ann
ballad of john and yoko
be bop a lula
bye bye love
carry that weight
chantilly lace
do wah diddy diddy
hound dog
give peace a chance
donna
409
get back
gloria
great balls of fire
hang on sloopy
hanky panky
i fought the law
kansas city
la bamba
long tall sally
love me do
paperback writer
rock around the clock
rock this town
see see rider
rockin' robin
save the last dance
see you later alligator
shake rattle and roll
spanish harlem
stir it up
stuck on you
surfin usa
the twist
twist and shout
we can work it out
wooly bully
yakety yak
when will i be loved
mellow yellow
 
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Do you know about chordie.com? Most of the above songs you can find there.
 
Yes Sir Thats my Baby, C, G, G7, C7, F

and here's the chordie site for you to bookmark huge # of songs that will send you mad eventually ......hint most songs on here will print out with the ukulele chord pics, look left hand side to change from guitar to uke C tuning

And also give Ring of Fire a whirl, 3 chords C, D, G, its a buzz when you can do the "ring of fire" chorus at speed, but not difficult, and a hint for the D chord, the end of your finger will be over the edge of the fretboard, try and get a feeling for where that point on your finger is, make a mental note, it makes it quicker I think to memorize the chord shape/spot in your brain.

Happy strumming, I'm not much down the road from you and with no musical background either!!

Cheers, Tony
 
learn "island style". great hawaiian song and only uses c, g7, f, and c7 chords :shaka:
 
Check out some beginners books at Musicguymike's or on Amazon. Most Ukulele beginner books use the basic three chords C, F and G7 as they are the easiest to learn.

Good Luck

I'll check them out, thanks! I picked up one book while in Hawaii that has been helpful. I checked my local Barnes & Noble yesterday but there were absolutely no ukulele books for sale! I guess we're just not a big uke city, which I understand, but it's still surprising that there were none. I guess online resources and Amazon are the way to go.

my kids' favorite song for a long time, was "on top of Spaghetttttiiiiii, all covered with cheese." I think it starts C-F-C-G7-C

Awesome! Thanks! I bet that is fun and I want a few that I can play for a class full of kids.

Here's 62 two chord songs.
you can use F and C7 or C and G7 or G and D7. If you don't know the tunes, look them up on youtube. Great practice songs for beginners.

Wow, sweet! Thanks!

Three chord songs, G, C, and D.

all shook up
all together now
barbara ann
ballad of john and yoko
be bop a lula
bye bye love
carry that weight
chantilly lace
do wah diddy diddy
hound dog
give peace a chance
donna
409
get back
gloria
great balls of fire
hang on sloopy
hanky panky
i fought the law
kansas city
la bamba
long tall sally
love me do
paperback writer
rock around the clock
rock this town
see see rider
rockin' robin
save the last dance
see you later alligator
shake rattle and roll
spanish harlem
stir it up
stuck on you
surfin usa
the twist
twist and shout
we can work it out
wooly bully
yakety yak
when will i be loved
mellow yellow

Do you know about chordie.com? Most of the above songs you can find there.

Thanks for all of those! Great collection, lots of excellent songs! I have been to chordie.com, but I didn't really know what I was doing there. I'll have to pick one of the songs, look it up and just explore the site that way a little more instead of getting completely lost like last time :) Thanks!

Yes Sir Thats my Baby, C, G, G7, C7, F

and here's the chordie site for you to bookmark huge # of songs that will send you mad eventually ......hint most songs on here will print out with the ukulele chord pics, look left hand side to change from guitar to uke C tuning

And also give Ring of Fire a whirl, 3 chords C, D, G, its a buzz when you can do the "ring of fire" chorus at speed, but not difficult, and a hint for the D chord, the end of your finger will be over the edge of the fretboard, try and get a feeling for where that point on your finger is, make a mental note, it makes it quicker I think to memorize the chord shape/spot in your brain.

Happy strumming, I'm not much down the road from you and with no musical background either!!

Cheers, Tony

Thanks for the link and info on chordie! I definitely need to get back on there and figure out what I'm doing. Sounds like a great resource. I also really want to learn Ring of Fire...that sounds like a lot of fun :) I'm having a blast so far even though I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing! When "Twinkle Twinkle" started sounding like an actual song and not like "kerplunk kerplunk" I was shocked! I know I'm not ready to move on to anything difficult, but I'm ready to move on to something easy but a little more fun...something that I could show to friends.

Thanks to everyone for all of the info! The site was already great when I was just lurking, but now it's basically awesome :D
 
Remember, any guitar music works on ukulele, same chords just different chord positions. My G, C, D list is from a 3 chord guitar book.
 
learn "island style". great hawaiian song and only uses c, g7, f, and c7 chords :shaka:

That sounds fun! Definitely going on the list, thanks!

Remember, any guitar music works on ukulele, same chords just different chord positions. My G, C, D list is from a 3 chord guitar book.

I never really thought about it, but that completely makes sense. Don't know why I didn't think of that...guess my lack of background in this area is starting to show :) Thanks...that helps!
 
Three chord songs, G, C, and D.

Nice list! These songs could also be played with C, F, and G7 (or plain ol' G) being the "three chords".

That way you can put off having to learn D for another few days. :p

JJ
 
Learn Am, 1 finger middle finger-G string. Then you will gave C-Am-F-G. easy transitions, and thousands of song, the ultimate in progressions for beginners. Also Chordie will allow you to transpose keys, if you don't know how to transpose, check back, someone will help, it's easy.
 
Learn Am, 1 finger middle finger-G string. Then you will gave C-Am-F-G. easy transitions, and thousands of song, the ultimate in progressions for beginners. Also Chordie will allow you to transpose keys, if you don't know how to transpose, check back, someone will help, it's easy.

Dittos on the learning to use the transpose tool. Once you do that, you can let chordie transpose most simple 3 chord songs you find in other keys to C, F, G7.
 
You can find some songs here:

http://www.doctoruke.com/beginners.html

Keep in mind that there are millions of three chord songs using the I, IV, V chords. If some of them are in a different key, for example G, C, D7, you can easily play them in the key that is comfortable. Sometimes it may not be as good a key to sing, but it is a good way to start.

Try this as well

http://www.box.net/shared/qb46mv1nrf
 
Remember, any guitar music works on ukulele, same chords just different chord positions. My G, C, D list is from a 3 chord guitar book.

I did not know this, i now love you ;) since you have just given me the ability to play all the songs i used to play on guitar.
That really is cool, i've just spent an hour playing some Hank Williams on the uke from guitar chords :)
Tomorrow i shall try some Oasis guitar chords on the uke.
I am now in your debt :)
 
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Here's another trick to make you fall in love with me. A trick my first uke teacher taught me. How to transpose a song without using a transpose tool. If your original song is in the key of C and you want it in the key of G, do this:

Key of C - C D E F G A B C
Key of G - G A B C D E F G

Any C chord in the song is now a G, any D chord in the song is now an A, etc.

Works in any keys. If there are sharps, flats, etc, just move them over too. Some keys take a little tweaking, F to Bb etc, but soon your ear will pick up the mistakes and you'll make the adjustments.
 
Nice list! These songs could also be played with C, F, and G7 (or plain ol' G) being the "three chords".

That way you can put off having to learn D for another few days.

JJ

Good to know...I'll definitely have to try that out! Thanks!

Learn Am, 1 finger middle finger-G string. Then you will gave C-Am-F-G. easy transitions, and thousands of song, the ultimate in progressions for beginners. Also Chordie will allow you to transpose keys, if you don't know how to transpose, check back, someone will help, it's easy.

That's the kind of stuff I'm going to be looking for...how to add in just one more chord and add a whole lot of additional songs. Thanks for the tip! I'll start working on Am as soon as I get the first three down pretty solid :)

Dittos on the learning to use the transpose tool. Once you do that, you can let chordie transpose most simple 3 chord songs you find in other keys to C, F, G7.

Sounds like I have a lot to pick up on

You can find some songs here:

http://www.doctoruke.com/beginners.html

Keep in mind that there are millions of three chord songs using the I, IV, V chords. If some of them are in a different key, for example G, C, D7, you can easily play them in the key that is comfortable. Sometimes it may not be as good a key to sing, but it is a good way to start.

Try this as well

http://www.box.net/shared/qb46mv1nrf

Thanks for those!

I did not know this, i now love you since you have just given me the ability to play all the songs i used to play on guitar.
That really is cool, i've just spent an hour playing some Hank Williams on the uke from guitar chords
Tomorrow i shall try some Oasis guitar chords on the uke.
I am now in your debt

That's pretty cool!

Here's another trick to make you fall in love with me. A trick my first uke teacher taught me. How to transpose a song without using a transpose tool. If your original song is in the key of C and you want it in the key of G, do this:

Key of C - C D E F G A B C
Key of G - G A B C D E F G

Any C chord in the song is now a G, any D chord in the song is now an A, etc.

Works in any keys. If there are sharps, flats, etc, just move them over too. Some keys take a little tweaking, F to Bb etc, but soon your ear will pick up the mistakes and you'll make the adjustments.

I'm going to tuck that info away for later also :)
 
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