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In this set of articles we will being going through the chords that it is essential for every beginner ukulele player player to learn. Starting with everyone’s first chord: C.

Almost everyone learns the C chord first on the ukulele. It is simple to play and crops up a great deal in many songs. Indeed, the whole musical scale is based around C.

You might think that A, being the first letter of the alphabet, would be the first letter in music. But that is not the case. It is standard to start with C.

If you’ve ever played piano, you’ll know that the C major scale is played using only the white notes – it doesn’t have any sharps or flats. Because of this, it is using as the standard in music.

This is why it is best to learn the C chord first. Take your third finger on your left hand (or right hand if you are left handed) and place it on the string nearest the floor (the A string) on fret three.

You can find the third fret by counting up from the end of the neck of your uke. You need to press down on the gap between the second and third fret bars.

Exactly whereabouts you hold it down depends on the size of ukulele. For soprano ukuleles, it’s perfectly fine to press down in the middle of the fret (the frets are so small that it is difficult to do it any other way).

For larger ukuleles – such as tenor and baritone ukuleles – you want to fret a little closer to the third fret bar. But be careful not to get too close. If you do get too close to the third fret bar you will start to hear the string buzzing which will distract from the tone significantly.

The buzzing sound can also be caused by having a poorly made ukulele. If you can’t get rid of the buzzing no matter how carefully you fret, you might want to think about upgrading to a new uke.

There is an art to getting the force used to fret a note just right. If you don’t hear the note ringing clearly, you may not be holding the string down with enough force. If the notes you are playing sound out of tune, it may be that you are holding them down too hard.

Play the note you are fretting on its own. Can you hear it clearly? Does it sound as bright as the other strings? And is it in tune?

One way to check you are fretting correctly is to play the a string at the third fret and the C string open at the same time. If they sound good together, you are fretting correctly.

Once you have your finger on the A string and it is ringing clearly, you are done. All the other strings are played open for a C chord.

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