Learn to Play the F Major Chord on Ukulele
This lesson teaches you how to play the F Major chord on ukulele. This is an important chord to learn and will open up so many songs to you on ukulele. In fact, you only really need to know four chords, one of which is the F chord, to play so many songs. Go here to learn 4 easy beginner chords.
However, one of the unique things about the ukulele is that we can play chords in so many different shapes and places. So we’ll show you several different ways to play the F chord on ukulele.
How to play an easy F Major Chord
The F chord at its most basic only takes one finger to play. Place your first finger on the first fret of the second string. We only need to strum the top three strings to play this easy F chord. Strum through the top three strings with the flesh of your thumb.
Notes of the Easy F Major chord on ukulele
Like the C chord on ukulele, the F chord has open strings that make up the notes of the chord. The open strings of the ukulele are G-C-E-A. And the notes of the F Major chord are F-A-C. So you have two open strings (the first and the third strings) you can use to create F chords in different positions.
So let’s take the easy F chord on ukulele and add one finger at a time to create two other variants.
Open F Major Chords on Ukulele
Here are three F chords on ukulele that you can work up to one finger at a time. As we just looked at, the first and easiest version only requires one finger and three strings. The next two add one additional finger each.
When you place the second finger on the second fret of the fourth string for the second chord, be sure to place your fingertip with curl in your finger. This will make sure the underside of your finger is not covering up the open third string.
The third chord asks you to use your pinky. Be sure to place your other two fingers close to the fretwire so you can reach the fourth fret with your little finger.
Let’s try some other positions now
Next, let’s try the same approach of taking a simple chord and making it progressively more complex. For this F chord we’ll move up to eighth position. All that means is your first finger will play at the 8th fret.
To start, place your first finger on the eighth fret of the second string. Next, place your third finger on the tenth fret of the fourth string. Strum through all four strings with the flesh of your thumb.
Now, starting with the same chord, we’ll add the second finger to the ninth fret of the third string.
Finally, lay down your first finger to cover both the second and first strings at the eighth fret. This is called a barre or bar chord.
Let’s try one more
Finally, we’ll look at an F chord in fifth position that you can play one of three different ways.
The first version of this chord uses three fingers all scrunched up on the fifth fret while letting the first string ring open. To avoid a buzz on the fourth string, you need to try and get all the fingers close to the fretwire, which may require you to turn your wrist slightly to the left. But don’t overdo it!
If that one’s too difficult, we can try a barre chord, which only uses one finger. Here we use the first finger to play all of the lower three strings with a barre and letting the first string be open. This is a tricky chord because it requires you to bend the tip joint of the first finger inward. Otherwise your first finger will run into the first string and you won’t hear it ring.
The last version is a compromise between the two. Here you only need to cover the fourth and third strings with the barre with the first finger. And the second string is played by the second finger. This was a common fingering used for this type of chord in nineteenth-century guitar music.
***
We hope this introduction to the F chord on ukulele has helped you get more familiar with this essential ukulele chord. But this is just the tip of the iceberg!
First, go learn to play the C Major chord on ukulele.
Then, go here to learn easy three-finger chords you can move all over the fingerboard.
Leave A Comment