Easy Ukulele Songs Sorted by Chords and Strumming Skill
The easiest ukulele songs use one or two chords and change chord no more often than every two bars, and a beginner with a clean C and G7 can play them in the first week. Three-chord songs that change every bar or two come next, and songs with four or more chords, or a change inside the bar, come last. Every song below is public domain and sorted into those three tiers, with the chords in the key we recommend, the meter, the change rate, one strum in counted beats, and the skill it builds, so the same method sorts any song you find.
Three questions that sort every song
A bar is one group of beats. In 4/4 meter, the most common, a bar holds four beats and you count 1, 2, 3, 4 and start again. Meter is how the beats group: 4/4 in fours, 3/4 in threes, which is a waltz, and 6/8 in six quick beats felt as two long pulses.
Three questions decide how hard a song is to strum.
1. How many different chord shapes does it use? Count the distinct chord symbols on the chart. One or two is tier one, three is tier two, four or more is tier three.
2. How often does the chord change? Take the gap between chord symbols that fills most of the song and count the beats in it. Every two bars or slower is tier one, every bar is tier two, and every two beats, inside the bar, is tier three whatever the chord count. A quicker return to the home chord on the last word of a verse, a cadence, does not move a song up on its own.
3. What are the meter and tempo? A change every bar at a slow 3/4 gives the hand three unhurried beats; at a brisk 4/4 it gets four fast ones. Tempo moves a song within a tier, not between tiers.
The higher of the first two answers sets the tier, so a three-chord song that changes every two bars sits in tier two and one that changes inside the bar sits in tier three. Change rate matters most. A beginner can hold almost any shape given time; what fails is the move between shapes.
Every song here was in print by 1896, when Red River Valley, the youngest, was first published. The Public Domain Information Project states the United States rule: music and lyrics published in 1930 or earlier are public domain, so a video of you playing them carries no license question.
The four shapes and the tuning under them
A standard ukulele is tuned G C E A from the string nearest your face to the string nearest the floor, with the G tuned high, above the C. That arrangement is called reentrant tuning, and the Wikipedia entry on the ukulele describes the G string as tuned above the C, an octave higher than a guitarist would expect. Set a clip-on tuner to chromatic, the mode that reads any note, or to ukulele mode, and our guide to tuning a guitar or ukulele covers the rest.
Every song below except Greensleeves sits in the key of C, because C uses the shapes with the fewest fingers. Written as the fret held on each string from G to A, C is 0003, one finger on the A string at the third fret. A minor is 2000, one finger on the G string at the second fret. F is 2010, two fingers. G is 0232 and G7 is 0212, three fingers each. G7 puts the index on the E string at the first fret, with the middle on the C string and the ring on the A string at the second. The songs use G7 wherever the chart allows, since it costs the same effort as G and sounds right.
The strums are written in beats. A downstroke is the thumb or index finger brushing from the G string toward the floor, written D; an upstroke is the return trip, written U. “D DU D DU” means a downstroke on beat 1, a down and an up on beat 2, a downstroke on 3, and a down and an up on 4. Our guide to online ukulele lessons for beginners covers the instrument to buy and the first month of lessons.
Tier one: one or two chords, a change every two bars or slower
Frère Jacques. Key of C, one chord, C. 4/4. No changes. Strum: down on 1, 2, 3, 4. The skill is a clean one-finger C held for a whole song while the right hand keeps time, and because the song is a round, a second player can start the same tune two bars later on the same chord.
Row, Row, Row Your Boat. Key of C, one chord, C. 6/8. Strum: down on 1 and down on 4, one stroke per pulse. The skill is feeling a bar as two long swings instead of counting six, the feel Greensleeves asks for in tier three.
Skip to My Lou. Key of C, two chords, C and G7. 4/4. A change every two bars until the last line, where C returns after one bar of G7, verse and chorus alike. Strum: D DU D DU. The skill is the first real change, landing G7 on beat 1 of the third bar while the strumming hand keeps moving.
Oh My Darling, Clementine. Key of C, two chords, C and G7. 3/4. A change every two bars or slower, with C held for most of each line. Strum: down on 1, 2, 3, with the 1 a little louder. The skill is counting in three while the fretting hand rests on a shape for bars at a time.
Tier two: three chords, a change every bar or two
Camptown Races. Key of C, three chords, C and G7 in the verse, with F joining in the chorus. 2/4, two beats to a bar, so a change every two bars here is only four beats apart. Strum: D DU, a downstroke on 1 and a down and up on 2. The skill is F, the first two-finger shape, arriving in the chorus after a verse on familiar shapes, and the quick two-beat bar.
Red River Valley. Key of C, three chords, C, F and G7. 4/4. A change every two bars, with a G7 that lasts two full bars. Strum: D DU UDU, the pattern that carries most strummed songs. The skill is keeping that pattern running unchanged through a change.
Amazing Grace. Key of C, three chords, C, F and G7. 3/4. A change every one or two bars, and the melody starts one beat before the first bar, which musicians call a pickup. Strum: D DU DU, a downstroke on 1, then down and up on 2 and on 3. The skill is counting in so the first chord lands on beat 1 after the pickup note.
Tier three: four chords or more, or a change inside the bar
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. Key of C, three chords, C, F and G7. 4/4. The opening line runs C for a bar, then F and C sharing a bar, F and C again, then G7 and C, and the middle two lines change chord on beats 1 and 3 of every bar. Strum: down on 1, 2, 3, 4. The skill is the half-bar change, including the F to C move, which lifts two fingers and lands one with nothing shared between the shapes. The song most beginners start with lands here because of how often it moves, not what it moves to.
Auld Lang Syne. Key of C, four chords, C, G7, F and Am. 4/4. A change every two beats through the second half of each line. Strum: D DU D DU. The skill is the half-bar change, arriving on A minor and leaving it within two beats.
Aura Lee. Key of C, five chords, C, D7, G7, Am and E7. 4/4. A change every bar in the verse and every two beats through the chorus. Strum: down on 1, 2, 3, 4. The skill is chords from outside the first four shapes. D7 is 2020, two fingers at the second fret on the G and E strings, and E7 is 1202, index on the G string at the first fret with middle and ring at the second fret on the C and A strings. Both are seventh chords that pull toward the chord after them.
Greensleeves. Key of A minor, five chords, Am, G, F, E7 and C. 6/8, which is how most songbooks print it. A change every bar, and every three beats at the ends of lines. Strum: down on 1 and down on 4. The skill is the three-finger G held under a moving melody, and a song whose home chord is minor, so the ear stops expecting C to be the place of rest.
How to move up a tier
The drill that moves a song into your hands is the change on its own, with no strumming: two shapes, back and forth, slowly, until the fingers land together. Then the same two shapes with the strum at a slow tempo, changing on beat 1 of every other bar, then every bar. Then the song. Our guide to how long it takes to learn ukulele puts a first song within a week or two and a comfortable repertoire by month three for a student who practices this way, roughly one tier a month. Our guide to ukulele strumming patterns that survive a chord change counts that drill out slot by slot and shows which shapes share a finger.
Fifteen to twenty minutes a day, five or six days a week, is the schedule behind that timeline and beats one long weekend session, as our guide to how much you should practice explains. Split it in three: the change alone, the same two chords strummed in time, and a song you want to play. Our guide to practicing music at home covers where to keep the instrument so the fifteen minutes happen.
A teacher’s main job at this stage is the right hand. What keeps a student in tier one is the strumming hand stopping while the fretting hand rebuilds the next shape, and a student cannot see themselves doing it. Over video a teacher watches the right hand keep moving through the change, counts the pattern aloud until it runs on its own, and picks the next song. Record yourself every four to six weeks. The pause between chords shrinks too slowly to hear day to day and too clearly to miss over a month.
How to Find a Ukulele Teacher on Tunelark
Tunelark connects you with deeply vetted teachers who teach online. Every Tunelark teacher is vetted by working musicians and educators for teaching quality before they can list. No general recruiter is involved, and every teacher sets their own rate and shows it on their profile. Scheduling, billing and support are handled for you.
- Browse teachers at tunelark.com/find-a-teacher and filter for ukulele.
- Read bios for teachers who welcome beginners.
- Book a trial lesson at $25 off the teacher’s 30-minute rate, with one tier-one song ready to play.
- Ask yourself afterward whether the teacher changed something about your strumming hand or your changes. That is the lesson working.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the easiest ukulele song to play?
A one-chord song, and most two-chord songs can be practiced as one-chord songs for the first few days: strum C throughout and sing over it. The bars that want G7 sound slightly sour for a moment, and the right hand learns the whole song before the left hand has to move.
How many chords do I need to play most easy ukulele songs?
C, F and G7 cover every tier-one and tier-two song in this list, and adding Am, G, D7 and E7 covers tier three. When a chart shows a song in G or D, most chord sites have a transpose control that moves it into C, where the same seven shapes do the work.
Should I strum with my thumb or my index finger?
The thumb gives a softer sound and is easier to control for the down-only strums in tier one. Once up strums arrive, the index finger works better, because the nail catches the strings on the way down and the pad catches them on the way up, which the thumb does less evenly.
What does D DU UDU mean?
It is one bar of 4/4. Downstroke on beat 1, down and up on beat 2, an upstroke alone on the second half of beat 3, then down and up on beat 4. The missing downstroke on beat 3 gives the pattern its lilt, and the hand still swings down on 3 without touching the strings, so the timing holds.
Can I sing while playing these songs?
Start by humming the melody over a tier-one song with the down-on-every-beat strum, since a steady hand is easier to sing over. Singing through chord changes usually arrives around month three, and tier one is where to try it, because a change every two bars leaves room for the voice to lead.
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About Jennifer Heath
I'm Jennifer Heath, VP of Operations at Tunelark and a lifelong singer. I joined the company in 2020 and oversee much of what makes Tunelark work for students and teachers: hiring, training and supporting our instructors, student support, marketing and day-to-day operations. I started voice lessons at 7 and sang with touring choirs through my teens. Music belongs in every life, for the self-expression, the discipline, the comfort and the simple joy of it.
