Welcome to day 1 of this free Ukulele starter course!

This course presumes no prior knowledge of Ukulele. The video below begins with choosing an Ukulele and getting your Uke in tune etc, if you need help with that, see this page here.

​Day 1 Chords 

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Strumming a Ukulele - With pick or without?

We mostly strum a pick with the nail and tip of the first finger. Only use a pick if you really don’t want to damage your nails at all or because of your personal preference. Ukulele picks are thicker and softer then guitar picks to get a better sound from the nylon strings.

Day 1 Song - You Are My Sunshine (6:40 in video above)

Unfortunately, for copyright reasons I cannot display the chords and lyrics to any commercial songs on this website. However, I can link to external sites where you can view the chords and lyrics to songs in this course for free!

You Are My Sunshine - chord sheet link

I will try to link to Ultimate Guitar as much as possible, as that is the preferred choice of chord sheet website for most people. Guitar and Ukulele chord sheets look exactly the same, so don't be afraid to look on guitar chord sites for chords to Ukulele songs! The only thing to double check is the key, which we'll be talking about throughout this course :)

Other recommended songs

The following songs just use the chords C, F and G. Try these out if you like the songs or you feel you need more experience before moving on to day 2. I have also linked to chord sheets you can use below.

if any have numbers such as '7' next to the chords, just play the normal version you know and it will sound fine!

These songs are played in the video above from 15:36 in the video above.

• Happy Birthday chord sheet
• Amazing Grace chord sheet
• Lean on me by Bill Withers chord sheet
• Twist and shout by The Beatles chord sheet transpose down to -2 to make chords C, F and G! (play G instead of G7 if you prefer)