Free guitar & ukulele basic chord dictionary
Our free basic chord dictionary is a great place for ukulele and guitar beginners to start. All the basic chords are included and they’re organised in a straightforward way.
Both right and left-handed chord charts are available and these tools work on mobiles, tablets and desktops.
You can search for chords by root note or by family. Alternatively, you can input your own chord progression to see the matching chord charts in the correct order, very handy for learning songs!
Chords by Root Note
Chords by Family
Create A Chord Progression
How to read chord charts
Since these tools are for beginners, we’re going to give you a brief overview of how the read the chord charts in these tools:
Hold your instrument vertically by the neck so it hangs in front of you with the strings facing you, head at the top and body at the bottom. Your instrument is now in the same position as the chord charts.
Elements of the chord charts:
- The vertical lines are the strings and the horizontal lines are the frets
- The notes written above each string show you the note that will be played
- A cross instead of a note above a string tells you not to play that string at all.
- The dots show you where to put your fingers to make each chord.
- The numbers underneath the strings are the finger number to use – 1 = index, 2 = middle, 3 = ring and 4 = little.
Where to start?
If you’re an absolute beginner then the best place to start with chords is to go to the chords by family tool and then go through each of the open chords of the major and minor families.
You can distinguish the open chords from the (more difficult) barre chords because they don’t have a line connecting two dots together (that line denotes a finger holding down an entire fret… tricky).
Finding chords quickly
When you need to find a chord asap use the chords by root note tool and input the root note (the letter contained in the chord name) that you want, then look through the chord variations for the chord you need.
Learning songs is easy
Let’s say that you have a song that you’d love to be able to play but you don’t know what shapes (chords) to make on the guitar or ukulele. Simply input the chord sequence into the create a chord progression tool and you’ll be shown the chord charts for the song in the right sequence. Easy.
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