Ukulele Chord Transposer

Paste a song and transpose the chords into a key that fits your voice — then see the uke shape for every chord that comes out. Standard G C E A tuning, a soprano-to-baritone converter, every shape checked against the chord it claims to be, and nothing to sign up for.

Jump to: guitar chords to ukulele · soprano to baritone · easiest uke keys

Shift:
0
Tap a chord for its shape
Verse: Chorus:

Every shape in this song (4 chords)

C

C Major

G
C
E
A
○
○
○
1

0 0 0 3

G

G Major

G
C
E
A
○
1
1
2

0 2 3 2

Am

A Minor

G
C
E
A
○
○
○
1

2 0 0 0

F

F Major

G
C
E
A
○
○
1
2

2 0 1 0

Playing guitar chords on a ukulele

This trips up nearly everyone who picks up a ukulele with a guitar background, so it is worth being precise about it. A ukulele's four strings are tuned a perfect 4th above a guitar's top four. Read a guitar chord sheet on a ukulele and the chord names are still correct — a G is a G. You simply play the ukulele shape for G instead of the guitar shape.

What does change is the fingering. If you move a guitar fingering onto a ukulele neck without thinking, you get a chord five semitones higher than the one you meant. That is a real, usable shortcut once you know the number — it is just not a transposition of the song.

Same fingers, ukulele neck

Move your D guitar fingering onto a ukulele and you are playing G — five semitones higher.

To actually sound D

Borrow the guitar A shape instead, or just play the real ukulele D shape below.

D

D Major

G
C
E
A
○
1
1
1

2 2 2 0

This is the ukulele shape for D. Most of the time this is all you need: chord names do not change between guitar and ukulele, so a song in G stays in G. You only transpose when the singer needs a different key — not because the instrument changed.

How transposing works on a ukulele

Transposing means moving every chord by the same distance. Shift a song up two semitones and C becomes D, Am becomes Bm, F becomes G. Because every chord moves together, the relationships between them are untouched and the song still sounds like itself — just higher or lower.

On a ukulele there is one practical wrinkle. Some keys are full of open shapes and some are full of barres, and the difference is much starker than on a guitar because you have fewer strings to hide behind. Shifting a song up a single semitone out of B and into C can turn a barre-heavy arrangement into one a beginner can play. The chart below shows which keys are worth landing on.

The easiest keys on a ukulele

The six common chords in each major key, with how many are beginner-friendly ukulele shapes.
KeyIiiiiiIVVviEasy shapes
CCDmEmFGAm5 of 6
FFGmAmBbCDm5 of 6
GGAmBmCDEm4 of 6
DDEmF#mGABm4 of 6
AABmC#mDEF#m3 of 6
BbBbCmDmEbFGm4 of 6
EEF#mG#mABC#m2 of 6
EbEbFmGmAbBbCm3 of 6
BBC#mD#mEF#G#m0 of 6

Purple chords use an open string and stay within the first three frets. The “easy shapes” count is why C, F and G feel so much friendlier than E or B on a ukulele.

Transpose soprano ukulele to baritone

A baritone ukulele is tuned D G B E — every string a perfect 4th below the soprano, concert and tenor ukuleles that share standard G C E A tuning. This is the one conversion people most often get backwards, so it is worth being precise: moving a song from a soprano to a baritone is not a transposition at all. The chord names stay exactly as written. Only the grips change.

Pick any chord below and you get both fingerings side by side — the soprano, concert or tenor shape on the left, the baritone shape for the same chord on the right.

Soprano, concert or tenor · G C E A

C

C Major

G
C
E
A
○
○
○
1

0 0 0 3

Baritone · D G B E

C

C Major

D
G
B
E
○
○
1
2

2 0 1 0

Both of those are C. Converting a song from soprano to baritone does not change a single chord name — you re-finger, you do not transpose.

Fret the soprano C shape on a baritone anyway and you get G, five semitones lower. That is a real option when a song sits too high for your voice — but it moves the whole song into a new key, so everyone else has to follow you there.

There is a second thing people mean by this, and it is worth separating. If you take your soprano shapes to a baritone and play them unchanged, every chord comes out five semitones lower: your C shape sounds G, your G shape sounds D. Nothing is broken — you have simply transposed the song down a 4th by accident. If that key suits your voice better, keep it, but write the new chord names down for whoever is playing with you. The transposer at the top of this page will shift a whole song down five semitones in one click if you want the chart to match.

Because a baritone is tuned exactly like a guitar's top four strings, everything in the guitar section above applies to it too: baritone shapes are guitar shapes, minus the two lowest strings.

Why ukulele shapes look so strange

Standard ukulele tuning is G C E A, and on most soprano, concert and tenor ukuleles that G is tuned up an octave rather than down. That is called re-entrant tuning: the lowest sounding string is the C, not the G. It is the reason a ukulele has no bass register, why strumming sounds bright rather than full, and why the shapes bear no resemblance to guitar shapes even though both instruments are tuned in fourths.

It also explains a few oddities in the diagrams on this page. A ukulele C is one finger on one string. A ukulele never mutes a string the way a guitar mutes its low E, so you will not see an × on any of these charts. And a handful of chords — diminished triads in particular — have no comfortable four-string voicing at all, which is why nearly every ukulele chart quietly plays the diminished 7th shape instead.

Baritone ukuleles are a different instrument for this purpose, which is why they get their own converter above.

Ukulele transposing questions

Do guitar chords transpose to ukulele?

Chord names do not change. A song in G is in G on both instruments, so you can read a guitar chord sheet on a ukulele without transposing anything — you just play different shapes. Transposing is only for when you want a different key for your voice. The exception is reusing guitar fingerings: those sound five semitones higher on a ukulele, so a guitar D shape gives you a G.

How do you transpose ukulele chords to a different key?

Move every chord by the same number of semitones. Up two: C becomes D, Am becomes Bm, F becomes G. The transposer at the top of this page does it for a whole song at once and draws the resulting shapes.

What is the easiest key to play on ukulele?

C major. Its main chords — C, F, G and Am — are all open shapes inside the first three frets, and C itself needs a single finger. G and F are close behind. B is the hardest key on the instrument — not one of its six main chords is an open shape — with E close behind.

Why is a ukulele tuned G C E A?

It is a perfect 4th above a guitar's top four strings (D G B E), with the G tuned an octave up on most ukuleles. That re-entrant G is what gives the instrument its bright sound and its unfamiliar chord shapes.

Can I use a capo to transpose on a ukulele?

Yes — a capo on fret N raises everything by N semitones, so a C shape with a capo on 2 sounds as D. Ukulele frets are small, so capos are most useful between frets 1 and 4. Transposing the chords instead costs nothing and leaves the whole neck available. There is more on the same idea in our capo chart.

Are baritone ukulele chords the same?

No. A baritone is tuned D G B E like the top four guitar strings, so it uses guitar shapes. A shape that sounds C on a standard ukulele sounds G on a baritone — five semitones lower. The soprano-to-baritone converter above draws both grips for any chord.

How do I transpose soprano ukulele chords to baritone?

You do not transpose them — you re-finger them. The chord names in the song stay identical; a baritone just uses a different shape for each one. Transposing only enters the picture if you play your soprano shapes on the baritone unchanged, which drops everything five semitones: a C shape sounds G, an F shape sounds C. If you want that lower key, shift the written chords down five semitones so the chart matches what you are actually playing.

Keep going

Guitar chord transposerThe same tool with guitar diagrams.Chord transposition chartEvery key and every semitone, in one grid.Find the key for your voiceHow to pick the shift instead of guessing.Capo chartTransposing with a capo instead of new shapes.