Am Ukulele Chord

The A minor chord is one of the most prominently-used chords in popular music today. Minor chords are often what we imagine when we think of chords with a sadder or darker sound, and A minor is essentially the minor chord’s answer to C major.  

Learning how to play the A minor chord on ukulele will open you up to an incredibly wide range of songs and help you significantly broaden your repertoire. The chord is so commonly used that its very much worthwhile memorizing how to play it, since you’ll likely come across it so soon. 

This is our guide to the A minor ukulele chord. In it, we’ll be going over the different ways to play the A minor chord on the ukulele, as well as some different songs that feature the A minor chord. 

Basics

Before we get underway with learning how to play the A minor chord, it would be helpful to have some understanding of chords more broadly, as well as the type of chord A minor is. Like the name suggests, A minor is a minor chord. This means that it is based around the minor triad.

A triad is a chord based on three notes. The minor triad is built from the root note, the minor third, and the perfect fifth. This combination of notes is what gives minor chords their sad, dark sound. Compare this to major triads, which are based on the root note, major third, and perfect fifth. This combination of notes gives major triads their happy, warm sound. 

How to Play the Am Chord on Ukulele

There are multiple ways to play an A minor chord on the ukulele. Here, we are going to show a few of the most common voicings for A minor on the uke, as well as giving you some tips or guidance on playing the different chord shapes with proper technique. 

Standard A Minor Chord 

This is the most commonly used A minor chord for the ukulele. As you can see, it only requires fretting on one string, while playing the other strings open. This makes this particular shape fairly easy to play for beginners. We would recommend that you use your middle finger to fret the G string while playing the other strings open. 

One thing to keep in mind when playing multiple open strings is that it can be easy to accidentally brush the open strings with the fingers of your left hand while fretting the G string. To avoid this, make sure you keep the fingers on your left hand that you aren’t fretting with away from the fretboard. 

A Minor Barre Chord 

Barre chords can be tough for beginners to the ukulele to master, but they are absolutely worth putting the time and practice in. You’ll find that barre chords are remarkably versatile, because you can shift chords by simply sliding your hand up or down the fretboard without needing to change the chord shape that you are playing or fingering that you are using. 

This is an A minor barre chord, which you can play up on the 8^th fret of your uke. The easiest way to play this chord is to bar all of the strings at the 7^h fret with your pointer finger. Then, fret the 8^th fret on the E string with your middle finger. Finally, fret the 9^th frets of the C and G strings with your ring and pinky finger. 

Learning to play barre chords like these can take time, because they do place some strain on your hand, finger, and wrist joint. Still, we would recommend that you do so, because of how versatile barre chords are. Being able to play them will open you up to a whole new type of chord to use in your playing. 

Am Chord – Alternative Voicing 

This is another A minor chord voicing for the ukulele, played at the fifth fret, which you will likely find has a darker overall quality than the standard A minor chord that we covered above. To play this voicing, you’ll need to fret the fifth fret of the G string with your middle finger. Fret the 4^th fret of the C string with your pointer finger, the fifth fret of the E string with your ring finger, and the 7^th fret of the A string with your pinky finger. 

While this shape might seem complex or awkward at first, you’ll likely find that it becomes much more manageable with only a little practice as it becomes committed to muscle memory. 

More Am Chord Variations

Songs that Use the Am Chord  

• Dolly Parton – Jolene: Jolene by Dolly Parton is an iconic tale of jealousy and betrayal, and the A minor chord helps to give the song a dark, alluring quality. 
• The Smiths – This Charming Man: There may be no better showcase for the scintillating guitar playing of Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr than This Charming Man. The song’s harmony is not to be overlooked, though; its rapid changes from major to minor, based heavily on the A minor chord, is a huge part of what makes the song so catchy and memorable. 
• Led Zeppelin – Stairway to Heaven: This legendary classic rock song is famous for its guitar work, much of which is based around the A minor chord. The song itself was also written in the key of A minor. 
• Johnny Cash – Hurt: One of Johnny Cash’s best-known recordings, Hurt is a minimalistic and dark song, based around just a few chords, one of which is A minor.