Ukulele Keys
Every key a ukulele can play in, mapped on the circle of fifths and ranked by how kind they are to your fretting hand. Open a key for its chords, its progressions and its songs. Start with the one your song is in, or with one of the six a ukulele makes easy.
- 100% free
- All 24 keys
- Progressions with audio
- Capo advice
- Songs in every key
All 24 keys, easiest first
Ranked by a playability score I measure rather than guess. Every chord in a key gets scored on how many strings it frets, whether it needs a real barre and how far up the neck it sits, then weighted so the chords you lean on all night count for more than the ones you touch once a song. Lower is friendlier.
| Key | Chords in it | Relative | Ease | Songs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| C Major | C Dm Em F G Am Bdim | A Minor | Easy | 2,057 |
| A Minor | Am Bdim C Dm Em F G | C Major | Easy | 1,045 |
| F Major | F Gm Am Bb C Dm Edim | D Minor | Easy | 948 |
| D Minor | Dm Edim F Gm Am Bb C | F Major | Easy | 553 |
| G Major | G Am Bm C D Em F#dim | E Minor | Easy | 1,866 |
| B♭ Major | Bb Cm Dm Eb F Gm Adim | G Minor | Easy | 665 |
| E Minor | Em F#dim G Am Bm C D | G Major | Moderate | 793 |
| G Minor | Gm Adim Bb Cm Dm Eb F | B♭ Major | Moderate | 416 |
| A Major | A Bm C#m D E F#m G#dim | F♯ Minor | Moderate | 1,155 |
| D Major | D Em F#m G A Bm C#dim | B Minor | Moderate | 1,640 |
| E Major | E F#m G#m A B C#m D#dim | C♯ Minor | Moderate | 1,139 |
| C Minor | Cm Ddim Eb Fm Gm Ab Bb | E♭ Major | Moderate | 452 |
| C♯ Minor | C#m D#dim E F#m G#m A B | E Major | Moderate | 437 |
| E♭ Major | Eb Fm Gm Ab Bb Cm Ddim | C Minor | Moderate | 664 |
| B Major | B C#m D#m E F# G#m A#dim | G♯ Minor | Moderate | 621 |
| G♯ Minor | G#m A#dim B C#m D#m E F# | B Major | Moderate | 238 |
| B Minor | Bm C#dim D Em F#m G A | D Major | Moderate | 608 |
| F♯ Minor | F#m G#dim A Bm C#m D E | A Major | Moderate | 467 |
| F Minor | Fm Gdim Ab Bbm Cm Db Eb | A♭ Major | Hard | 299 |
| E♭ Minor | Ebm Fdim Gb Abm Bbm B Db | G♭ Major | Hard | 232 |
| A♭ Major | Ab Bbm Cm Db Eb Fm Gdim | F Minor | Hard | 544 |
| B♭ Minor | Bbm Cdim Db Ebm Fm Gb Ab | D♭ Major | Hard | 321 |
| G♭ Major | Gb Abm Bbm B Db Ebm Fdim | E♭ Minor | Hard | 464 |
| D♭ Major | Db Ebm Fm Gb Ab Bbm Cdim | B♭ Minor | Hard | 543 |
What is this tool for?
A key is a home chord plus the small family of chords that sit happily around it. Almost every song sticks to one family, which is why the same handful of chords keep turning up together. This tool holds all 24 of those families in one place, so instead of memorizing which chords go with which, you can just look it up.
Open any key and you get its seven chords as diagrams you can tap and hear, the progressions that work in it with audio, the chords worth borrowing from outside it, a capo position if the shapes are awkward and the songs on UkuTabs actually written in it.
Three ways I use it myself:
- I know my key. Open it and take the chords straight off the page. Start a progression from the ones already written out.
- I don't know the key. Look at the last chord of the chart. Songs nearly always finish on home, so a chart ending on F is almost certainly F major. Open that key and check the rest of the chords are on it.
- The key is a nightmare. Every key page works out the best capo position and names the easier key to play instead. That's usually what decides whether a song happens tonight or never.
New to all of this? Don't panic. My how keys work guide starts from zero, explains what the circle of fifths is actually doing and ends with you writing a song in a key of your own.
Frequently asked questions
Short answers to the questions ukulele players ask most about keys.
What is a musical key?
A key is the family of notes and chords a song is built around, named after its home chord. A song in C major keeps coming back to C and almost all of its chords are drawn from the seven that belong to C major. Knowing the key tells you which chords are likely to come next and which ones will sound wrong. The how keys work guide starts from zero if this is new.
Which keys are easiest on ukulele?
C major, F major, G major and B flat major, plus A minor and D minor. The ranking is measured, not guessed: the table above scores every key from the actual shapes its chords need. C major wins because six of its seven chords take three fingers or fewer and nothing in it needs a barre.
How do I work out what key a song is in?
Look at the last chord. Songs almost always end on their home chord, so a chart that finishes on G is very likely in G major. Then check that the other chords belong to that key. The full method with worked examples is in the guide.
What is the circle of fifths for?
It arranges the twelve keys so the most closely related ones sit next to each other. Each step clockwise adds one sharp and each step anticlockwise adds one flat. Neighbouring keys differ by a single note, which makes the circle a map: it shows which key to move to for a key change, which chords to borrow and which relative minor pairs with each major.
What do I do if a song is in a hard key?
Put a capo on. A capo raises everything, so if a song is in E flat major you can clamp the third fret and play the shapes for C major instead. Every key page here works out the best capo position for you and tells you which easy key to play in.
Next stop: look up any shape on the chord diagrams, work out a chord you already know the shape of with the chord namer, run the scale up the neck on scales or get in tune first with the tuner.