Barre chords on the ukulele

What makes a barre hard

A barre is one finger lying flat across several strings while the others fret above it. The hard part is not the laying down — a single flat finger is one of the easiest shapes there is (Dmaj7 is nothing else). It gets hard through the combination: the lying finger has to press evenly while three others fret individually, and the index finger can no longer move along.

That is why the effort here does not count »barre yes or no« but how many fingers still fret above the barre and how many strings it spans. A barre across six strings with three fingers on top is something quite different from one finger across two.

The ones you need

Some of these chords have a second shape that plays the same notes with less effort — usually because it sits on fewer strings. It sounds thinner, but it sounds right, and it is playable today instead of in six weeks. Both are calculated: that the notes are right and that the effort is smaller.