Ukulele Chords: White Christmas

The easiest way and most fun way to learn chords on your ukulele is to use a song with interesting chords. We will use the Christmas song White Christmas to help us learn some nice ukulele chords.

White Christmas" is an Irving Berlin song that he wrote in early 1940. It has been sung by many artists but was first sung by Bing Crosby in the 1942 musical Holiday Inn.

In order to show you how to play the chords I will use a special form of tablature notation that I call number tablature. The notes you are to play on your ukulele are notated with two numbers representing the fret and string to play. Here is an example:

3/1

The number before the slash tells you which fret to press down. The number after the slash which string to play. In other words, press down the third fret on the first string.

The first string on your ukulele are the one at the bottom when you play.

What fingers should you use to press down the frets?

You can try this out for yourself or use the recommendations in brackets after the chords shown below. The numbers represent the fingers on your left hand:

index: 1

middle finger: 2

ring finger: 3

pinkie: 4

Here are the chords we will use in this version of the song:

C: 0/4 0/3 0/2 3/1 (0 0 0 3)

C7: 0/4 0/3 0/2 1/1 (0 0 0 1)

F: 2/4 0/3 1/2 0/1 (2 0 1 0)

Fm: 1/4 0/3 1/2 3/1 (1 0 2 4)

G7: 0/4 2/3 1/2 2/1 (0 2 1 3)

Am: 2/4 0/3 0/2 0/1 (2 0 0 0)

Dm: 2/4 2/3 1/2 0/1

C#dim7: 0/4 1/3 0/2 1/1

You start to sing on the note E (0/2)

The chords are placed in front of the syllable where you are to change chord:

(C)I'm dreaming of a (Dm)white (G7)Christmas
(F)Just like the (G7)ones I used to (C)know
Where the treetops (C7)glisten,
and (F)children (Fm)listen
To (C)hear (Am)sleigh bells in the (Dm)snow (G7)

(C)I'm dreaming of a (Dm)white (G7)Christmas
(F)With every (G7)Christmas card I (C)write
May your (C)days be (C7)merry and (F)bright (Fm)
And may all (C#dim7)your (Dm)Christma(G7)ses be (C)white

I will also notate the chord changes showing the bars. An easy way to understand this notation is:

Strum once on every chord name and once on the same chord for every following slash!

C / / / C / / / Dm / / / G7 / / /

F / / / G7 / / / C / / / C / / /

C / / / C7 / / / F / / / Fm / / /

C / / / Am / / / Dm / / / G7 / / /


C / / / C / / / Dm / / / G7 / / /

F / / / G7 / / / C / / / C / / /

C / / / C7 / / / F / / / Fm / / /

C / C#dim7 / Dm / G7 / C / / / C / / /