How to Play an E Minor Chord on the Ukulele
Today we’ll be moving on to the next chord in our series on easy ukulele chords: E minor. This chord fits together well with the chords we’ve already gone over: A minor, C, F and G.
If you’ve been following this series closely, you’ll already know that an E minor chord will have to contain a G note (since G is three frets higher than E and is, therefore, its minor third).
There are two ways you can play the E chord on the ukulele in the first position and we’ll be taking a look at how to play both of them.
E Minor Chord: The First Way
The most common way to play the E Minor chord (often referred to as Em) is with three fingers. First, put your index (pointer) finger on the A string at the second fret. Then put your middle finger on the third fret of the E string (giving you a G note). Finally, put your ring finger on the C string at the fourth fret.
You don’t need to fret the G string at all.
E Minor Chord: The Other Way
This inversion of the Em chord gives you two G notes (the one you are playing with your middle finger on the E string and the one you are playing open).
Because you only need to hear the G note once, you can remove your middle finger from the E string and let it ring open (which will give you two E notes in the chord instead).
This way of playing the E minor chord only requires two fingers (the index finger on the a string and the ring finger on the C string) so it might sound like it would be easier to play it this way. That is not necessarily the case.
When you stop holding the string down, it will obviously move up off the fretboard. This makes it much more difficult to arch over it to play the C string with your ring finger. Because of that, it is easier and more common to play it the first way we discussed.
