As mentioned in my second diary, the only difficult thing about playing the above 4 chords is the change to and from G major, which has 3 fingers down, and in positions that aren’t necessarily similar to those in the C and F major shapes.
And the best way I’ve found to practice the changes to and from G major is, of course, to just play loads of songs with those chords in them. So I thought I’d share my favourites today, in case anyone else in the KAME course is just starting out along that journey…
*** Note *** These songs were all in these keys in the songbook I first bought … only when I went to embed Spotify links in this blog did I realise that they are not the original keys. Had I realised, I wouldn’t have included them as examples … not great Informal Learning pedagogy when you can’t play along with the original recordings 😦
First, here are the patterns for those 4 chords:
… and now the songs …
Vance Joy Riptide
Am, G, C – lyrics
Bob Dylan Blowin’ in the Wind
C, F, G – lyrics
One Direction Best Song Ever
C, F, G (capo 1st fret or tune up a semitone for original key) – lyrics
Green Day Good Riddance (Time of your life)
C, F, G, Am – lyrics
James Humberstone 
One response to “Learning Ukulele Diary 4 – my favourite songs with C, G, F, and Am”
I have adopted a techinique from a local teacher, who tells his students, when making the G chord on uke, to ‘make a tunnel’ (the fingers in the 2nd fret) and ‘close the tunnel’ (add finger to the 3rd fret). For G7 – he calls it ‘the tricky triangle’. To get to the tricky triangle from the C chord, you ‘slide, up and on’. Slide the third finger back from the third fret to the second.Add the 2nd finger, then the first finger to the first fret.
I find your philosophy of pluralistic content very affirming. Relevance is a must. A constant struggle, but the only way. Thankyou for sharing your arrangements. I look forward to trying them out.