Here’s another great sounding basic chord that I’m practicing and you’ll need to as well.
How do you play the Dm Chord on Ukulele?
You play the Dm chord on the uke by fretting the A string on the first fret, with your first finger (1, in the image above). Next you fret the G string on the second fret with your 2nd finger (2), last you fret the D string with your 3rd finger (3) on the second fret.
When you strum all four strings, you’ll hear a ringing Dm that sounds soulful and sad, this is a great minor chord to play when you’re expressing sadness in your music.
Although it might seem a bit complicated there are some easy tips for learning to get this chord stuck in your muscle memory and fingers.
How to hold the ukulele when playing Dm?
This chord is easily played using the standard hand and body position. Hold the uke comfortably, with the neck parallel to the floor and you should be able to switch back and forth easily when adding this chord to songs.
If you use a strap or like to hold the uke a bit closer to your face to see where your fretting fingers are going, that’s okay too! You shouldn’t have too much of a problem straining to get this chord into place.
The Dm chord position is a moveable shape!
One exciting thing about getting this chord into your finger tips is that it’s a moveable shape, and can go all around the fretboard. You might have to adjust your hand position to use a barre chord in order to play it higher up the fretboard, but after a bit of practice it’s a snap
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I learned this when exploring the CAGED system for moving chords around on the guitar fretboard. I have some information that I’ve compiled about the CAGED system and the ukulele if you click right here.
You might also realize from this D minor tutorial that the chord shape is also the exact same shape as the A minor chord on the guitar!
Why is Dm hard to play on the ukulele?
The other day I was teaching a friend a couple of new songs on the uke and found that he didn’t know the D minor chord and after I showed him the same fingering position, he was really struggling to get his fingers into place to make the chord sound good.
After looking at the situation, i found that his fingers were just a little too big to fit so tightly into the neck of the ukulele so he could get a clean even sound when he strummed.
After experimenting a bit, we were able to find that using his middle finger as a barre across the G and C string, he was able to get a good sound to play, and was able to start dextrously adding the chord in the song we were playing.
This might be an alternative for you if you’re finding that the Dm is hard to play, but there is another choice too.
After struggling for a bit with the problem, I offered to let him try my tenor ukulele. He was playing on a soprano, which is a lovely instrument for several reasons including the size. By making the switch to my tenor uke, he was able to easily fret the chord in the traditional way that I already expressed.
So if you’re struggling so much with getting this chord to sound good, maybe you could consider getting a bigger uke, like a concert or tenor.