Ukulele Tutorials • Intermediate

Take Me Home, Country Roads by John Denver Ukulele Tutorial

Welcome back to Ray's Ukulele! Today, we're diving into the legendary classic, Take Me Home, Country Roads by John Denver. This is one of the ultimate campfire sing-alongs, and it sits beautifully on our favorite four-string instrument.

Before we jump into the play-along, we'll cover the six essential chords, break down a simple secret to master the dreaded E chord, and practice two driving strumming patterns. Whether you play a soprano, concert, or tenor ukulele, standard GCEA tuning works perfectly. Let's get right to it!

The Essential Chords

This song relies on six chords: A, D, E, E7, Gbm (G-flat minor), and G. While some look tricky, a couple of quick positioning hacks makes transitioning completely seamless.

A Major

E Major

G Major

Gbm

D Major

Strumming Patterns

1. The Practice Strum

An ideal rhythm to practice steady transitions over your Gbm, E, and D bars.

2. The Main Rhythm

This pattern keeps the engine of the song humming continuously. Start slow on A, then transition directly to Gbm by just dropping your ring finger onto the C-string.