Welcome to CathysChords!

'CathysChords' has been an ongoing project for around 10 years, starting with a few songs with words and chords for guitar that I'd typed out to share with others, and developing into hundreds of song sheets, how-to-play tips, and ukulele and banjo song sheets as well.

The songs are arranged in levels so you can build up your skills if you are a beginner, starting with just 2 chords and adding in more as you gain confidence. Some of the middle levels aren't necessarily harder, they may be just adding new chords into your repertoire, and the chords may actually be easy ones. The higher levels tend to have 'harder' chords, and the '+' levels usually have more chords and /or faster chord changes.

As you can imagine, this has been a huge job over the years, added to gradually in my spare time. It's been complicated along the way by major changes in the website provider and file storage sites I use, requiring complete re-formatting, re-organisation and replacement of site components and all the files.

However, it should work pretty well now, though I am still going through the lists of songs and replacing broken links as well as adding in new files.

If you want to see the latest additions to the site, they will be in the Blog or on the Facebook page (I only update the site lists occasionally as it's so time-consuming).

The other factor I have to keep considering is the actual $ cost to maintain the site and share all the song sheets. I don't have advertising on the site, and I don't charge for anything, so the site just runs on donations from users. I'm very grateful to all those who help with donations, however small, as it all adds up and allows me to keep the site going!

I also love to hear your feedback, and it's wonderful to hear that the site has helped so many people over the years to enjoy playing guitar and ukulele (and maybe even banjo)!

Keep playing and enjoying your music; the world needs all the calm and joy we can create - let's help it to spread!

Past Updates:

NOV 2021 UPDATE: The website provider I use has been taken over by Vistaprint, and the site has been migrated to their system... so please forgive any odd looking formatting. I'm trying to adjust as necessary as well as continuing to check song sheets and file links.

SEPT 2018 UPDATE:

checking files - NEW PAGE: CORRECTIONS

I'm gradually checking file links and the song sheets themselves for typos and other errors... listing them on the new 'Corrections' page as I go, and eventually hope to replace any broken links, and any song sheets with glaring errors.

MARCH 2017 update: New links for all files!

All the song sheet files on this site are stored in Dropbox folders, but as Dropbox closed the 'Public' folder I was using, they all had to be moved and re-linked. This means that all the old links will no longer work. I have spent many hours checking files, re-loading, making new links, and inserting new links on the main lists of songs (in levels), but I may not get all the links replaced on every page.

If you find a song sheet link that doesn't work, try the main lists:

If you find a song sheet link that doesn't work on those 3 pages, please let me know via the message form at the bottom of the page, or on the Facebook page.

FULL MENU

Here are the links to all the other pages on the site:

ALL THE SONGS - a table of 'all' the songs on the site* for guitar/ukulele/banjo (no links, just titles in alphabetical order, with key/s, chords and level/s) - *not always updated - check Updates, News for latest songs

HOW TO MAKE CHORDS - written for guitar, but mostly relevant to chords on ukulele or banjo, too

RIGHT-HAND TECHNIQUES - also written for guitar, but the strumming part is relevant to ukulele and basic banjo, too

SONGS FOR KIDS - list of songs suitable to sing with children; most have guitar versions available; some have ukulele or banjo versions available (links are on the main guitar/ ukulele/ banjo lists)

SONGS FOR 'OLDIES' - list of guitar and ukulele songs suitable to sing with old folks

CORRECTIONS - list of songs needing corrections (or with broken links)

FOLK GUITAR BASICS - What you need, types of folk-style guitars, capos etc.

GUITAR SONGS - BY LEVEL

GUITAR SONGS LIST - alphabetical order

UKULELE SONGS - Playing tips, chords and a levelled list of songs

UKULELE SONGS LIST - alphabetical order

BEGINNER BANJO SONGS - Tips, Tuning, Chords, Beginner Songs (levelled)

BANJO SONGS - list in order of level; Christmas Songs list for banjo

CHRISTMAS SONGS - for guitar/ukulele/banjo (links are now outdated, but all the songs are in the main lists)

CHANGING THE KEY - use a capo or transpose to a 'better' key; tools to transpose

SINGING TIPS - some basic tips for those who 'can't sing'

LINKS - some links to YouTube clips for some of the older song sheets (later ones often have links in the sheets)

UPDATES, NEWS - blog of latest songs and changes to the site, etc.

GUESTBOOK - feedback welcome; I love to hear how you're going!

DONATIONS - always most welcome; even a couple of dollars helps with site costs, as I fund the site solely from donations and my family budget! (DONATIONS link is also at the bottom of the page)

BACKGROUND:

I have been playing acoustic guitar for about 50 years, and over the last 30 or so years I've been helping others to pick up the basics and watching their enjoyment as they realise they can play a song, then progress as far as they want.

The acoustic or folk guitar and the ukulele are both wonderful instruments for many reasons- they can be very easy or very challenging to play; they are very portable, so can be played almost anywhere; they're ideal for sing-alongs or playing in a group; you can usually manage to buy one second-hand (or even new) for under $100, and they sound great!

Lately I've become interested in banjo, too, so I've started adapting songs to suit basic strumming-style chords for banjo (there are plenty of sites for learning the more complex right-hand techniques for banjo, but I'm sticking to very basic playing here).

Over the years, I have collected many songs which are good to play on guitar and sing, either individually or in a group. Some are very simple to play...so as long as you can sing reasonably in tune, make 2 or 3 chord shapes, and strum in time, you can play!

Over 25 years ago, I set up a basic guitar class for adults at our local Living and Learning Centre. This has evolved over the years into a small group of singers/guitarists of varying ability and ages, who meet weekly to sing and play together, share songs etc. This has been a very rewarding experience - I highly recommend it if you have some experience, time and a venue.

The Songs on This Site

I started learning by playing the songs performed by Peter, Paul and Mary, the Seekers, the Everly Bothers etc. These songs are still known and loved by many people, so they are still part of our repertoire. They mostly have fairly easy chords, but also lend themselves to extra right hand techniques, vocal harmonies, etc.

When first I started playing guitar, we had to either buy sheet music or copy out all the words and chords of songs by hand - there were no internet, computers and printers, no photocopiers (and no Liquid Paper, even, so you had to be careful!)

When I started typing some of the songs up on computer, to make them a bit neater, I thought I may as well share my versions with anyone who would like them – hence this website, which has grown gradually from then.

The Format

There are lots of sites with thousands of songs already on the internet, but they can be very difficult to sort through- especially for less confident players. I'm making mine as easy to read and to use as possible, so I've put the songs in levels, starting with beginner songs and basic information and tips. I also make the writing on the song sheets as large as feasible for easy reading!

The songs I have done so far are in PDF format- just click on the links to download each PDF file. Please note: the song sheets are in .PDF format; the links will take you to a Dropbox folder, but you don't need to sign up to access the files.

Keeping the site going:

Apart from the time I put in to the site, it also costs money to maintain and to cover the bandwidth used. I tried running ads on the site, but I hate sites with intrusive ads, and I don’t like advertising products or services I don’t even know, let alone endorse.

So I’ve been funding the site myself, which is becoming difficult as our family budget tightens (especially now I’ve been retrenched and so now ‘retired’). However, thanks to occasional donations by kind users, I have been able to keep the site open so far.

If you find the site useful for your own learning or if you use the song sheets to teach others, you may like to contribute a little to the running costs – donations can be made by using the DONATE button at the bottom of the page. Every donation is useful – even a few dollars helps!

If you don’t have any extra money, that’s fine- please keep using the site for your enjoyment :)

Send me a message via the form below or leave one in my Guestbook if you have any comments or requests, and join as a member* if you'd like (very) occasional notification of new additions. You can also "Like" the Facebook page for up-to-date news or check out the Updates, News page - I post new songs there as I get them done.

Enjoy!

Cathy :)

Please note that the songs on this site are my own interpretations. They may not be accurate, and are for private, study purposes - so they are not intended to infringe copyright. They are not necessarily in the same key or with the same chords as the recorded version/s.

*This is a hobby site - I have no commercial links, so I will never send ads or pass on your details to anyone else. Webs.com tracks site usage to compile basic usage statistics (country, pages visited etc), but individual users are not identified.