Welcome to The Jewish Chords! Whether your goal is to strum at a kumzitz, to play for fun, or simply take a step forward in your musical journey, you’ve come to the right place!
Our goal is to help you as much as possible on your personal musical journey. Learning songs is a great way to get your feet wet in the musical world.
Website Features
Check out our chord selection. We try to provide the simplest chords while also staying as accurate as possible. Often, they are tried and true chords that have been played at many kumzitzes.
Our song poll allows us to post songs that are most popular. If you have a suggestion that isn’t listed, enter it into the “Other” field, and we will add it. Every vote counts!
We offer chord variations for certain songs. More choices means more flavor and more fun. Check out our Featured Songs here and start playing like a pro!
Our recently added and updates bars display recent activity. In general, new chords are posted every week.
Our chords table is specifically intended for user-friendliness. You can search for songs by artist, style, key, or a combination. This can be particularly useful if, for example, you want a selection of kumsitz songs in the key of Em.
The search engine: Often, the song or artist you search for will have alternate spellings. To make it easier, you can search for just part of a word (e.g. “man” instead of “Friedman”). We generally try to use the spelling from the original album.
Finally, feel free to contact us with any questions, requests, or feedback. We want to help you as much as possible, even if it’s practical questions about playing.
Getting a Capo
If you are a serious kumzitz player, we would highly recommend getting a capo. It will help you a lot, especially if you don’t yet play bar chords. Even if you are a proficient bar chord player, capo playing is optimum because:
1. You will tire yourself out very quickly playing only bar chords (say if the song is in Bb minor). Save your strength for the one bar chord that is gonna be there in any case.
2. Chords usually sound better when some open strings are played.
3. When you are holding by doing fills, it is easier to do if you are using open strings and your fingers are more available.
We try to post the chords in a key within the average person’s voice range. [This is generally the D note at the tenth fret of the high E.] Therefore, the key may vary from song to song. As such, the use of a capo is taken for granted.
[Obviously, the capo suggestions on the chord pages are not set in stone. Feel free to experiment with your personal voice range.]
Happy strumming!