How To Read Ukulele Chords

The thick horizontal line at the top represents the nut of the ukulele.

How to read ukulele chords. When you hold your ukelele up to your body the g string will be the closest to your head and the a string will be closest to your waist but on your tab chart a is at the top and g is at the bottom. The g string is on the bottom and the a string is on the top. In this guide we will go over basic ukulele chords major and minor and how to read them from chord charts. Make sure you know basic ukulele tuning. Unless they indicate otherwise ukulele chord charts and diagrams assume the standard c tuning of g c e a.

To visualize it better imagine you set your ukulele down flat on a table strings facing up and headstock to your left. For example when you see 0232 it represents a g chord. If you are new to the ukulele it can be quite overwhelming especially if this is the first instrument you have ever played. This is incredibly useful to quickly tell someone how to play a certain chord. These diagrams show proper fingering for various ukulele chords but there are a few prerequisites to master before you can read them.

If the ukulele is tuned to another tuning the tab will usually indicate this as you ll see that the pitch that each string is tuned to sits directly to the left of the tab. That will reveal the note on the fret. While holding both the frets pluck the string and then drag your ring finger off. How to read ukulele tabs. So the four numbers refer to each string of the ukulele order.

To read ukulele tabs note that the tab chart has 4 horizontal lines that correspond to the 4 strings on your instrument. The wonderful thing about tab is that it is incredibly easy to learn to read. Xa 0 2 3 0 3 2 xe 1 3 0 0 2 1 xc 0 2 0 0 2 2 xg 2 0 0 2 2 0. It s important to drag the string as this will amplify the sound of the note. Vertical lines represent the strings of the ukulele starting with the g string on the far left moving to the a string on the far right.

This is mostly used when people try to show you what the rhythm and tempo is. The parts of the chord diagram are as follows. Here you can see the following chords. The second example in this guide would be. Tab for the ukulele will look like four lines.