A Brief Review of Ukulele Tablature

Songs are typically characterized into three main types: 

• Chords (for strumming) are usually depicted with a bracketed chord in upper case letter.  [C]
• Tablature is used to depict notes in a song and are shown in lower case letter within the bracket. [c#]
• Chords and notes can be shown together on the tablature score.

Basics:  As we know the ukulele has four strings.

• 4^th string (top string) =  G string
• 3^rd string =  C string
• 2^nd string =  E string
• 1^st string (bottom string) = A string

If you flip your ukulele up and look at it “upside down” the G string is now at the bottom, and so on, with the A string now being at the top.

 Now the line of tablature looks like this:

And here is an example of how tablature looks with certain notes marked for playing:

Sometimes you will see a chord indicated on tablature.  Chords are easily recognizable because you will see all four lines containing a zero (open) or fret represented by a number and these are all lined up vertically, meaning that all four strings are played at the same time (making a chord). 

What are these chords?

Answers:      F          G         C          Am      D7       G7

REMEMBER: PLAYING (NOTES/
MELODY) ARE ALWAYS OPTIONAL

YOU CAN JUST
STRUM THE CHORDS!

ALSO REMEMBER YOU CAN FIND LOTS
OF RESOURCES ON YOUTUBE

CONGRATULATIONS! YOU CAN MOVE
TO THE FRONT OF THE CLASS!

Credit:  Ukutabs.com “How to read Tablature.”

Here’s an example of how a ukulele tablature works in conjunction with a simple music score indicating key, time, and chords.

Notes on the Ukulele Fretboard