No matter what stage you are at in your ukulele journey, learning to read tablature music will prove immensely helpful in expanding the variety of ukulele songs that you can perform! Plus it is just plain fun!
Tabs should be read from left to right; each number represents a fret on a particular string, and its reference appears directly above the tab.
Strings
Your ukulele strings can have a dramatic impact on how a song sounds, as well as having an influence over how easy it is to play. If you’re having trouble reaching the desired tone, try switching out one string and see what happens – there may be hundreds of opinions as to which string works best with different playing styles and it is ultimately up to you to experiment and find what suits yours best!
Ukulele tablature is one of the most widely-used musical notation styles, serving as an outline of your instrument’s fretboard. A thick line at the top represents its nut while thin lines indicate frets. Inside each fretted box are numbers representing which fingers to use (index finger = 1, middle finger = 2, ring finger = 3 and pinky finger = 4). When strings are indicated as open, you can play them without pressing any frets.
Tabs provide more than just string names – they also reveal how long to hold each note using notation similar to what traditional piano-style sheet music uses. While chord charts provide useful guidance, you must also learn to improvise on timing by listening to yourself while using this chart as a resource.
Chord diagrams can be an invaluable asset for beginners looking to start playing the ukulele, including learning basic chords. They’re typically organized as a grid with vertical lines representing strings and horizontal ones representing frets; thin lines indicate frets while those marked by numbers indicate which finger should press down on that string at that fret. Solid lines represent frets being played while those marked with diamond-shaped symbols indicate they’re being strung all at once.
To help illustrate how chord charts work, consider this example: In this tab, the first note is played on an open A string (open = 0), then open E, B and G strings before being played again on third fret of A string and fourth fret of G string respectively.
Frets
Frets are little bumps on the neck that you press with your finger to produce notes. The more frets you press down on, the higher its pitch will become when played; standard soprano or concert ukuleles have four strings and 11 frets total; this adds up to 44 notes which may seem daunting when starting out!
Each fret corresponds with a letter in the alphabet; therefore if you play an A string at its second fret it will produce an A sound while when played at its seventh fret, an G sound is heard instead.
Notes may also have multiple names; for instance, the second fret of an A string may be known by both A# and Bb. This occurs because one note produces both tones simultaneously while following musical conventions they are written differently.
When you see strings indicated with an / or s, this indicates that fretting fingers must slide up or down while still ringing the string while fretting is active. Ascending slides should usually be indicated with an / while descending slides should usually be indicated by an s.
As you will often see when looking at ukulele tabs, an “a or s” symbol indicates a string should be bent by holding down and pushing one or both fretting fingers up or down against it to produce another tone without playing that string again.
Rhythmic symbols are essential in ukulele music with tabs, helping you keep the beat and figure out whether you should play faster or slower. A fraction at the beginning of a piece indicates its time signature – the number of beats per measure (4/4 = four quarter notes). You might also come across a wavy line looking similar to an upside-down letter C with vertical bars through it which represents cut time (2 half notes per bar).
Symbols
Reading standard musical notation requires some practice. Ukulele tabs – chord diagrams using numbers on lines to represent frets and strings on an instrument – make learning music much simpler; they provide a visual guide for understanding its language while showing where fingers should go on a fretboard.
A chord diagram is a grid with vertical lines representing strings, and horizontal lines representing frets; thick top lines indicate nuts; thin top lines represent frets. Dots indicate where to place fingers, while numbers above the fretboard suggest which fingers to use (p for thumb, i for index finger, m for middle and a for ring fingers).
There are symbols used to represent things such as hammer-ons and pull-offs, string bends and slides – more frequently seen in guitar tab than on ukulele songs – such as pull-offs (represented by an “”) when used to lower pitch on E strings. When performing such pull-offs you place your finger on the second fret before lifting it off of the third fret to lower pitch of each string.
Your score may also include symbols for different forms of rhythm. For instance, fractions such as 4/4 or 3/4 at the beginning of a piece indicate how many beats per measure there are and what type of notes make up each beat (four quarter notes, four eighth notes etc). A symbol which resembles an inverted “c” with two half notes per bar is often used for fast tempos.
Ukulele tabs contain symbols for natural harmonics, which are produced when touching strings directly above the fretwire without pressing down on them, without pressing down on them. They’re represented in standard notation by diamond-shaped notes while regular numbers in tablature provide more detail with text indication harm. Furthermore, an A or V symbol indicates vibrato — the shimmery, wobbly effect achieved by shaking string.
Rhythm
Ukulele tabs provide musicians with an efficient and straightforward method for learning songs quickly and effortlessly, but depending solely on tabs can cause difficulties when it comes to rhythm and tempo – they don’t tell you when or for how long to hold each note, which can create issues when learning solo. One solution would be using tabs in combination with audio recordings from songs in order to learn them correctly.
There are numerous resources available that can help you begin learning to read music. Most major musical publishers now provide ukulele tabs for popular songs; Hal Leonard has made great strides here with transcriptions for recent Jake Shimabukuro albums being provided; Alfred also offer similar transcriptions as do independent artists releasing their own tabs.
Chord diagrams (also called frames) can be an extremely helpful starting tool for beginners of the ukulele. They use vertical lines to represent its four strings (4 through 1) and horizontal lines to show frets; thick lines represent the nut while thin ones indicate frets. Numbers appear above each frame that indicate which fingers to use (1=index finger, 2= middle finger, 3=ring finger and 4 = pinky).
Some chords will feature symbols to signify hammer-ons (used to connect two notes together) and pull-offs (used to cancel out one note), typically marked with an “h” or curved line. Other chords feature “/”, which indicates sliding rather than playing both notes at once.
Ukulele tabs contain various symbols to show which note to pick and how to bend or vibrate it, with C, A minor, and G being among the most widely-used chords. Most songs will use 4/4 time signature, meaning four quarter notes per measure are played out.
Rhythm is an integral component of music, but playing the ukulele requires special consideration when it comes to rhythm. There are a few basic rhythms you should keep in mind and can practice by playing simple chords over and over. Start out with down-up rhythm, before exploring some variations such as down-down-up or up-down-down rhythms.