Learn To Play Amazing Grace With Ukulele Chords

Even if you never have touched an ukulele before you can today play your first chords. It is a perfect instrument to use when you sing your favorite songs. Let’s take a look at the chords!

Here you have the chord C on ukulele:

C: 0/4 0/3 0/2 3/1

The number before the slash indicates which fret to press down. The number after the slash tells you which string to play.

3/1 for example means, press down the third fret on the first string. 0/2 means, play the second string without pressing down a fret.

We will need two more chords in order to accompany this song. Here is F-major:

F: 2/4 0/3 1/2 0/1

The last chord for you to learn is G7:

G7: 0/4 2/3 1/2 2/1

Here are the lyrics to the first verse:

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me

I once was lost, but now am found

Was blind, but now I see

I will place the chords in parenthesis immediately before the syllable where you shall play the chord. Let’s take a look at the first line:

A-(C)mazing Grace, how (F)sweet the (C)sound

One way to play the ukulele chords is to strum the chord once everytime you will see a new chord in the lyrics. This will create a peaceful background to the song.

Now it is time for you to play the rest of the song:

That (C)saved a wretch like (G7)me

I (C)once was lost, but (F)now am (C)found

Was (C)blind, but (G7)now I (C)see

In this chord version you are playing the song in the key of C assuming that you have tuned your ukulele in C. This means that the strings are tuned in the following pitches:

First string: A

Second string: E

Third string: C

Fourth string: G

The first string is the string nearest your feet if you play your uke the ordinary way.

You can strum the strings with you left hand thumb. For your left hand I suggest the following fingerings:

C: 0/4 0/3 0/2 3/1(ring finger)

F: 2/4(middle finger) 0/3 1/2(index) 0/1

G7: 0/4 2/3(middle finger) 1/2(index) 2/1(ring finger)

If you want to sing the song in a higher pitch we can transpose the song up one whole step to the key of D. Here are the chords:

D: 2/4 2/3 2/2 0/1

G: 0/4 2/3 3/2 2/1

A7: 0/4 1/3 0/2 0/1

Now you only have to replace the C-major chords with the D-major chords in the following way:

C becames D

F becames G

G7 becames A7

As the most difficult part is not to hold down a chord but to shift between them I suggest that you practice shifting between two chords at a time by strumming one stroke on each slowly until you can do it easily.

Ukulele Chords: Learn To Play Amazing Grace With Tablature

You will learn to sing Amazing Grace with your own ukulele accompaniment in the key of C-major. We will use tabs so you will not need to know sheet music notation.

First you will have to take a look at the way you have tuned your ukulele. Some people don’t care how they tune their ukulele as long as the strings are tuned together. It’s okey as long as you are not playing together with another instrument.

But, in order to play the chords in C-major we presupposes that the you first string is tuned to an A. If you can find middle C on a piano you can play the notes up to A. C D E F G A. Right, there it is!

We will first take a look at the C-major chord. With the tab notation we will use it will look like this:

C-major: 0/4 0/3 0/2 3/1

Now you will learn to interpret this notation. The digit before the slash indicates the fret to press down. The digit after the slash shows you which string to play.

3/1 means, press down the third fret on string one. To play the chords to the first line of lyrics you will have to learn one more chord. Here is F-major:

F-major: 2/4 0/3 1/2 0/1

With these two chords we can play the first line of lyrics:

A-(C)mazing Grace, how (F)sweet the (C)sound

The chords to play are written before the syllable in the text where you are to strum it. Another way to notate the chord progression to play will look like this:

C / / C / / F / / C / /

Strum once on every chord name and once more on the same chord for every following slash.

For the next line we need a third chord. Here is G7:

G7: 0/4 2/3 1/2 2/1

Time for the next line:

That (C)saved a wretch like (G7)me

or written like a chord progression:

C / / C / / G7 / / G7 / /

We will take the two last lines together as you now know how to read the chords:

I (C)once was lost, but (F)now am (C)found

Was (C)blind, but (G7)now I (C)see

And in ordinary chord notation:

C / / C / / F / / C / /

C / / G7 / / C / / C / /

To make music of the song with ukulele accompaniment it is important to be able to change between chords smoothly. I suggest that you work on the art of changing from one chord to another by choosing for exampel C and F.

Strum once on every chord and change to the next one until your fingers obey your command. To change from C to G7 I suppose that you play the C chord with your left hand ring finger. To get to G7 you can slide your ring finger to fret two on the first string.

After that you only have to place your left hand middle finger on the third string and your index on your second string.

Ukulele Lesson: Amazing Grace Instruction

In this lesson you will learn to play Amazing Grace on your ukulele. I will instruct you on how to play the melody and you will also learn to use an easy form of ukulele tablature.

It is very common to use the uke as a chord instrument to singing. Many ukulele chords are easy to play and the sound from strumming chords on an ukulele are very nice to hear.

It is not as common to play melodies on the uke but it is really quite easy to do. In this ukulele lesson I will show you how to play Amazing Grace with an easy instruction on how to place your left hand fingers on the frets and on which strings to play.

I will also use an easy form of tablature notation that will help you find your way around your ukulele guitar. Guitar tablature or guitar tab is very common on the internet. It is a notational system with six lines representing the strings on a guitar and numbers on the lines indicating which frets to press down.

On some sites you will find ukulele tablature which works the same way. The only difference is that ukulele tabs have four lines as an ukulele usually has four strings.

In this lesson I will use a special form of ukulele tab notation that only uses numbers. I call this notation number tabs. in this notation every note is notated with two numbers. The first number tells you which fret to play and the second number which string to play.

In order to use this tablature notation and my instruction you have to know which string is the first string on your ukulele. The first string is the bottom string on your uke when you play.

No it is time to play Amazing Grace. I will show you the lyrics to the melody one line at a time and the corresponding number tabs below the lyrics and supplemented with an instruction on how to play the notes.

Here is the first line with ukulele tab and instruction:

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound

03 12 01 12 01 32 12 23 03

Play the open third string (an open string is a string you play without pressing down a fret), first fret second string, open first string, first fret second string, open first string. Then play third fret second string, first fret second string, second fret third string and finally the open third string.

That saved a wretch like me

03 12 01 12 01 32 01 31

By now you probably understand the ukulele tabs I use so I will omit the instruction. Let us continue with the next lines of lyrics and ukulele tablature notation:

I once was lost, but now am found

01 31 01 12 01 32 12 23 03

Was blind, but now I see

03 12 01 12 01 32 12

Here are some final suggestions as you try to learn the melody:

1. Learn the melody by heart working on one line of the melody at a time.

2. Try to use your left hand index finger to play the notes on the first fret, your middle finger to play the notes on the second fret and you ring finger to play the notes on the third fret.

3. Experiment with the notes 03 23 02 12 32 01 11 and 31 and try to create your own melodies or figure out easy popular melodies by yourself.

Ukulele Tab: Learn To Play Christian favorite song Amazing Grace

Ukulele is a fantastic little instrument. You can play chords on it as you sing but you can even play melodies. With the help of ukulele tab notation you can learn to play Amazing Grace in a few minutes. Let’s start!

Amazing Grace is one of the most well-known Christian hymns. The words were written by John Newton. Here are the lyrics to the first verse:

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found
Was blind, but now I see

You don’t need to know sheet music notation on your ukulele. Instead we will use a form of notation known as ukulele tab.

The ukulele tab notation I will use is my own form of tabs that are readable on article sites. You will find the more common ukulele tab notation on my own site with ukulele tab and free sheet music.

When you hold your ukulele in playing position you will have the first string nearest your feet. It is the string with the highest pitch and it is usually an A.

Here comes an example on how to ukulele tab:

01 11 31 11 01

The first digit in the pair tells you what fret to press down. The second digit what string to play. 01 means that you play the first string without pressing down a left hand finger. In other words you play on the open first string.

11 means that you press down a left hand finger on the first fret on the first string and play. Now you can play the easy ukulele tab above.

Let’s play the first part of Amazing Grace:

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound

03 12 01 12 01 32 12 23 03

03 means that you play the third open string. Play the notes with your right hand thumb or in some other way you like.

The length of the notes is not indicated with this type of ukulele tab notation. I guess you will find out how to play the notes by your self.

Let’s play the next line:

That saved a wretch like me!

03 12 01 12 01 32 01 31

What left hand finger should you use when you play?

Even if it can be a little bit difficult at first I suggest that you play the notes on the first fret with your first finger, the notes on the second fret with your long finger and the notes on your third fret with your ring finger.

Of course, you can play all notes with your first finger but when your left hand fingers get used to playing the way I suggested it will actually become easier to find the right notes.

The next ukulele tab comes here:

I once was lost, but now am found

01 31 01 12 01 32 12 23 03

You know how to read this ukulele tab by now so I don’t need to help you!

The last line with lyrics and ukulele tab follows:

Was blind, but now I see

03 12 01 12 01 32 12

Now the melody is complete and you can play Amazing Grace with ukulele tab!

This melody can be played on guitar too with the use of the above ukulele tab notation! The first three strings on a guitar are tuned in the same way but in a different pitch.

May I recommend you to take one ukulele tab line at a time and practice it until you know the whole song by heart. It is fun to have a repertoire with songs to play anywhere and anytime!