Guitar Tablature: Learn To Play Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star With Guitar Tab

Even if you haven’t played guitar tablature before you can impress or maybe shock your friends by playing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. Let’s start playing guitar tab!

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star is a popular English nursery rhyme with the French melody Ah! Vous dirais-je, Maman. You can play this song on the first three strings on the guitar.

The text is from a poem, “The Star”, by Jane Taylor. It was first published in 1806. Here you have the English lyrics:

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!

We will use guitar tablature so you will not need to read sheet music. You will only use the thinnest strings on the guitar. The string with the highest pitch is called the first string or E-string. Look at the following guitar tab:

1. 0-0-0-0—————–
2. ——–1-1-1-1———
3. —————-2-2-2-2-

This is a tablature staff and the four number 0 indicate that you play the first string four times without pressing down any finger on your right hand. This is called to play on an open string.

The four number 1 coming after is played on the second string pressing down your first finger on the first fret. Then you will play the third string four times pressing down the string on the second fret. This is what the previous guitar tablature notation is telling you.

Let’s play the first notes of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star with guitar tablature:

1. ————0–0————————–
2. ——3–3——-3—-1–1–0–0———-
3. 0–0—————————–2–2–0–

If you want to use your left hand in a professional way you can play the guitar tab notes on the first fret with your first finger, notes on the second fret with your middle finger and the notes on the third fret with your ring finger.

Now it’s only one guitar tablature part left:

1. 3–3–1–1–0–0—–
2. ——————3–
3. ———————

After having played this part twice, go back and play the first guitar tablature part and the melody is complete.

Now when you understand guitar tablature notation you can find many songs written this way on the internet. Search for guitar tab or guitar tablature. A complete guitar tablature staff has six lines representing the six strings.

If you have an ukulele hanging somewhere you can use the previous tablature too. The first three strings on an ukulele is tuned the same way as on the guitar.

Just one more thing for you to do. Play the song for your friends! Good luck!

“Little Grass Shack” — Guitar and Electric Ukulele

Friends of Old Puppy play “Little Grass Shack”. “My Little Grass Shack in Kealakekua, Hawai?i” was written by Bill Cogswell, Tommy Harrison & Johnny Noble around about 1933. “Little Grass Shack” is the “Louie Louie” of Hawaiian music. “Friends of Old Puppy” features Steven Strauss on (Risa) electric soprano ukulele, Kurt Stevenson on guitar, Ed Johnson on wash-tub bass (“gutbucket”), and Cynthia Wilson on drums. [Special thanks to Mal Sharpe, who went out of his way to acquire a "Whirlwind Classic instrument cable" for Steven's electric ukulele. Thanks, Mal!] Jan. 16, 2010 Videographed, sound engineered, and edited by Pip R. Lagenta. The Friends of Old Puppy band plays at the Nabolom Bakery in Berkeley, every Saturday morning (starting at 10 am). Cromulent Music of Elmwood — Recorded LIVE! — Berkeley, California

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MARKKE LITTLE BOY NO MORE orig compo in lyric concert ukulele

an original ukulele song composition for babajae

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Ukulele Lesson: Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star Instruction

You can actually play melodies on your ukulele! In this ukulele tutorial you will learn to play Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star in the key of C. I will tell you how to place your fingers on the frets so you will not have to read sheet music!

There are many ways to notate melodies for ukulele. The most common way is to use ukulele tablature that consists of four lines representing the strings on your ukulele and numbers placed on the lines to indicate which frets to press down.

In this article I will instruct you with English words how to play on your ukulele. We will play this melody in the key of C. I presuppose that your ukulele is tuned in C which is the most common tuning.

C-tuning means that the first string on your ukulele is tuned in A. The first string is the bottom string when you hold your ukulele in playing position. The second string is tuned in E, the third string in C and the fourth string in G.

The notes I just mentioned can be found in the fourth octave on a piano. That is the octave in the middle of a piano or a keyboard.

Remember, the first string is the bottom string on your ukulele when you play.

Try to use your left hand index finger to play the notes on the first fret, the middle finger to play the notes on the second fret and your ring finger for the notes on the third fret. Practice to play this way and you will experience that this is an effective way to play melodies as you can keep your left hand in the same position as you play the notes and it will also be easier to find the notes.

You can use your right hand thumb to pluck the notes or use a pick.

I will use two ways to show you how to play the melody.

1. First you will find the lyrics to the song, one line at a time. Below the lyrics I will show you the melody in a form of notation that I call number tablature. In this notation every note consists of two numbers, the first number tells you which fret to play and the following number which string to play. If the first number is a 0 it means that you play the string without pressing down a fret.

2. Below this notation I also give you a description on how to play the melody with words.

Here are the lyrics line by line with corresponding ukulele tablature and instructions on how to play:

Twinkle, twinkle, little star

03 03 32 32 01 01 32

Play the open third string twice. An open string is a string you play without pressing down a fret. Then play the third fret second string twice, the open first string twice and the third fret second string.

How I wonder what you are

12 12 02 02 23 23 03

Play first fret second string twice, second open string twice, second fret third string twice, then the open third string.

Up above the world so high

32 32 12 12 02 02 23

Third fret second string twice, first fret second string twice, open second string twice, second fret third string.

Like a diamond in the sky!

The same melody as the previous line!

Now you only have to repeat the two first lines of the melody and you have completed the song!

Learn the melody one line at a time until you master the song by heart and you are ready to play it for your friends!

Ukulele Lesson: Mary Had A Little Lamb Instruction

In this lesson you will learn to play a melody on your ukulele! You do not have to read sheet music. It is time to learn to play Mary Had A Little Lamb with an easy instruction and tablature notation!

The first string on your ukulele is the bottom string with the highest pitch. If you have tuned your ukulele in the common C tuning your first string will be an A, your second string an E, the third string a C and the fourth string a G.

If you have a piano around you will find these notes in the fourth octave on your piano. This is the middle octave on your piano or on a keyboard.

It is common on guitar and sometimes even on ukulele to notate the music and the chords with the help of tablature or tab notation.

Tablature is a music notational system that tells you how to put your fingers on a guitar or ukulele in order to play chords or melodies.

Tabs use lines to represent the strings and numbers on these lines to indicate which frets to press down on the strings. This type of notation works fine if you have control over the text fonts used as the tabs usually are notated with the help of a word processor.

I use these tabs on my website but on article sites it is much safer to use other forms of notation. In this ukulele lesson you will learn the melody by the following means:

1. First you will see the lyrics to the song one line at a time.

2. Below every line of lyrics you will find the corresponding number tabs that show you how to play the melody on your ukulele.

3. Below the number tabs I will give you a decription with words on how to play the melody.

How to read number tablature

Number tablature is a form of ukulele tab notation that I use on articles sites. In this type of notation every note is notated with two numbers. The first number tells you which fret to press down. The following number indicates the string to use. If the first number is a 0 you will play a string without pressing down a fret.

Remember, the first string is the bottom string of your ukulele!

Here comes the first line of lyrics with ukulele tab and a decription on how to play:

Mary had a little lamb

02 23 03 23 02 02 02

Play the open second string. An open string is a string that you play without pressing down a fret. Then play the second fret third string, open third string, second fret third string, open second string three times.

Little lamb, little lamb

23 23 23 02 32 32

Second fret third string three times, open second string, third fret second string twice.

As you can see you will use open strings and the first, second and third fret on your ukulele. One tips for you that will help you play smoother is to use your left hand index finger to play the notes on the first fret, you middle finger for the notes on the second fret and your ring finger for the third fret.

Time for the next ukulele tab:

Mary had a little lamb

02 23 03 23 02 02 02

Open second string, second fret third string, open third string, second fret third string, open second string three times.

It’s fleece was white as snow

02 23 23 02 23 03

Open second string, second fret third string twice, open second string, second fret third string, open third string.

This is it! I suggest that you learn to play the melody by heart by learning one line at a time!

Ukulele Tab: Learn Mary Had A Little Lamb With Ukulele Tab

Have you ever played a melody on your ukulele? Well, if not let this be the first time! I will show you how to play Mary Had A Little Lamb on two strings on your ukulele. We will use easy ukulele tab so you don’t need to know sheet music.

Mary Had A Little Lamb is a popular nursery rhyme. Here is the first verse:

Mary had a little lamb
little lamb, little lamb
Mary had a little lamb
its fleece was white as snow

Thomas Edison used this poem in testing his invention of the phonograph in 1877. It became the first audio recording to be successfully made and played back.

Let’s start playing the first notes! The melodi you now will play will correspond to the text line:

Mary had a little lamb

0/1 3/2 1/2 3/2 0/1 0/1 0/1

This is my special form of ukulele tab for articles to be sure that they are readable on article sites.

0/1 means that you play the first string with your right hand thumb without pressing down any left hand finger. It is called to play on an open string.

3/2 subsequently means that you press down the third fret on the second string. Now when you understand how to read my ukulele tab notation we will proceed with the next line of lyrics:

little lamb, little lamb

3/2 3/2 3/2 0/1 3/0 3/0

This type of ukulele tab doesn’t indicate the length of the notes. I guess you hear that the third and sixth note ought to be a little longer than the rest.

Here is the third line of lyrics and the corresponding ukulele tab:

Mary had a little lamb

0/1 3/2 1/2 3/2 0/1 0/1 0/1

Identical with the first line as you can see.

I haven’t told you anything about which left hand finger to press down on the frets.

You can of course use your first finger for all the notes. A more professional approach is to play the notes on the first fret with your first finger and the notes on your third fret with your little finger.

It is a little bit tricky at first but as your fingers get used to it it will actually be easier to find the right notes. You don’t even have to look at your fingers.

Let’s complete the song with the last line:

it’s fleece was white as snow

0/1 3/2 3/2 0/1 3/2 0/1

I would suggest that you learn the melody by heart. The ukulele tab is a little help in the beginning but it’s fun to be able to have a repertoire with songs you can play whenever you want.

If your ukulele is tuned with the first string to A the song will be in the key of F. The chords you will need is F and C7. They are easy on ukulele but a little bit harder on guitar.

The F and C chord written with my type of easy ukulele tab will look like this:

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

C7: 1/1 0/2 0/3 0/4

I hope you will find out by yourself where the chords will fit in the melody.

You can use this ukulele tab on a guitar too as the first three strings on a guitar are tuned in the same way but not in the same key as on an ukulele.