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!

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 Tab: Play Chord Progressions In C-Major With Tablature

With your ukulele you can play many nice and fun chord progressions. You will use ukulele tablature so you don’t need to know sheet music.

The following chords presupposes that you have tuned your ukulele in the most common way with the first string with the highest pitch to an A.

We will first learn the two ukulele chords C-major and A7. In order to be able to show you how to play these chords I will present the ukulele tab notation I will use in this article.

Tablature is a form of notation that shows you how to put your fingers on your ukulele to play melodies and chords. The digit before the slash shows you which fret to play and the digit after the slash what string to play. Here is the C-major chord:

0/4 0/3 0/2 3/1

To clarify the before mentioned tab notation: 3/1 means that you press down the third fret on string one. I will also show you the fingerings for your left hand. The left hand fingers are usually numbered:

Index: 1

Middle finger: 2

Ring finger: 3

Pinky: 4

The fingering for the previous C chord is beginning with the fourth string: 0 0 0 3

Let’s start to strum on the ukulele with this chord:

C / / /

You can use your right hand thumb to strum the ukulele chord progressions or use a pick.

This chord notation means that you strum once on the C chord when you see the letter C and then once for every following slash. Time for the next chord A7:

0/4 1/3 0/2 0/1 and the fingering 0 1 0 0

Now you can create your first progression:

C / / / A7 / / /

Remember to strum with your right hand in an even pace even when you change chords. This can be difficult at first so you might need to concentrate on practicing the changing part before you can play the progression.

Well, I guess you feel that the progression is not complete. You will need two more ukulele chords. Let’s choose D7 and G7:

D7: 2/4 0/3 2/2 0/1 Fingering: 1 0 2 0

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

Now you can make a complete ukulele chord progression:

C / / / A7 / / / D7 / / / G7 / / /

The next ukulele chords you can use in the key of C are two minor chords, A-minor and D-minor:

Am: 2/4 0/3 0/2 0/1 Fingering: 2 0 0 0

Dm: 2/4 2/3 1/2 0/1 Fingering: 2 3 1 0

Remember to strum the chords in a slow even pace in order to feel the pulse. These progressions are turnarounds meaning that as you come to the end of the progression you can start all over again without stopping.

Here is the next ukulele chord progression:

C / / / Am / / / Dm / / / G7 / / / /

Now it’s time for you to learn the F-major chord:

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

Now you can play the previous chord progression with a variation using the F chord:

C / / / Am / / / F / / / G7 / / / /

You will end this practice session by playing a diminished C chord and a little longer progression. Here is the C dim chord:

Cdim: 2/4 3/3 2/2 3/1 Fingering: 1 3 2 4

Time for the progression:

F / / / Cdim / / / C / / / A7 / / /

D7 / / / G7 / / / C / / / C / / /

Now it’s time for you to use these progressions to experiment with and create other combinations of chords. This will develop your ear, your musical ability and give you practice in the art of changing chords.

Mel Bay Easy Baritone Ukulele Tablature Method, Book One

Product Description
Students will develop music reading skills because of this unique, one-of-a kind, tablature method. Students can play immediately, without reading music utilizing the handy tab, as well as learn to play chords quickly and effectively. This will in turn enable them to sing along with the lyrics provided with each song; A valuable guide to ukulele players of all kinds…. More >>

Mel Bay Easy Baritone Ukulele Tablature Method, Book One