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This lesson is apart of a larger lesson series that will help us learn the ukulele fretboard. So far, we’ve learned how to play a C major scale and a G major scale on ukulele. Now, it’s time to learn how to play an F major scale.

Scales not only help us learn the ukulele fretboard, but they also allow us to understand the music we are playing. For example, if we know the notes across the fretboard, we can build chords, craft solos, and look at a piece of sheet music and play it.

Each of these lessons build on the other, so if you’re just joining us, you will want to start learning the C major scale first.

Alright. Are you ready? Let’s do this!

How to Build an F Major Scale

First, we want to build an F major scale in theory. This way, when we get to actually playing these scales on the ukulele, we understand what we’re playing.

You might be wondering why I chose to teach an F major scale and a G major scale after a C major scale. If you recall, a G major scale has only one sharp (#). As you’ll find, once we build an F major scale, the scale has only one flat (b). Remember that sharps raise the pitch of a note a half step; flats lower the pitch of a note a half step.

As you remember, a C major scale has no sharps or flats, so it makes sense that the next easiest scales to learn would be a G major and F major, since they are only changing one note from a C major scale.

Do you remember the major scale interval pattern we talked about in the first scale lesson? It is whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half.

Because we want to build an F major scale, we can start on an F note, apply this pattern, and build a major scale. Let’s visualize this on the piano keys.

From F to G, we have a whole step, from G to A, we have a whole step, from A to Bb, we have a half step, from Bb to C, we have a whole step, from C to D, we have a whole step, from D to E, we have a whole step, and from E to F, we have a half step.

From this, we see that the notes found in an F major scale are: F, G, A, Bb, C, D, E, F.

We can see an F major scale represented on a musical staff:

Let’s build an F major by starting on the F note on the 1st fret of the E string.

Notice the pattern of half steps in whole steps in the above example by looking at how many frets separate the notes in the scale.

How to Play an F Major Scale on Ukulele

We want to be able to play an F major scale in five different positions across the ukulele fretboard. To do this, we are going to refer to the C major scale we learned in the last lesson. Again, by now, you should be pretty comfortable and familiar with the C major scale.

Tell me again. What is the only flatted note in an F major scale?

Bb.

All of the other notes in an F major scale are notes we already know how to play on the ukulele. This means we can take each of the five C major scale positions we learned and change all the B notes to Bb.

F Major Scale: Position #1

For this position, assign your index finger to fret any of the notes that fall in the 1st fret, your middle finger to fret any of the notes that fall in the 2nd fret, your ring finger to the 3rd fret, and your pinky to the 4th fret.

Compare this position with the first position of the C major scale. As you can see, it’s not much different. We are just lowering the B note to a Bb on the top string and bottom string.

F Major Scale: Position #2

This position is a little different. For the notes on the top two strings, your four fingers will hover over the 2nd to 5th frets. When you get to the notes on the bottom two strings, your fingers will shift to hover over the 3rd to 6th frets to fret the notes.

F Major Scale: Position #3

Like the last position, for the notes on the top two strings, your four fingers will hover over the 4th to 7th frets. When you get to the notes on the bottom two strings, your fingers will shift to hover over the 5th to 8th frets to fret the notes.

F Major Scale: Position #4

Assign your index, middle, ring, and pinky finger to fret the notes that fall between the 7th and 10th frets.

F Major Scale: Position #5

For the notes on the top two strings, your four fingers will hover over the 9th to 12th frets. When you get to the notes on the bottom two strings, your fingers will shift to hover over the 10th to 13th frets to fret the notes.

Final Notes

By now, you’re probably noticing a lot of the same patterns between the C major, G major, and F major scales. This is nice because your fingers are probably getting used to many of these shapes.

However, since your fingers are getting used to these shapes, you have to be really intentional about saying the notes you are fretting out loud. The goal in all of this is to understand what you’re playing. That understanding will help you in the long run. Shapes will only take you so far.

If you’re looking for some practical ways to apply your newly acquired knowledge of the ukulele fretboard, take a look at my post 3 Easy Songs You Can Fingerpick On Ukulele Today. For each of the songs I teach, I include sheet music. I recommend printing this music off and identifying the notes on the staff and seeing where those notes fall on the ukulele fretboard.

As always, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to post your comment below! Let’s talk about it.

F Major Scale: All Positions

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Right now, we are in a big lesson series dedicated to learning the ukulele fretboard. We’re doing this by learning all major scales in the twelve different keys. This is the second lesson in the series. If you’re just joining us, welcome!

In the first lesson, we looked at how to play a C major scale on the ukulele. By now, you should be able to comfortably play a C major scale in all positions across the ukulele fretboard.

Learning the C major scale is a critical starting point. All of the lessons from here on out will be building off of our understanding of a C major scale.

So again, if you haven’t learned the C major scale, go here before reading on. If you don’t have a solid understanding of that lesson, this lesson probably won’t make much sense to you.

From here on out, I will be structuring each of these major scale lessons very similarly. First, we will look at the theory behind the scale, or how to build the scale, and then, we will look how to play the scale across the ukulele fretboard.

How to Build a G Major Scale

In the last lesson, we learned that we can build a major scale from any note by applying a whole step, half step interval pattern. We remember that a major scale interval pattern is whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half.

Let’s start on a G note and apply this interval pattern. We will use an example of the piano keys to help us visualize the scale.

From G to A, we have a whole step, from A to B, we have a whole step, from B to C, we have a half step, from C to D, we have a whole step, from D to E, we have a whole step, from E to F#, we have a whole step, and from F# to G, we have a half step.

From this, we see that the notes found in a G major scale are: G, A, B, C, D, E, F#, G.

We can see a G major scale represented on a musical staff:

The most important thing to know about a G major scale is, unlike a C major scale, it has one sharp.

The term “sharp” refers to a note that has been raised a half step. A sharped note is indicated by a “#” symbol. If we go back up to our piano keys example, you’ll see that in order to maintain the whole step, half step interval pattern for a major scale, we had to raise the F natural note up a half step.

Lastly, we can apply this whole step, half step major scale interval pattern to the ukulele fretboard. Because we want to build a G major scale, again, we have to start on a G note and then apply this pattern.

Let’s build a G major scale starting on the open G string:

The blue dots represent the tonic note of the scale (G). Again, if this discussion about whole steps and half steps doesn’t make sense to you, go to the previous lesson to review.

Now that we know how to build a G major scale, let’s learn some more practical ways to play this scale across the ukulele fretboard.

How to Play a G Major Scale on Ukulele

We want to be able to play a G major scale in five different positions across the ukulele fretboard. To do this, we are going to refer to the C major scale we learned in the last lesson. Again, by now, you should be pretty comfortable and familiar with the C major scale.

The cool thing is that you pretty much already know how to play a G major scale. Check this out.

Let’s list the notes in a G major scale:

G, A, B, C, D, E, F#, G

Now, let’s list the notes in a C major scale:

C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C

Tell me. Which single note is found in the G major scale that isn’t found in the C major scale?

The F# is the only different note.

This means all we need to do is take our C major scale positions that we learned in the last lesson and raise all the F notes up a half step to F#. If we do that for each of the five positions we learned, we have completely learned how to play a G major scale in all positions across the ukulele fretboard!

Pretty nifty, huh?

G Major Scale: Position #1

For this position, assign your index finger to fret any of the notes that fall in the 1st fret, your middle finger to fret any of the notes that fall in the 2nd fret, your ring finger to the 3rd fret, and your pinky to the 4th fret.

Compare this position with the first position of the C major scale. As you can see, it’s not much different. We are just raising up the F note to an F# on the second to bottom string.

G Major Scale: Position #2

Like the last position, assign your index, middle, ring, and pinky finger to fret the notes that fall between the 2nd and 5th frets.

G Major Scale: Position #3

This position is a little different. For the notes on the top two strings, your four fingers will hover over the 4th to 7th frets. When you get to the notes on the bottom two strings, your fingers will shift to hover over the 5th to 8th frets to fret the notes.

G Major Scale: Position #4

Like the last position, for the notes on the top two strings, your four fingers should hover over the 6th to 9th frets. When you get to the notes on the bottom two strings, your fingers will shift to hover over the 7th to 10th frets.

G Major Scale: Position #5

Assign your four fingers to fret the notes that fall between the 9th and 12th frets.

How to Practice These Scale Positions

Since you know how to play a C major scale, the G major scale shouldn’t throw you for too much of a loop. The key with practicing these new positions is to be very conscious and aware of what notes you are playing.

As you’ll notice, there are already some patterns repeating themselves between these two scales. For example, if you look at position #4 of the C major scale, and then compare it with position #2 of the G major scale, it’s the exact same fingering.

You’ll notice that these positions will repeat themselves like this in different places on the fretboard for different scales.

This is great because our fingers get used to these different positions pretty quickly. However, this can cause a bit of a challenge in the long run because we don’t want to just be learning the finger patterns. What we really want to know is what notes we are plucking and why we are plucking them. So again, as you pluck each note of these scales, continue to verbalize the note you are plucking.

As you practice the G major scale, continue to incorporate the C major scale in your practice too.

Final Notes

There is a lot in this lesson!

Take your time with it. It’s possible you’ll need to spend a couple weeks on all of this. If something didn’t make sense, don’t hesitate to reread it.

In the last lesson, there were a lot of great questions that were brought up in the comments area. When we’re looking at a topic like scales, there are bound to be a lot of different questions. This is good! Chances are somebody else is asking those same questions too, so don’t be shy.

Post your questions and comments below.

G Major Scale: All Positions

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One of the most exciting aspects of Ukulele Tricks for me is hearing from you.

I’ve tried to offer a variety of lessons and information about the ukulele on Ukulele Tricks, but I realize with as many people that use the site, I’ve probably overlooked something, and I know for a fact from all of our conversations that you have a lot of really great ideas for what you’d like to learn!

In the comments area below, I want you to answer the following question:

What is your biggest challenge as a ukulele player?

In other words, what do you want to be able to do better as a ukulele player? What do you want to learn? If you could improve one part of your playing, what would it be?

Your answer could be as simple as, “My biggest challenge is fingerpicking,” or, “I can’t remember how to play certain chords.”

It doesn’t matter what it is. I want to hear an honest evaluation of where you feel like you’re at as a ukulele player.

All of your responses will help me continue to create lessons and content on Ukulele Tricks that are extremely helpful and relevant to your current challenges. I want to be teaching you things that you want to learn and that are beneficial to you!

Let’s hear it. Post your comment below. I read every response.

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Over the next several weeks, we’re going to look at the twelve major scales and how to play those on ukulele. In the most basic way, a scale is a collection of notes arranged in ascending or descending order.

Every scale is built upon a root note called tonic. So in a C major scale, the tonic note of the scale is the note C.

There are only twelve major scales because there are only twelve notes in Western music from which we can build a scale. If we know a C major scale like the back of our hand, we can easily modify it later to play the other major scales.

For a broader explanation about scales, check out my post Ukulele Scales Explained for Beginners.

Why You Need to Learn Scales

Let’s be honest. While memorizing scales and patterns is an excellent exercise for your mind, that process can be quite boring and monotonous. I’m not going to try to tell you otherwise. (How’s that for some motivation?!)

However, we don’t learn scales because they are so fun. We learn scales because they equip us to play music that we might have shied away from before just because we didn’t understand it. The biggest part to successfully playing a piece of music is understanding what that song is doing. Scales allow you to understand any song by giving you a context and a framework for the chords and notes you are playing.

Let me unpack what this really means.

For example, if you know your scales, you don’t need a chord diagram (such as my chord library) to tell how you to play a certain chord. This means if you see a weird chord like Gadd9, you know which note to add to the chord and where to add it on the fretboard to make the chord an “add9.”

If you’re a songwriter and you know your scales, all the sudden you have a palette of creative options you can select from to build and create a beautiful and memorable song.

If you enjoy fingerpicking songs, you can look at a piece of sheet music and know exactly what notes to play and where to play them on the fretboard.

It’s true that you can play hundreds of songs without knowing a thing about scales or music theory, but if you really want to take your ukulele playing to the next level, and unlock a lot of creative options, learning scales is essential.

How to Build a C Major Scale

For these lessons on scales, we’re starting with a C major scale because it is the only major scale without any sharps or flats. If you’re at all familiar with a piano, this means the C major scale is only played on the white keys (no black keys).

There are only seven different notes in a C major scale.

The C major scale uses the notes: C, D, E, F, G, A, B.

As you can see on the above musical staff, the C major scale starts on C and goes up to B. After the B note, the scale starts to repeat again, but on a C note an octave higher.

Intervals

As I explained in my previous lesson Ukulele Scales Explained for Beginners, the quality of a scale (e.g. major, minor, etc.) is determined by the intervals between the notes of the scale.

The intervals we want to concern ourselves with are half step and whole step intervals.

As you can see, when you play a note one fret higher than the original note, this is an interval of a half step. When you play a note two frets higher than the original note, this is an interval of a whole step.

A major scale has a specific pattern or arrangement of whole steps and half steps.

Major Scale Interval Pattern

This section here is the key to playing ANY major scale on ukulele.

If we look at the piano keys, it’s easy to see the pattern we use for a major scale. Because in this lesson we are looking at the C major scale, the scale demonstrated on the piano keys is a C major scale.

Again, since this is a C major scale, there are no sharps or flats (we don’t play the black keys). If we start on the C note at the far left and ascend to the B note to the right, we see that our interval pattern for a major scale is whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half.

If we know this pattern, this means we can start on any note of the ukulele, apply this interval pattern of whole steps and half steps, and we have a major scale!

How to Play a C Major Scale on Ukulele

Now that we know how a major scale is built, we can apply this structure to playing any scale. As I mentioned, we want to start learning the C major scale because it has no sharps or flats. If we know the C major scale, we can use this as a starting point for easily learning other scales.

The Easiest Way to Play a C Major Scale

Like I said above, we can apply that whole step, half step interval pattern to any note to build a major scale. However, in order to play a C major scale, we need to build our major scale by starting on a C note (tonic!). Makes sense.

Let’s use our open C string (second to top string) as a starting point to build our C major scale:

As you can see, we start by plucking our open C string.

Because we know that the first interval of a major scale pattern is a whole step, we know we have to go up two frets (a whole step!) to get to the D. From there, we continue to apply the whole step, half step pattern of a major scale.

Because we started on a C, this is a C major scale.

The Most Practical Way to Play a C Major Scale

The thing about scales on the ukulele is that it isn’t very practical to play a scale just on one string. The best way to learn scales on the ukulele is to learn them across all the strings and in different positions.

There are five positions from where we can play the notes of a C major scale on the fretboard of the ukulele. For all these positions, the blue note represents the tonic note of a C major scale (the note C is tonic!).

C Major Scale: Position #1

For this position, you want to assign your index finger to fret any of the notes that fall in the 1st fret. Assign your middle finger to fret any of the notes that fall in the 2nd fret, your ring finger to the 3rd fret, and your pinky to the 4th fret.

C Major Scale: Position #2

Like the last position, assign your index, middle, ring, and pinky finger to fret the notes that fall between the 2nd and 5th frets.

C Major Scale: Position #3

This position is a little different. For the notes on the top two strings, your four fingers will hover over the 4th to 7th frets. When you get to the notes on the bottom two strings, your fingers will shift to hover over the 5th to 8th frets to fret the notes.

C Major Scale: Position #4

Assign your four fingers to fret the notes that fall between the 7th and 10th frets.

C Major Scale: Position #5

This is another position where you will need to shift your fingers. For the notes that are played on the top two strings, hover your four fingers over the 9th to 12th frets. For the notes that are played on the bottom two strings, hover your four fingers over the 10th to 13th frets.

If you have a smaller sized ukulele, it’s quite possible you don’t even have enough frets to play this 5th position. That’s okay!

How to Practice These Scale Positions

Learning the pattern of these five different positions is actually really easy with a little bit of practice. You’ll find that these patterns are easy to remember and not that difficult to play in the long run.

The biggest challenge is remembering the individual note names. So as you practice, it’s important to say out loud the note you are fretting.

It’s also extremely important to remember where the tonic notes are across the fretboard. If you can find the tonic note, you can more easily figure out how to play the rest of the scale.

As you practice these scale positions, I would only dedicate 15 to 30 minutes a day. You can practice more if you’d like, but what you’ll find is that your brain will need a rest in order to retain these different scales.

Final Notes

The last thing I want to quickly mention is about the ukulele tuning.

Because the top string of the ukulele is tuned higher than the middle two strings, when you’re playing these positions, it’ll sound a little weird if you’re starting on the top string, because the notes being played in succession are not in ascending order. If this throws you off too much, you can just focus on the position of the bottom three strings for now.

There is A LOT of information in this post. If something didn’t click for you, I encourage you to read this over again very slowly. As always, you can post a question or a comment right below this lesson! I’d love to hear from you and try to help in anyway I can.

We’re going to continue to look at the eleven other major scales on the ukulele. It’s a lot, but if we learn the C major scale, the other eleven are actually quite easy. You’ll see in the next lesson.

C Major Scale: All Positions

As you probably have noticed, we have a completely brand new look! If you’re reading this in your email inbox or RSS reader, be sure to head over to Ukulele Tricks to check out the new design.

Over the past month, I’ve been working a lot of long days and nights to get this new design ready to go. I’ve spent a lot of time planning, coding, and tweaking because I’ve wanted everything to be just right for you.

This update is a HUGE step forward for Ukulele Tricks, and I hope that you really like it.

When I designed the new look, my goal was to make things look cleaner and easier to find. For example, members of the Ukulele Strumming Tricks video lesson course can login to the course from the top of any page now!

Overall, there aren’t any major changes to the way the site is organized, so you should be able to find everything alright. I encourage you to click around and explore! If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to post a comment below.

Please be patient with me as there might still be some kinks in the design that I have to work out.

What do you think of the new design? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Post your comment below!

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With Christmas right around the corner, there isn’t a better time to learn how to play the ukulele.

We’ve looked at the 5 Best Ukuleles to Buy for Beginners, but through the discussion in the comments of that post, there have been a lot of other great recommendations from all of you that I missed.

So in this post, I’m taking your suggestions and looking at 16 best ukuleles to buy… without breaking the bank.

Honestly, there are hundreds of brands and options out there, so I know I’m going to miss some, but these ukuleles I’ve either played or I’ve heard really great reviews from you.

These ukuleles are perfect for beginners and beyond.

Note: As I said, I recommend these ukuleles because I’ve played them and because people who are apart of the Ukulele Tricks community have recommended them. I receive a very small commission if you buy a ukulele through my affiliate link. If you’ve found this information helpful, or if you want to find a way to say “thanks” for all the tons of free information I offer on Ukulele Tricks, I would be very grateful.

Soprano Ukuleles

Soprano ukuleles are the smallest and most traditional type of ukulele. They have a classic bright, jangly sound that is characteristic of the ukulele. Those of us who have big, fat fingers might not find the soprano ukulele to be the easiest to play.

1.) Makala Dolphin Soprano Ukulele ($39)

Don’t let the price fool you. This little ukulele gets rave reviews. While they are made out of plastic, they have great tone and playability (listen to how the Makala Dolphin sounds in this video). You’ll want to put a new set of Aquila strings on it, but once you do, you’ll have a great sounding ukulele.

The cool thing about the Makala Dolphin is that it comes in a lot of different colors. Click any of the colors to learn more: red, pearl white, black, light blue, metallic blue, pink, yellow, green, or purple.

2.) Lanikai LU-21 Soprano Ukulele ($69)

This ukulele is one of the most popular entry-level ukuleles. For those of you who don’t like the idea of having a plastic ukulele, this is a great alternative. Some people have reported having minor intonation issues with the LU-21. This means that the notes you play higher up the fretboard can sound out of tune. However, the likelihood of playing past the fifth fret on a soprano ukulele is pretty minimal. For the price, you can’t go wrong with the Lanikai LU-21.

Click here to learn more about the Lanikai LU-21 soprano ukulele.

3.) Kala KA-S Soprano Ukulele ($70)

I’ve heard from a lot of people on Ukulele Tricks who own and love this ukulele. Kala is one of the most reputable ukulele makers out there known for their quality and craftsmanship. They created this line of mahogany ukuleles to be affordable while still maintaining excellent quality.

Click here to learn more about the Kala KA-S soprano ukulele.

4.) Martin 0XK Soprano Ukulele ($279)

The price of this ukulele is a bit higher than the other options, but I recommend this ukulele because this is the ukulele my grandpa plays (if you’ve downloaded my free lesson book, you know that my grandpa taught me how to play ukulele). I absolutely love this ukulele. The playability is excellent and the tone is very even and balanced. Sometimes soprano ukuleles can sound a bit shrill and thin, but this has a nice “fat”, warm tone for being a soprano ukulele.

Click here to learn more about the Martin 0XK soprano ukulele.

Concert Ukuleles

Concert ukuleles are a little bit bigger than soprano ukuleles, which makes them appealing to those with larger fingers. However, they aren’t so much bigger that they loose that classic ukulele sound.

5.) Lanikai LU-21C Concert Ukulele ($89)

The Lanikai LU-21C is the bigger brother of the soprano LU-21. Those with bigger hands and fingers might prefer the LU-21C over the LU-21.

Click here to learn more about the Lanikai LU-21C concert ukulele.

6.) Kala KA-C Mahogany Ukulele ($98)

Similar to the Kala KA-S, the KA-C is Kala’s concert version of their mahogany ukulele. You can expect the same great playability and sound.

Click here to learn more about the Kala KA-C mahogany ukulele.

7.) Oscar Schmidt OU5 Concert Ukulele ($149)

The Oscar Schmidt OU5 ukulele is a beautiful ukulele. It’s much prettier in person. When I played it, I was impressed by how easy it was to play. It sounds great too. You’ll probably want to put on some new strings when you get it, but overall, I’ve found this to be a great ukulele and haven’t hesitated to recommend it to friends of mine.

Click here to learn more about the Oscar Schmidt OU5 concert ukulele.

8.) Cordoba 20CM Solid Mahogany Concert Ukulele ($149)

This ukulele is unique to the previous ones in that the top of the Cordoba 20CM ukulele is constructed from solid mahogany wood. The previous recommendations are constructed out of a laminate plywood. Solid wood sounds better with time.

Click here to learn more about the Cordoba 20CM concert ukulele.

Tenor Ukuleles

Tenor ukuleles are a little bit bigger than concert ukuleles. Due to its larger size, it tends to sound warmer and deeper than a soprano or concert ukulele. Those with larger fingers will like the feel of a tenor ukulele. There are also more frets so fingerstyle players love playing tenor ukuleles.

I love my tenor ukulele. I will often switch the tuning around between standard and low G tuning. This gives me a lot of different creative options.

9.) Kala KA-T Mahogany Ukulele ($110)

If you’re thinking you’d like the bigger size of a tenor ukulele, or if you’d like to have the option of playing in low G tuning, the Kala KA-T tenor ukulele will be a great option. It’s bigger than the KA-S and KA-C, so you’re going to get that warmer, more full bodied tone.

Click here to learn more about the Kala KA-T mahogany ukulele.

10.) Lanikai S-T Solid Spruce Tenor Ukulele ($170)

This is another ukulele that has a solid wood top. The Lanikai S-T has a solid spruce top which gives this ukulele a loud vibrant sound. The mahogany back and sides provide warmth and body to the tone. Lanikai has a tenor version of the LU-21, but honestly, I would pick the S-T over that in a heart beat.

Click here to learn more about the Lanikai S-T solid spruce tenor ukulele.

11.) Cordoba 20TM Tenor Ukulele ($170)

Like it’s smaller brother, the Cordoba 20TM has a solid mahogany top and mahogany back and sides. This instrument will have a very warm and balanced tone.

Click here to learn more about the Cordoba 20TM tenor ukulele.

12.) Fender Nohea Koa Tenor Ukulele ($199)

The biggest draw to the Fender Nohea tenor ukulele is the koa top, back, and sides. Koa is a very beautiful tonewood that has a clear, warm tone similar to mahogany but with less bass. With this being a laminated instrument, you might not find many differences between this and a mahogany ukulele, but it’s a beautiful instrument, which is worth the price for some.

Click here to learn more about the Fender Nohea tenor ukulele.

Baritone Ukuleles

Baritone ukuleles are the largest ukuleles, which means they carry much more bass than any other ukulele. A baritone ukulele is tuned like the bottom four strings of the guitar (DGBE). This means that the chords for a baritone ukulele are not the same as the chords for a soprano, concert, or tenor ukulele.

13.) Oscar Schmidt OU53S Baritone Ukulele ($175)

As far as baritone ukuleles go, this is a great entry-level baritone ukulele. When I played this ukulele, I found that it played easy and it had a very good low end presence while still maintaining clarity.

Click here to learn more about the Oscar Schmidt OU53S baritone ukulele.

14.) Lanikai S-B Solid Spruce Baritone Ukulele ($190)

With a solid spruce top, this baritone ukulele will have a lot of projection. The mahogany back and sides will provide added warmth and clarity.

Click here to learn more about the Lanikai S-B solid spruce baritone ukulele.

15.) Koloa Baritone Ukulele, Solid Mahogany ($190)

Unlike all of the other ukuleles on this page, this ukulele not only has a solid mahogany top, but it also has a solid back and sides. With time and a lot of playing, this ukulele will age very nicely.

Click here to learn more about the Koloa baritone ukulele.

16.) Kala Solid Spruce Top Baritone Ukulele ($199)

This Kala baritone ukulele has a solid sitka spruce top. Sitka spruce is known for it’s very lively and clear sound. Sometimes with baritone ukuleles they can sound so dark to the point of being muddy. Because of the spruce top, you won’t have that problem with this ukulele.

Click here to learn more about the Kala solid spruce top baritone ukulele.

What Ukulele Do You Recommend?

What ukulele do you have? Would you recommend it to a friend? It doesn’t have to be on this list. The more recommendations we can get the better. Let’s hear it!

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In this lesson, we’re going to learn how to fingerpick “Silent Night” on the ukulele. As you probably know, it’s a very beautiful Christmas carol, but it sounds especially great fingerpicked.

If you’re a beginner to fingerpicking, this will be a great song to learn.

I will say that “Silent Night” presents a bit more of a challenge than the previous fingerstyle songs we’ve looked at, however, do know that the challenge is a good one!

For an easier song, you might check out last week’s video lesson where we learned how to fingerpick Good King Wenceslas, or you might check out 3 Easy Songs You Can Fingerpick on the Ukulele.

In this video, I demonstrate “Silent Night” on the ukulele and give you some tips and tricks for how to play it. Be sure to download the sheet music and tabs below the video, so you can follow along!

Download the sheet music and tabs for Silent Night here.

Thanks to PDF Minstrel for sharing the music.

Don’t know how to read music or tabs? Learn how to read music here, and learn how to read tabs here.

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Last week, we looked at 3 Easy Songs You Can Fingerpick on Ukulele Today. In the spirit of fingerpicking, and now, the upcoming holidays, it’s a perfect time to learn how to fingerpick some Christmas carols.

In this lesson, we’re going to learn how to fingerpick “Good King Wenceslas” on ukulele. This song is perfect for beginners, and if you’ve been fingerpicking for awhile, your family and friends will love to hear you play it this Christmas!

Download the sheet music and tabs for Good King Wenceslas here.

Thanks to PDF Minstrel for sharing the music.

If you’ve never read music before, or if you don’t know how to read tabs, learn how to read music here, and learn how to read tabs here.

Stay tuned. More fingerpicking Christmas songs to come!

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Last week, I posted 3 Easy Songs You Can Fingerpick on Ukulele Today.

When you download the sheet music for these songs, you are presented with a musical staff and tablature.

After a couple emails, I realize we’ve looked at how to read music, but one thing we haven’t looked at yet is how to read tabs.

Music tablature, or tab, is a simplified form of musical notation used for stringed instruments like the ukulele.

Most people learn a new piece of music by using tab. Unlike a regular piece of music, tabs show you exactly where to play the notes on the fretboard.

Let’s take a look at some examples of tablature.

Music Tablature Basics

For the ukulele, in a piece of tablature, you will see four lines:

A -----------------------------------------
E -----------------------------------------
C -----------------------------------------
g -----------------------------------------

Each line represents a string on the ukulele. The top line represents the bottom string of the ukulele where the bottom line represents the top string of the ukulele.

When you look at a piece of tab, you’ll see numbers scattered across the different “strings” or lines:

-----3-----------------------------------
-----------0-----------------------0-----
-----------------0-----------0-----------
-----------------------0-----------------

Each number refers to a fret number.

For example, in the piece of tab above, you would pluck the 3rd fret of the bottom string on the ukulele. As we read across the piece of tab, we see that we would then pluck the open E string, the second to bottom string. Then, we would pluck the open C string, the second to top string. Then, we would pluck the open G string, the top string. And so on…

How to Write Chords in Music Tablature

In a piece of tab, you might see all the numbers line up vertically:

-----0-----2-----3-----0-----3-----2-----
-----1-----3-----0-----0-----2-----1-----
-----0-----2-----0-----0-----2-----2-----
-----2-----0-----0-----2-----2-----0-----

When you see this, this means you play a chord. In other words, you play all the notes vertically aligned together.

In the above example, we see the chords played from left to right: F, G, C, Am, D7, and G7.

Other Important Music Tablature Symbols

At this point, you should be able to read tab like a pro, but there are a couple more symbols that we will see on occasion.

Hammer-ons

Hammer-ons are designated by an “h” symbol that separates the two notes.

-----1-------------------
-----1-------------------
-----------2h3-----------
-------------------3-----

In this example, you would pluck the 2nd fret of the second to top string, and then “hammer-on” to the 3rd fret.

Pull-offs

Pull-offs are designated by a “p” symbol that separates the two notes.

-----3p2-----------------
-------------3-----------
-------------------2-----
-------------------0-----

In this example, you would pluck the 3rd fret of the bottom string, and then “pull-off” to the 2nd fret.

Alternative Symbol for Hammer-ons and Pull-offs

Hammer-ons and pull-offs can also be designated by using the “^” symbol.

-----0---------------------
-----------0^3^0-----------
---------------------0-----
---------------------2-----

In this example, you would pluck the open E string, then hammer-on to the 3rd fret, and then pull-off back to the open E string.

Slides

Ascending slides are represented by the “/” symbol, while descending slides are represented by the “\” symbol.

----2/5-----------------
------------3\2---------
-------------------4----
------------------------

In this example, you would pluck the 2nd fret of the bottom string and slide up to the 5th fret. Then, you would pluck the 3rd fret of the second to bottom string and slide down to the 2nd fret.

Bends

Bends are represented by the “b” symbol. An “r” symbol will be used to indicate a bend that returns back to the original plucked note.

----5b6----3-----------------------
----------------3----5b6r5----3----
-----------------------------------
-----------------------------------

In this example, you pluck the 5th fret of the bottom string and bend it to the 6th fret and hold the bend. Then, you would pluck the 3rd fret of the bottom string, and then, the 3rd fret of the second to bottom string.

Next, on the same string, you would pluck the 5th fret of the second, bend up to the 6th fret, and then, return the bend back to the 5th fret. Lastly, you would pluck the 3rd fret.

The Big Downside to Using Tab

As you can see, reading tab is a very intuitive way to learn a song.

However, the big problem is that with tab you don’t get a sense of the rhythm. Meaning, you don’t know when to play the notes written on a piece of tab or how long to hold them in relation to the other notes.

The best way to use tab is in combination with your ear. For example, you’ve heard a song you want to learn how to play on ukulele, and because you know how it sounds, you can use the tab as an aid.

Using tab in combination with reading music is extremely powerful. This is the format in which I posted the fingerpicking songs last week. Be sure to check those out if you want some real practical application for using tabs.

If we’re able to play these songs without a hiccup, we’ll be really well equipped to learn more difficult songs in future lessons.

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Last week, I gave you a quick crash course on how to read music. In order to learn these fingerpicking songs, we need to know a little bit about reading music. So if you haven’t already, you might want to refer to last week’s post on how to read music.

The Right Way to Fingerpick the Ukulele

In my fingerpicking blues lesson, I went over fingerpicking technique a little bit. I presented two different techniques, but for this lesson, I want to focus on only one of them, because in my opinion, it will be more beneficial to use in the long run for these classical types of fingerpicking songs.

For the sake reference, I want to assign each of the four strings on the ukulele a number.

The G string is the 4th string. The C string is the 3rd string. The E string is the 2nd string, and the A string is the 1st string.

To fingerpick these songs, we’re going to use only our thumb, index, and middle finger.

Our thumb will be used to the pluck the 4th and 3rd strings. Our index finger will be used to pluck the 2nd string. Our middle finger will be used to pluck the 1st string.

We will also plant our pinky on the top of the ukulele, just below the sound hole, to stabilize our picking hand.

There will exceptions to this rule, but this should be considered “home base” for our three fingers.

Check out this short video where I demonstrate the fingerpicking technique we will be using for these songs.

A Common Question About Finger Placement

You might be wondering, “Why not use our ring finger as well, so each finger (thumb, index, middle, and ring) can be assigned to a string?”

That’s a great question, and it’s one that’s often debated. Honestly, assigning each of your four fingers to pluck one of the four strings on the ukulele is not a bad way to go for some songs (such as the blues fingerpicking patterns).

However, fingerpicking like this can feel weird to some players, mainly in that, this method doesn’t use our thumb to pluck the lowest string. Because we are in standard re-entrant tuning, the lowest string on the ukulele is the second to top string. Some people (myself included) find that it’s a bit more intuitive and natural to assign the thumb to pluck this lowest string.

I prefer the three-finger fingerpicking technique for this reason and just because it’s less fingers. Because of this, I recommend the three-finger technique, however, you might need to experiment and see what works best for you.

Learn 3 Easy Solo Fingerpicking Songs on Ukulele

All three of these songs will be great songs for you to get your feet wet with fingerpicking on the ukulele. Thanks to PDF Minstrel for sharing the sheet music.

Unlike other video lessons I’ve done before, it’s very important that you download the music and tabs below each of these videos to follow along with me. In order to play these songs, we need the music and tabs. Again, if reading music is foreign to you, be sure to check out my post on how to read music.

For each video, I demonstrate the song, and then go over some potential tricky parts of each song and talk about those. The thing is, there might be some challenges that arise for you that aren’t covered in these videos, so if you have any questions whatsoever, don’t hesitate to post them in the comments section below!

Here are some tips for learning these songs:

• Your fingers need time to get comfortable to the motion of plucking the strings. If it doesn’t come quickly, don’t be too hard on yourself.
• As you practice, it’s very important to count out loud and even tap your foot. It’s possible that you’ll need to break down the rhythm in certain sections of the songs. Counting out loud allows you to do this with greater ease.
• At first, you might need to slow some of these songs down to play them. Speed will come. You may even need to separate the song into four-bar sections and just focus on learning and playing each of those sections.

All to say, these songs are fantastic to learn if you are just beginning to fingerpick, or if you’ve been fingerpicking but want to add some more songs into your arsenal. However, fingerpicking poses its own set of challenges, so if you run into any problems, don’t hesitate to post your comment below and we’ll talk about it.

I’m excited to look at these songs! Here goes.

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

This first song “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” will be the easiest song to play out of the bunch as it uses a very simple quarter note rhythm and utilizes a lot of open strings.

Download and print off the tabs and music for “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” here.

Note: If you are having trouble downloading the music, right click on the download link and select “Save Link As” or “Save Target As” to save the file to your desktop.

Old MacDonald Had a Farm

This should be another familiar song, which makes it great for a beginning fingerpicker. It’s a bit more challenging though because there are some faster eighth note passages. You’ll want to make sure you are practicing counting out loud and slowing it down, so you can get those parts down perfectly.

Download and print off the tabs and music for “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” here.

Hey Diddle, Diddle the Cat & the Fiddle

In my opinion, this song is one of the prettiest out of the bunch. It’s important to note that unlike the previous two songs, this song is counted in three rather than four. There are some quick eighth notes that are best played with an alternating fingerpicking technique (I go over this in the video).

Download and print off the tabs and music for “Hey Diddle, Diddle the Cat & the Fiddle” here.

What Do You Think?

What challenges are you coming up against when playing these songs? I’d love to hear your questions and comments. If you have any tips or tricks, those are always very welcomed too. Let’s hear it!