Ukulele Tab: Learn To Play Ode To Joy

Free ukulele guitar tabs

By Peter Edvinsson

In this ukulele guitar lesson we will use the uke to play a melody. Not many people can play Beethoven on their ukulele but soon you will be one of them. Let's start!

"To Joy" is an ode written in 1785 by the German poet Friedrich Schiller. It is commonly referred to as Ode To Joy. The musical setting is by Beethoven in the fourth and final movement of his Ninth Symphony.

We will now take a look at the ukulele guitar tablature notation we will use.

The string with the highest pitch on the ukulele guitar is usually an A and is called the first string. This is the string nearest your feet when you play. In the ukulele guitar tablature notation we will use a staff with three lines representing the three first strings on your ukulele guitar.

I have numbered the lines to help you spot the first string on the tab staff.

1. ----------------------------
2. ----------------------------
3. ----------------------------

Let's play the first notes of the song using the tablature staff:

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

The numbers we will place on this tab staff indicates which fret you are to press down as you play the string.

We will not dicuss how to play with you right hand. I suggest that you play the notes with your right hand thumb but do as you like.

This type of ukulele tab doesn't indicate the length of the notes. I leave it up to you to figure out the length of the notes.

Let's play the next ukulele tab:

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

I haven't so far told you anything about which left hand finger to press down on the frets on your ukulele.

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, the notes on the second fret with your long finger and the notes on your third fret with your ring finger.

It might be difficult at first but if you practice it will be actually be easier for you to find the right notes with these fingerings. You don't even have to look at your fingers to find the right fret if you get used to this way of playing.

Time for the next tablature staff:

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

Actually you can play this melody with the use of the above ukulele tab notation on a guitar also. The first three strings on a guitar are tuned the same way but not in the same pitch.

The last ukulele guitar tab comes now:

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

Now you can play Ode To Joy by Beethoven on your ukulele with ukulele tab!

I suggest that you learn the melody by heart rather than looking on the ukulele tablature notation so you can play it anytime and anywhere!

Ukulele Chords is an ukulele guitar chord book which shows, in C tuning, the chords in each key. A special section on moveable chords is also included. The chords are grouped by type, including major, minor, seventh, diminished, augmented, and more. A summary of where the chords lie on the fretboard is also included. This book can be used with either the soprano ukulele guitar or tenor ukulele in G-C-E-A tuning. 32 pages. Ukulele Chords