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

By Peter Edvinsson

Have you ever played a melody on your ukulele guitar? 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 guitar 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 guitar 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 guitar 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 guitar 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.

Peter Edvinsson is a musician, composer and music teacher. Visit his site Capotasto Music and download your free sheet music and ukulele guitar tab at http://www.capotastomusic.com

Ukulele Tab: Ukulele Tuning For Beginners

By Peter Edvinsson

How can you be in tune with your ukulele? The ukulele guitar is a fantastic little instrument with many possibilities. You can play chords and melodies on it but a requisite is that your ukulele is in tune. Let's tune up!

The most common ukulele guitar tuning is the standard C tuning.

It is of course preferable to use a tuner or piano or tuning fork in ukulele guitar tuning but it is not necessary to tune exactly to the concert pitch if you don't play with others.

You can tune the ukulele by ear, using the method outlined below.

The strings on the ukulele guitar are numbered from the highest pitched string. When you hold your ukulele in playing position string number one will be the string nearest your feet.

Now I will show you some steps in ukulele tuning to get your ukulele in tune.

1. Tune your first string to an A or a pitch that sounds okey to you.

2. Press down a finger on the fifth fret on the second string. Tune the second string until the pressed down fret will have the same pitch as the first string.

3. Press down a finger on the fourth fret on the third string. Tune the third string until the pressed down fret will have the same pitch as the second string.

4. Press down a finger on the third fret on the second string. Tune the fourth string until it sounds the same as the pitch of your pressed down fret on the second string.

We can test if your ukulele is in tune by playing the first part of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.

The first notes you will play are on the third string without pressing down any finger. I will use a form of ukulele guitar tab with numbers.

The first number indicates the fret. The second number after the slash indicates which string to play:

0/3 0/3

This means: Play two notes on the open third string. Let's play some more ukulele tab:

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

Let's explain some of the numbers: 3/2 means press down the third fret on the second string and play the note. 0/1 means that you play the note on the open first string.

Let's play one more part:

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

If this sounds like the beginning of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star you can be quite sure that your ukulele guitar tuning is correct.

We haven't used the fourth string in this melody but you can listen to the two notes 3/2 and 0/4. These two notes should have the same pitch if you have tuned the ukulele guitar correctly.

Good luck with your ukulele guitar tuning!

P.S. Why not try to find out the rest of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star by ear!

Peter Edvinsson is a musician, composer and music teacher. Visit his site Capotasto Music and download your free sheet music and ukulele guitar tab at http://www.capotastomusic.com