Ukulele Basics

Getting Started

Never played before? Perfect. Four chords is all it takes to play hundreds of songs, and most people strum their first one within five minutes.

• Hold the body against your chest with your strumming arm, neck pointing to the left (if you're right-handed).
• Strum with the pad of your index finger or thumb, right where the neck meets the body — not over the hole.
• Press strings with your fingertips just behind the metal fret, not on top of it. A buzz usually means you need to press a little harder or move a little closer to the fret.

Tuning

From the string closest to your chin down to the floor, the strings are G · C · E · A — remember it as "My Dog Has Fleas." Pluck each one while singing the phrase; if a note sounds off, turn its tuning peg a little at a time.

Tip: any free tuner app on your phone works great — just pluck a string and follow the needle.

Your First 4 Chords

Dots show where to press; an o above a string means play it open (unpressed). Learn them in this order.

A Strum Pattern

Start with four slow downstrums per chord. Once that's comfortable, try the "island strum" — the one you've heard in a hundred songs:

Say it out loud: "down, down-up, up-down-up." Keep your hand moving up and down the whole time, even on the gaps — just miss the strings.

Now loop C → Am → F → G, one pattern per chord. That progression alone gets you through "Stand By Me," "Heart and Soul" and countless others.

Play a Song: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Pick out the melody one note at a time. Each line is a string (A at the top, closest to the floor), and each number is the fret to press — 0 means play it open.

     Twin- kle   twin- kle   lit-  tle   star
A |--------------------------0-----0---------|
E |--------------3-----3-----------------3---|
C |--0-----0---------------------------------|
G |------------------------------------------|

     How   I     won-  der   what  you   are
A |------------------------------------------|
E |--1-----1-----0-----0---------------------|
C |--------------------------2-----2-----0---|
G |------------------------------------------|

Got a second player? They can strum along with chords:

C Twinkle twinkle F little C star,
F How I C wonder G what you C are