Taking the time to learn your note names on the ukulele takes a bit of work but is well worth the effort. It will improve many aspects of your playing from recognizing chords, to playing in different keys, to sight reading, to improvising, and much more. 

Take it one string at a time

Take your time and try to memorize one string at a time. For instance, let’s look at a C Major scale on just the first string. We’ll start with C and move up the alphabet one letter at a time. You’ll notice if we avoid accidentals (sharps and flats), sometimes we have to move one fret to get to the next note name, and other times two frets. We call a movement of one fret a “half step” and the movement of two frets a “whole step.” Thus, in the C Major scale on one string, the notes move like this: whole-whole-half-whole-whole-whole-half
          C     D     E      F     G     A    B   C
The half steps occur between the notes E and F as well as between B and C. All of the other notes use whole steps.

Challenge yourself

​We hope this helps you learn your note names on the ukulele. Try to cover a new string each week and see if you can have the fingerboard memorized in a month! You’ll notice when you get to the twelfth fret the note names start over (they just sound one octave higher). So you can just go through the note names on the first eleven frets. 

The worksheet below will test your knowledge of the notes on each string.