Mary Had a Little Lamb

About this piece

A first tune to pick, using only three notes at the start: E on the open 2nd string, D at the 2nd fret of the 3rd string, and C on the open 3rd string. In bar 4 the G is the open 4th string, the ukulele’s high G. To strum along, play C and G7 with four down strums in every bar; a friend can pick the tune while you strum.

What it practices

• picking a tune on three strings
• the high G string
• C and G7
• four down strums

Chords in this song

C · G7

Each link opens the chord finder with more ways to play that chord.

Where the notes come from

Melody as in our piano version of Mary Had a Little Lamb, which was checked against a note-name sheet from the University of California, Riverside (gluckprogram.ucr.edu). The chords are our own. Our checking script compares the two melodies beat by beat.

How to practice with it

1. Listen first. Press Play and follow along. The note being played lights up in the tab, in the notation and on the fretboard, and the chord being played lights up in the row of chord diagrams.
2. Learn the chords. Press each diagram to hear it, then practice changing between them slowly, before you add the strum pattern under the tab.
3. Slow it down. Use − and + to set the tempo. 60% is a good place to start; the notes keep their pitch.
4. One part at a time. Choose Tab only to hear the tune alone, or the other part alone, then put them together.
5. Loop the hard part. Under More…, turn on Loop, pick the bars, and play them a few times in a row. Count-in gives you a bar of clicks before it starts.

Click a bar in the music to start from there. Space plays and pauses. Left-handed? Turn on the left-handed view: the chord diagrams and the fretboard are mirrored to match your instrument. Tab reads the same either way: the top line is always the first (highest) string.