It’s a really good idea to know which string is which note on your ukulele, this is something that you should commit to memory as soon as you possibly can (even if you’re using clip-on tuner which I recommend). It will help you a huge amount when it comes to transcribing songs yourself and working out which notes are which.
Ultimately you should be aiming to know every single note on the fretboard but for now get the notes embedded in your brain. Starting at the top the strings are G, C, E and A (A being the closest string to the ground when you’re playing).
Mnemonics To The Rescue
It’s a pretty good idea to use a mnemonic to help you remember those notes – a few that I’ve heard that should do the trick are… Go Crazy Every Afternoon, Giant Cats Eat Aardvarks and Garfield Can Eat Apples. Whatever works for you, it doesn’t matter but it’s definitely worth spending 60 seconds of your time to commit them to memory.
View Comments (15)
very helpful thanks!
I bought a ukulele kit. The strings were all wrapped together with no indication what when where. I have 4 strings that seem to be different thicknesses. Can you help me out?
Hi Kent, I can indeed. Assuming it's a soprano, concert or tenor. The order from top to bottom should be…
Third thickest
Thickest
Second thickest
Fourth thickest
Hope that helps!
Look at what this article says about names of strings. G, C, E, A.
The G is the fattest, C is next fattest, E is smaller and A is the thinest
The C string should be thicker than the rest so the second one clostest to you
Actually, two of us have just told you the wrong thing.
G is the thinnest. C is the fattest. A is less fat, and C is less fat than that. The reason? The G is the highest note. The C is the lowest, A is higher than C, and E is slightly higher than theA
Your right
C/e/a/g, is fat to small
What happened to E . you guys are all mix up.
This is totally wrong. What kind of ukulele music are you playing.
Gorillas Can Eat Apes
That's a new one on me, I like it
There are two common ways to tune. The most common is what Dave tells us: From most to least thick is C-E-G-A. Another way to tune it is to use a low G string. Then from most thick to least would be: G-C-E-A.
Please see: https://ukutabs.com/ukulele-tuner/
That is a lot of contradiction is there someone who has the definitive?
I'm really not sure why there's so much confusion but hopefully this will clear it up.
The string names are gCEA in order.
In terms of thickest to thinnest that would be…
C, E, g, A
Hope that helps