Chords for Ukulele Fingerpicking Lesson: How to Play "Hallelujah"

[N] _ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ Hey everyone, my name is Brett.
I'm from ukuleletricks.com, a website that helps [Am] you become a better ukulele [C] player.
I got a lot [G] of questions [Am] about a song that I [C] just covered recently called Hallelujah, _ [A] written by Leonard [Gb] Cohen, made pretty popular by Jeff Buckley.
[C] _ The questions were regarding my fingerpicking [B] pattern, and I'm going to show you [C] that today.
I'm really excited to show you it.
It's pretty easy, [Am] and it's not [F] too terribly difficult.
I'm just going to show you the [D] intro, because if you know how to play the [Gb] intro, [Ab] the pattern is pretty much the same throughout the rest of [B] the song.
[F] So, I'm excited [B] to show you [Ab] it.
I hope it helps.
[Am] Let's take a look. _
_ _ _ Alright, before [A] I get started, I wanted to make [G] one note about the tuning of my ukulele.
[A] I'm tuned to standard tuning, [Ab] but my [A] top string is tuned down an octave.
So it's the G below middle C, [G] rather than the G above middle C that I'm tuned to.
_ [B] If you have a ukulele that's tuned [G] normally with the G above middle [Gb] C, then this could sound a little bit different, but it still should work just [N] fine.
The second thing I want to show [Bbm] you is the chords that I'm using for the song.
_ [Dbm] I'm playing a C chord, and instead of [Ab] playing it just right here, _ I'm actually taking my index finger and _ barring the bottom two strings on the third fret.
Then I'm taking my [Gb] middle finger [Ab] and placing it on the fourth [G] fret of the second to top string.
Then I'm taking my ring finger and placing it on the [F] fifth fret of the top string.
[N] _ So [C] you strum that, [A] and you have a C [G] chord.
The second chord that I'm going to [Gb] is an A minor chord, and I just play that with my middle finger on the second fret of the [Ab] top string.
[Gbm] Let the bottom three strings [Am] ring open. _
_ _ _ _ [Ebm] Alright, so for the actual [F] finger picking pattern, _ [Eb] _ the first thing [Ab] we need to know is what we do with this hand here.
[Eb] _ Typically, [Ab] I like to use all four of my fingers.
I like to [A] use my [G] thumb, my [Gb] index, my middle, and my [D] ring finger as picking fingers.
[A] _ It's pretty nice because I've got four fingers [Ab] here, and there's [Gb] four strings in the [A] ukulele.
So I can put my [N] thumb _ assigned to the top [A] string.
I can take [Gb] my index finger and [Am] assign it to the [F] second to top string.
I can [Gb] take my _ _ middle finger [G] _ _ [Gb] _ _
[Ab] _ and assign [B] it to the second to [Ab] bottom string.
[G] And then I can take my [F] ring finger and [A] assign it to the bottom string. _
So, a good practice tip before we even start is just to go [G] practice [C] plucking your thumb, _ index, middle, ring, _ _ _ _ [Am] _
_ _ _ _ _ [C] and so on.
[A] Just to get your hand [Ab] getting used to that.
Again, you'll want to keep this hand really loose.
As loose as possible.
Just enough to be able to pluck _ the [N] strings.
_ _ What I'm doing here in this hand is I'm just going to play C chord first.
_ And our pattern is going to look like this.
[C] I'm going to take my thumb [A] and I'm going to pluck the top string.
[F] _ [Ab] I'm going to take my index [G] finger and I'm going to pluck [Gb] the second to [A] top string.
[E] _ _
[Ab] I'm going to take my middle finger and pluck the second to bottom [G] string.
_ _ [Ab] I'm going [G] to take my ring finger [F] and pluck the bottom string. _ _
Then I'm going to take [Ab] my middle _ [G] _
finger and pluck the [Gb] second to bottom string.
[C] _ _
[Ab] Then I'm going to take my index finger and pluck the [E] second to top string.
_ _ _ _ So my _ pattern_
[A] That's the [G] end of the pattern.
Then I would repeat that.
So the [Gb] pattern would look like [C] this. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ Then repeat it. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[F] _ _ _ _ And that's the pattern [G] that I'm using for the intro.
And that's pretty much [Abm] used throughout the whole song.
_ There is something that can help you [D] _
put a framework to this pattern though.
And [A] that is to count [Gb] out [Ab] loud or in your head.
[D] And if we count to this pattern, [C] it's to a count of six.
So we can count out 1, [F] 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
[A] And so on. _
And so what we want to do is we want to practice _ plucking that pattern _ to that count. _ _
So_
[Ab] 1, 2, 3, 4, [C] 5, 6.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. _ _
And so on. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ And so [Bb] once you get comfortable with that, you can add the chord change [Ab] to the A minor.
And so the intro of the song of Hallelujah [Gb] goes from a C to an A minor.
[G] So I could go_
[A] 1, 2, 3, 4, [Ab] 5, 6.
[C] 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, [Am] 6.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
1, 2, [C] 3, 4, [Am] 5, 6.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
_ _ [C] _ _ [Am] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [C] _ _ _ [Am] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [Dbm] And so that is kind of a quick switch.
It's a quick [B] jump from this chord [D] to this chord.
[G] _ _ [Eb] _ So you'll [G] have to start out slow first and work [Gb] your way up to that.
As you get more [A] comfortable with that, you can add a passing note [C]
between the two chords.
That sounds kind of cool to [Ab] me.
[Dbm] So you can start on [C] a C.
_ _ _ And then what I'm going [F] to do [Ab] _ [Eb] on the 6th [G] beat of the [Eb] measure,
[A] I'm going [E] to [Dbm] take my [Gb] middle finger on this hand,
I'm going to move it down to the 4th fret on the top string,
_ _ [A] and I'm going to pluck that on [Gb] the 6th beat of that measure.
And then I'm going to take my thumb [G] again to go to the next chord, [Eb] the A minor chord.
_ It's kind of confusing, but let me play it for [Gb] you.
It's not too bad.
So 1, [D] 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
[C] 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
Well, I messed that up.
[Am] So 1, [C] 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
[Am] 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, [C] 6.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, [Am] 6.
1, 2, 3, _ [C] 4, 5, 6.
1, 2, 3, [G] 4, 5, 6.
[Am] 1, 2, 3, 4, [C] 5, 6.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, [D] 6. _ _
_ _ So mess around with it a little bit.
[A] Give it a try.
Post your questions and [Eb] comments below.
[A] My biggest recommendation would be to start out slow at first.
If [Bm] you've never fingerpicked before, it can be [Bb] a little bit difficult.
So just get used to [A] using all four of these fingers here
to pluck each of these individual strings, _ _ _ what [B] this hand is doing.
_ But hopefully it gives you some ideas, a place to start.
Post your questions and comments below.
Hope you [C] were helped in some way.
_ Thanks for tuning in. _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _