“Happy Birthday” on Ukulele: Easy One-String Fingerpicking Play-Along

You don’t have to be a world class singer to make beautiful music on ukulele, and you certainly don’t need to be advanced to start with some easy, simple fingerpicking.

Today, in this fun song play-along, we’re fingerpicking the melody of Happy Birthday on ukulele on just one string – the E-string.

So tune up your ukulele, find a comfortable spot, and let’s make some music!

Easy One-String Fingerpicking “Happy Birthday” Play-Along

In this video, I fingerpick the song “Happy Birthday” on just one-string of the ukulele.

To successfully figure out where to position your fingers, you’ll need to know how to read ukulele tab. The numbers in the ukulele tab correspond with the fret you must press down with your fretting hand fingers. Since Happy Birthday is just played on the E-string, when you see the number “5” for example, that means to press down on the 5th fret of the E-string. When you see the number “0”, that means to pluck the open E-string. With a little bit of practice, I’m confident you’ll be playing this song in no time at all!

Get a Printout of the Ukulele Tab For Happy Birthday

Very soon I’m opening up the doors to my fingerpicking course Fingerpicking Tricks where I teach you how to go from beginner to solo fingerpicker on ukulele. If you want to go deeper in the fingerpicking style, then there’s no better place to learn how to fingerpick.

To be the first to know when the course opens and get a one-page printout of the ukulele tab for Happy Birthday, enter your information below.

Tips and Tricks For Fingerpicking Happy Birthday on Ukulele

If you’ve never fingerpicked before, then don’t worry.

For this song, we’re not worried about prim and proper technique at the moment. We just want to get our feet wet and have some fun! That said, there’s a few quick tips and tricks I can give you.

For the picking hand, I’m just using my thumb to pluck the notes of the E-string.

For the fretting hand, since this song plays notes all across the fretboard, my challenge to you is to try to use as many fingers from your fretting hand as possible to make your changes between notes smoother and faster. For instance, don’t just limit yourself to fretting each individual note with just the index finger. Try fretting one note with the index finger, but then, maybe for the next note you fret with the ring finger.

Of course it’s okay to slide your fretting hand fingers around the fretboard to reach notes, but if you find it difficult to smoothly transition between notes, open up yourself to the idea of using other fingers in your fretting hand to reach and transition between those notes. By doing this, you ensure you’re able to transition between notes smoothly and in good time!

How to Learn Fingerpicking on Ukulele

In the near future, I’m opening enrollment on my upcoming fingerpicking course Fingerpicking Tricks, where I teach you how to go from beginner to proficient solo fingerpicker.

If you’ve always wanted to learn how to fingerpick your ukulele as a solo instrument, then get on the early-bird wait list by entering your information below. Not to mention, I’ll send you the sheet music and ukulele tab for Happy Birthday and some other fingerpicking lessons soon.

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