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Hey UUers!

After all the ukulele craziness at the 2013 NAMM Show, it's time to decompress with a little tune by The Beatles called, "Let It Be". In this episode of Uke Lessons, Aldrine teaches you the chords (4 pretty simple ones ... and a Bb), the strumming pattern, and two picking patterns that you can use in the song. Try it out, have some fun, and play along with us on the Play-Along!

And if you're in the mood for even more Beatles fun, be sure to hit up Uke Lesson 29 - Come Together

Also, be sure to check out all the sweet new ukuleles for 2013 that we got to preview at the NAMM Show over at www.ukuleleunderground.com/namm

Rock on, uke players.

Aloha,
-UU Staff

Comments

  2. In the tutorial, when playing the F at the beginning, the C and E strings are plucked. In the play along the highlighting is on the A and E string. It sounds like the tutorial is right, but it threw me for a loop on the play along. Am I accurate in saying that the tutorial is the proper sound there?

    Reply

  3. amazing lessons, just picked up the uke, absolute rookie. is your uke a “low g”? mine doesn’t sound anything like yours. thank you very much and will be subscribing to the university site later today.
    cheers,

    Reply

  4. I love it !! Amazing site, clear video. This is my first video here and I learned it within an hour! Except that I have a 12 fret Ukulele and it is a bit hard to get it down with my finger on the invisible fret smoothly but I will get it…time to get me a new uke…. 🙂 But its my first and I want to practice more 🙂 🙂 Thank you so much!

    Reply

  5. Hi, Ive been largely self teaching for about 2 years then I found this site and was really struggling with the play along till I carefully watched it. I couldnt fit in the fiff
    0000
    5310
    5420
    0000
    between lines until I ralised you take out the F chord between “Let it be” and the following c chord and replace them with the riff.
    Every Let it be becomes

    [C]Speaking words of [G]wisdom, let it be
    0000
    5310
    5420
    0000
    The rif begins over the top of the word “be”
    Hope this helps others having the same problem I did.

    Cheers

    Reply

    1. Hey Bill!

      Thank you so much for your comment! You’re absolutely right – in the riff when you play the 5th fret on both the C and E strings, it essentially is your F chord (just two notes of it). In fact all of the notes in the riff represent chords that you could play during that part – the riff is just playing the C and E strings of those chords. Here’s the riff:

      A|----------------
E|--5----3--1--0--
C|--5----4--2--0--
G|----------------

      And here are the complete chords:

          F    Em Dm C
A|--3----2--0--3--
E|--5----3--1--0--
C|--5----4--2--0--
G|--5----0--2--0--

      If you take a look, you’ll notice that the numbers on the C and E strings are exactly the same. So you could actually just play the chords F, Em, Dm, C in place of the riff itself, however just playing the two notes sounds more like the original song. Play around with this and have fun with it! Rock on and keep strummin’

      Aloha,
      -Aaron (& the UU Staff)

      Reply

  6. Hello from Austria! I love love love your tutorials. I bought the uke 3 weeks ago and i cant stop to play it, even if im in the car and there is red light i play the few things i know 🙂
    Thank you very much.

    Reply

  7. I made it through the tutorials and have been trying to play with the play along song but I really feel like the strumming is a different meter than what’s taught in the lesson. Or maybe I can’t hear it properly. Anyway, the tutorials were good except that I can’t quite match the strumming pattern in the tutorial to the play along. 🙁 Halp!

    Reply

    1. Hey Lorah!

      Thanks for the comment! The strumming for this one is pretty tricky and it’s possible that the chord change (which happens between strums) is what is tripping you up. At first, try just changing chords at the correct time; count “1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4” in your head and change chords on the “1”

      C       G
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
Am      F
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4

      Once you can do that, try a simplified version of the strumming, but disregard the “roll” and the “G pluck”, just replace them with down strums:

      1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
D D D DU UD DUDU

      where D = Down Strum and U = Up Strum. If you’re having trouble, really slow it down and use a metronome (there are many metronome apps or online metronomes if you don’t have one). Possibly start at about 60 bpm and make sure that when you strum, you really can hear that second “1” in between the up strums:

      1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
D D D DU UD DUDU

      Work your way up to around 140 bpm, which is around what the Play Along is at. Finally, try it with the chords and make sure that your chord change happens on that second “1” in between your up strums:

      C       G
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
D D D DU UD DUDU
Am      F
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
D D D DU UD DUDU

      From there, you can incorporate the Roll and G pluck, but you don’t really have to. Just focus on getting the basic strumming down. Doing two Up Strums in a row, while leaving an appropriate space for the down strum is hard enough, let alone having to stick a chord into that space without playing anything. So take it slow and really practice the rhythm. And if you have any other questions, we’re always here for you!

      Aloha,
      -Aaron (& the UU Staff)

      Reply

      1. Aaron, this explanation on how to get the rhythm first, adding the roll and G pluck later, is so helpful! The metronome was a great idea, too. By following your instructions, I learned the strumming pattern so quickly. Thank you so much for that!

        Reply

  9. I wasn’t sure about subscribing to this site, but last night I spent 2 hours playing and learning. I love the Canon in D lesson too. Thank you so much.

    Reply

  10. You slowed it right down from 5:55- 6:03. Do you have any videos for this song that are at this sleep? Im having trouble keeping up.
    Thanks, mitchell

    Reply

  13. Thanks for sharing! I’m a beginner and my fingers are struggling, but I am having so much fun doing it! 😉 These are the best ukulele tutorials I found on the internet so far!

    Reply

    1. Hey Christian!

      Right under each tutorial video, there is a link to a “Play-Along” video, where Aldrine plays through the entire song and includes lyrics, chords, and chord diagrams that appear on screen in real-time. Check them out and have fun!

      Reply

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