Reading sheet music? (2024)

I’m at a complete loss here. I don’t understand this part of the process at all. I understand chords, but I don’t understand reading staff lines. Please if anyone has any good guides, point me in that direction. I’ll show an example of my frustration.

“Can’t help falling in love” was one of my wife and i’s wedding songs. I know the melody like the back of my hand. The first notes are pretty clear right? Ok no problem. When I get to the second C chord, it just doesn’t fit. What am I doing wrong?

dancephoto said:

Others can will comment of this particular song. (I haven't looked at it.) But it is important to know that there are a great many mistakes in songbooks. I am a strong advocate for being able to read musical notation (and tablature). But when it comes to songbooks, it often will be necessary to rely on you ear.

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Fair enough, but the higher likelihood is I’m reading incorrectly. Today is my first time trying to put it together as I go along. Reading sheet music has always been a topic I’ve avoided, but I truly feel to be able to hone my skill, I have to be versatile enough to read whatever comes my direction.

The chords and the melody may be separate. So if you play the chords shown, you will not really recognize the tune here.The standard notation is just showing the melody.

The second C chord shows an E note. If you play the top three open strings (do not play the bottom A string!), it will match the tune you are accustomed to.

rainbow21 said:

The chords and the melody may be separate. So if you play the chords shown, you will not really recognize the tune here.The standard notation is just showing the melody.

The second C chord shows an E note. If you play the top three open strings (do not play the bottom A string!), it will match the tune you are accustomed to.

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That’s a good response! Thank you. What determines not playing the A string?

Thegoonsta08 said:

I’m at a complete loss here. I don’t understand this part of the process at all. I understand chords, but I don’t understand reading staff lines. Please if anyone has any good guides, point me in that direction. I’ll show an example of my frustration.

“Can’t help falling in love” was one of my wife and i’s wedding songs. I know the melody like the back of my hand. The first notes are pretty clear right? Ok no problem. When I get to the second C chord, it just doesn’t fit. What am I doing wrong?

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Hi,

I just played the melody, and the chords, and all is well. Using my open C string as middle C, I can't physically play the lower notes on my ukulele. I just recorded the part you referenced.

View attachment love with you.m4a

I can't play the next note as it is below my middle C. Okay, bro?

merlin666 said:

The notes are the melody for the singer, or anyone with any instrument to play the melody. If you want to play melody on uke you have to find the matching single notes on fretboard and often they are contained within the chords. The chords above are for ukulele as strummed accompaniment to provide background to the melody. For this song the chords are simplified for beginners so will sound a bit different than the guitar chords on Elvis recording.

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Great explanation, thank you!

Renaissance-Man said:

Hi,

I just played the melody, and the chords, and all is well. Using my open C string as middle C, I can't physically play the lower notes on my ukulele. I just recorded the part you referenced.

View attachment 175315

I can't play the next note as it is below my middle C. Okay, bro?

Click to expand...

Listening to that, you make it seem easy. I guess I still don’t understand how exactly you know which strings to play when you’re playing multiple

Thegoonsta08 said:

Listening to that, you make it seem easy. I guess I still don’t understand how exactly you know which strings to play when you’re playing multiple

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I recorded just the chords first, then I played the melody as written. The recording sounds deceptively like one, but it's two separate tracks. Here's just the melody track.

View attachment love with you melody line.m4a

WADR to your desire to read music, I recommend that you let you ear guide your playing, especially when your target tune is one with which you’re already familiar. Start with whichever key you’re comfortable with (C almost always works well on the uke) and just noodle it out.

I start by just locating the individual melody notes on the fretboard, then “layer- in” filler notes and eventually end up with a nice sounding tune. I’ll work on a version as described because the tune is also on my target list & will post the audio file.

Specifically (Yellow Book, pg.51), the melody line has you singing:

With the F (sing F) to the C (sing E) chord to G7 (sing D)

F (sing F)
fools
C (sing E)
rush
G7 (sing D)
in

The F chord has an F, the C chord has an E, and G7 has a D. However, only with the F chord are you singing the "root" note. E is the "middle" note in the C chord. Is that why it sounds out of place? Also, D is not the root of the G7 chord.

TommyG said:

OK, I hope you can work with this. Chords are chords, notes are notes. Here is the tab for the notes in the verse and bridge.

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Thank you for taking the time to write that out! My problem was I was looking at the chords and notes and assuming for some reason they were the same thing and I was missing some vital piece of information.

merlin666 said:

The notes are the melody for the singer, or anyone with any instrument to play the melody. If you want to play melody on uke you have to find the matching single notes on fretboard and often they are contained within the chords. The chords above are for ukulele as strummed accompaniment to provide background to the melody. For this song the chords are simplified for beginners so will sound a bit different than the guitar chords on Elvis recording.

Click to expand...

I will add that many of the Daily Ukulele songs are not in the original key. This is to our benefit, as some original keys are extremely difficult to play or sing. This is called "transposing" to a more uke-friendly key for (IMO) the average player or an average voice.

This is one that has been transposed, likely from the key of D to C.

Thegoonsta08 said:

Thank you for taking the time to write that out! My problem was I was looking at the chords and notes and assuming for some reason they were the same thing and I was missing some vital piece of information.

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On the bridge, that dot/dot means you repeat, (so you play those 5 notes three times before the final 6 notes then move back to the verse.

Wiggy said:

I will add that many of the Daily Ukulele songs are not in the original key. This is to our benefit, as some original keys extremely difficult to play or sing. This is called "transposing" to a more uke-friendly key for (IMO) the average player or an average voice.

This is one that has been transposed, likely from the key of D to C.

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Yes but this thread is so elemental that topic of key and transposing may be too advanced. It seems that issue with C is that some low notes for melody playing may be missing.