PlaysoloistStringsUkuleleSongsJesu, Joy of Man's Desiring

ukulele song · Strings

Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring Ukulele Tab

Composer
Johann Sebastian Bach
Year
1723
Key
D
Time
9/8
Tempo
144 BPM
Difficulty
Easy · ★★
First note
D4

Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring on ukulele

The full melody, rendered as four-string ukulele tab in re-entrant High-G (gCEA) you can read on screen or print for the stand — free, and never truncated.

Tuning: g C E A (re-entrant High G) · Strum: D - - D - - D - -

AECgD20200020D054502202AECgGD002002022A7120010020AECgBmG220200020D054502202AECgEmA7000202021D220502220D5

Notes marked with a dot are folded up an octave to sit in the ukulele’s range — the app arranges them the same way.

Arranged for the standard re-entrant High-G (gCEA) ukulele. On Low G, Baritone or D tuning the app re-fingers the same melody live. Left-handed? The app can mirror the whole tab.

Johann Sebastian Bach, 1723 (BWV 147) — public domain, simplified setting.

How to practise this on ukulele

Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring is in D and opens on D4. This tab is arranged for the standard re-entrant High-G ukulele: the fourth string (the top of the written tab, marked g) is tuned above the two strings under it, which is why a melody can dip onto the open g and come out sounding high — that's the instrument's signature, not a misprint. If you play Low G, the app re-fingers the same melody for your tuning live.

Pick the melody with alternating thumb and index, or the index alone on slower pieces, and keep your fretting fingers curled so open strings ring clear. Set the metronome under around 144 BPM, watch the tab rather than your hands, and loop the bar your take review grades worst until it comes back clean twice in a row. By the numbers, this setting runs 72 notes across 9 bars, from A3 up to D5 in 9/8 time.

Also playable on

The same melody is graded across 6 Playsoloist instruments. See every version, with difficulty and provenance, on the Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring cross-instrument hub.

Keep exploring

Free on the App Store

Play Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring — and hear every note graded.

Soloist Ukulele reads this four-string ukulele tab in re-entrant High-G (gCEA) under the notation and grades your take on-device, note by note — free on iPhone, no ads, no account.

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