PlaysoloistStringsUkuleleSongsJoy to the World

ukulele song · Strings

Joy to the World Ukulele Tab

Composer
Lowell Mason
Year
1848
Key
C
Time
2/4
Tempo
100 BPM
Difficulty
Easy · ★★
First note
C5

Joy to the World 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 DU

AECgC320CDm01CG702C00F00G722C33AECgC3200C0103C3200C0100AECgC00001C010G22220G7102CF030AECgCDm0101CG702C0

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.

Lowell Mason, 1848, after Handel; words Isaac Watts — public domain.

How to practise this on ukulele

Joy to the World is in C and opens on C5. 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 100 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 57 notes across 19 bars, from C4 up to C5 in 2/4 time.

Also playable on

The same melody is graded across 7 Playsoloist instruments. See every version, with difficulty and provenance, on the Joy to the World cross-instrument hub.

Keep exploring

Free on the App Store

Play Joy to the World — 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.

Get Ukulele on the App Store