Table of Contents
How to Play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
Introduction
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star must be one of the most played songs when we are at the point of putting our little ones to sleep, wishing them good night.
Every kid, no matter the age, simply loves how this tune develops and the feeling of calmness that provides is what makes it really likable.
Well, this tune is out there for more than 200 years and still is one of the most notable lullabies. Written by an English writer Jane Taylor, the song was first released as “The Star” in 1806.
The melody is believed that was written by Mozart himself and it’s also said that this was one of his earliest compositions from when he was a kid – creating this song for his older sister, but this story appeared that is not true.
What is true for sure is that Mozart composed this song and many other variations of the main melody on his piano, probably somewhere around the 1780s.
With this melody, you will be able to find several other songs that are having it. “Baa, baa, black sheep”, the Alphabet song (A, B, C, D), and several others. This means that once you learn to perform Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, you will be able to sing along with these other songs as well.
When played on the ukulele, this song sounds even sweeter and we promise that your kids will love it. In this article today we will share a few tips on how to play this tune on your ukulele and teach your kids to do it as well.
Rhythm and Strums for Twinkle Twinkle
Rhythm
The rhythm for this song is pretty simple as well. It is created in a 4/4 note time signature, meaning it is very easy to follow the beat of it and perform the song correctly.
When you count the syllables of the song, there are 7 in one line. The last word of every line is played on a note that is having 2 counts. All other notes are one count per syllable.
If you are dedicated to learning this song, this will naturally come to you and you will know how exactly to perform it. But in case you are having issues determining the right way to play it. we will show you how it is done here.
1 + 1 | 1 + 1 | 1 + 1 | 2 |
Twin – Kle, Twin – Kle, Lit – tle – Star
Strum
Since it is a kiddie song and it supposes not to be that hard to learn to play, the strumming method is also really basic. For every chord that you need to perform this song correctly, just strum it downwards and you will be good to go.
Of course, there are more complex strumming methods to perform the song, but this is the easiest one to learn. The next most natural strumming pattern for Twinkle Twinkle Little Star goes like this:
Down – Down – Up | Down – Down – Up | Down – Down – Up | Down.
As the song is played in 4/4 signature, that means that we have 4 beats per bar. In the example above, the beats are separated with ” | “, so it should be easy for you to understand this strumming pattern.
You need to play 3-way strums for each beat and only play the Down strum on the last one. It all will be practically shown below in the video if you are having any concerns about this.
Chord Variations
To perform this song you will need to learn and know 4 ukulele chords. So, you need to know the following ones:
C Chord, F Chord, G Chord, and G7 Chord.
Also, these four chords are all pretty simple to perform and we already have guides for some of them, which you are able to find in the links above.
As they are all major chords, the tune has an uplifting feeling and it is easy to get used to it. Truly, there is not much to say about the ukulele chord progression, only once you learn them, you will have a bunch of possibilities and songs to choose from, improving your repertoire of ukulele tunes.
So here is the chord selection that is used for Twinkle Twinkle Little Star:
Below we will show you the version with chords that you can go over and learn how to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star:
Conclusion
To make studying this track simpler, we suggest breaking it up into three steps:
- Study the Chord Variation. The first step to studying a track is to look over the chord chart or arrangement of the track and apply the chord selection within the track.
- Study the Rhythm. The second step to studying a track is studying the strumming pattern used to play the track. Practice the strumming pattern until you may perform it without thinking.
- Play Through the Tune Without Singing. The third step is to play through the track’s chord development without singing. You’ll be able to change between them easily.
When you’ve executed these three steps, you’re prepared to begin humming or singing out the melody of the tune.
In case you discover your strumming and chords crumble when you begin singing, then, that’s an indicator to hold off on singing and proceed to train with the strumming and chords only.
Right now, you’re in the technique of constructing muscle memory. Ultimately, with sufficient practice, your fingers will know precisely the place to go for every chord without thinking about it!
Below we will share a video with you on how to perform this tune properly and learn where to switch chords and two of the strumming methods we explained. Pretty easy! Happy Playing!
