How to Play Seven Nation Army on Ukulele

Playing Seven Nation Army by The White Stripes on ukulele is a super easy,slightly addictive, and one of my personal favorite tunes. Once you learn to play it you'll find yourself using it as a go-to song all the time, so lets get started!!!

I suggest that you listen to the song first on youtube so that you can get a good feel for the rhythm, that's what I did when first learning and it really helped:

Step 1: Which Strings

The only thing you will need to learn in advance to play this song is the name of each of the four strings. The top string on a ukulele (the string closest to your head and neck) is G, than C, E, and the bottom string A. (To remember I just say Green Cats Eat Apples).

The whole song is played by plucking the C and E string. The C string is completely open the whole time, all you will be doing on that string is droning (plucking the same note) over and over to get a REALLY cool harmonizing sound. So the only string you have to worry about moving your finger on is the E string (the third string down).

Step 2: Beginning

The first note in the song is played on E string (third string down), by holding your index finger down on the eighth fret and plucking that string with any finger on your opposite hand (I prefer thumb or you can make a pinching motion on the string). Pluck that note twice and after the second pluck, while keeping your index finger on the eighth fret hold your ring finger to E string, 11 fret and pluck once.

Tip: When playing the third note in the song, instead of having one finger on the eighth fret AND one finger on the eleventh fret you can just put your index finger and on the eleventh for that note. I choose to have one finger on eleventh and one finger on eighth because I've found I get a better sound that way.

Step 3: ..the Rest

The fourth note is back to the 8th fret, still E string, pluck that once. The fifth note is all the way to the 6th fret, than 4th, and the last note of the song is 3rd fret, all of these last four notes only have one pluck and are all on E string (told you its easy).

During the last couple notes of the song (6th fret, 4th fret, 3rd fret) I had a little trouble at first putting my finger on the right fret. If you are having this problem HAVE NO FEAR!! Just repeat over and over the few last notes if you are having a problem hitting it right and in nearly no time you'll have it mastered.

Step 4: And Finally..

So the whole song on E string, the frets are 8, 8, 11, 8, 6, 4, 3

Like I said before for every note plucked on the E string also pinch the C string at the same time (although this is optional and a little bit harder!).

Side tip: You can change around which string and fret you put your finger on to change the key of the song.

I hope you enjoy playing Seven Nation Army on your ukulele as much as i do. Ukulele is an awesome instrument and using what you learned from this tutorial you can play hundreds different songs and you know you'll always have a fun little tune to play!