How to Play an F Major Scale On Ukulele

While learning to play the ukulele, you will need to learn all about the scales. The major scales are the most common in all music. You can hear this throughout the place (mostly every kindergarten rhyme uses it, national anthems and Christmas carols), and they are the base for all chords.

Major scales generate a particular ukulele pattern. Depending on which key you play in, this pattern can be shifted up and down. This article will introduce you to the F major scale, one of the most important scales you need to excel before becoming fully ready to play the ukulele.

What Is a Ukulele Scale

A scale is an ordered series of notes in a pitch up or down. For example, seven separate spaces span one-octave using full steps, and half steps consist of a larger scale.

But what are the “full” and “half” steps? An interval is defined as the distance between two pits. It’s a half step to push one fret on a ukulele. You must, therefore, transfer the distance from two frets to take an entire step. Every scale is a half step and whole step combination.

How To Build an F Major Scale

Next, in principle, we want to build an F major scale. This way, we understand what we do when we play these scales on the ukulele.

Only one sharp (#) is available on a G major scale. As you will notice, the scale has only one flat (b), until we construct a major scale for an F. Remember that sharps raise a note’s pitch by half a step and flats lower a note’s pitch by half a step.

We can start with an F note, try applying this pattern and building a major scale as we are going to build an F major scale. Let’s imagine this on a piano.

We are a whole step from F to G, a whole step from G to A, a whole step from A to Bb, a half step from Bb to C, a whole step, from C to D, an entire step from D to E.

From there, we can see that F major notes are F, G, A, Bb, C, D, E, F. Beginning with the F footnote in the 1st fret of an E string, start building an F major.

How To Play an F Major Scale On Ukulele

While using the fretboard -regardless of the key you want to play on the main scale- find the C string note and start the sequence.

For instance, you start the scale pattern of the fifth fret of the c string to get the major scale of F.

1. F Major Scale First Position

In that position, you will place the index finger on the notes in the first fret, the middle finger on the middle notes of the second fret, the ring finger on the third fret, and for the fourth fret, the pinky.

Compare this with the first C large scale location. It’s not very new, as you can see. On the top and bottom lines, we only lower the B note to the Bb.

2. F Major Scale Second Position

This is a slightly different venue. The four fingers will float over the 2nd to 5th frets for the notes on the top two strings. Once you hit the notes on the two strings below, the fingers move to the third and the sixth fret to interrupt the notes.

3. F Major Scale Third Position

As for the last position, the four fingers float over the fourth to the seventh frets for the notes on the top two strings. If you get to the bottom two strings of the notes, the fingers will move over the fifth to eighth frets and fret the notes.

4. F Major Scale Fourth Position

Very simple and easy. Assign your middle, index, ring, and pinky finger to interrupt notes falling from the 7th to the 10th fret.

5. F Major Scale Fifth Position

The four fingers float over the 9th to the twelfth fret for the note on the top two strings. Once you hit the bottom two-string notes, the fingers move to the 10th and 13th frets to interrupt the notes.

Final Thoughts

You are now likely to notice a number of the same trends between the main scales of the C, G, and F. This is good because the variety of these shapes will get your fingers used to them. 

Since your fingers are used to these shapes, though, you have to be careful in saying the notes that you fret out loud. The goal is to understand what you’re doing in all of this. In the long run, that understanding will help.

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