Here’s an ukulele tab and chords for an appropriately happy uke tune: “You Are My Sunshine.”
Though often thought of as a children’s song, “You Are My Sunshine” is a sing-along classic for all. It has the same notoriety as a tune like “Happy Birthday.”
Chords
The ukulele chords for “You Are My Sunshine” are very easy to strum along to. Here are the words and chords:
C
You are my sunshine, my only sunshine
F C
You make me happy when skies are grey
F C
You'll never know, dear, dow much I love you
C G7 C
Please don't take my sunshine away
C
The other night dear, while I lay sleeping
F C
I dreamed I held you here in my arms
F C
When I awoke, dear, I was mistaken
G7 C
And I hung my head and I cried
C
I'll always love you and make you happy
F C
If you will only say the same
F C
But if you leave me to love another
G7 C
You'll regret it all, someday
You Are My Sunshine Ukulele Tab
There are two versions of this ukulele tab. One shows the simple melody picking with chord diagrams and lyrics so you can sing and strum along. The other is a little more intricate and features a basic solo arrangement that incorporates chords and melody together at the same time.
The melody tab is pretty self-explanatory. Just watch out for the reach up to the 7th fret. It’s probably best to use your pinky to fret that note. Then when you step down from the 7th to 5th and 3rd frets you can use a pinky, middle or ring, index fingering. This allows you to play faster and break away from fretting with only one finger.
For even more easy picking songs, check out my ebook:
An absolute beginner’s guide to picking melody on the ukulele.
With the solo arrangement version of You Are My Sunshine you’re putting the melody on top of chords in many places. For this song you don’t end up altering the chords except for the 7th fret reach which should be strummed along with the open strings to create a C chord sound. There are also several places where you play a partial chord. To do this, just roll your thumb down the strings so that it comes to rest on the A-string.
You Are My Sunshine melody tab PDF
You Are My Sunshine solo arrangement tab PDF
Other traditional favorites: