Hey Soul Sister Ukulele Chords - EasyUke

Some songs announce themselves in the first note. Hey Soul Sister is one of them. That ukulele intro — four quick strums, no preamble — and you already know exactly what kind of song this is going to be. Bouncy, warm, a little ridiculous in the best way. The kind of song that makes people in the room stop what they're doing.

It became the best-selling song on iTunes in 2010. It charted in approximately 25 countries. It was RIAA-certified sextuple-platinum. And it was built around three chords and a ukulele that almost didn't make it onto the recording at all.

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The Story Behind Hey Soul Sister

Train had been going through a rough few years. Lead singer Pat Monahan was coming out of a divorce, had lost a close friend to suicide, and the band's 2006 album had produced no hits. They went on hiatus. When they came back together to record Save Me, San Francisco in 2009, they made a deliberate decision: fill it with upbeat pop songs. Get back to something people could actually feel good listening to.

Monahan wrote Hey Soul Sister and another song, "If It's Love," on the same day in New York City — after several days with almost no sleep. He has said he does his best work sleep-deprived, and on this occasion, whatever was circling in his head was an image from Burning Man. He'd never been, but he'd read about it — the burning wooden sculpture, the spontaneous parties, women dancing barefoot around the firelight. That image of something untamed and ecstatic, of a woman so alive it wasn't even fair, became the emotional centre of the song.

He knew he wanted it to "bounce." He had the lyrics first, and the melody second. The song was originally built around a guitar opening. When they tried a ukulele instead, Monahan knew immediately that was it. "It made the difference," he said later. "It made my words dance."

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Hey Soul Sister Ukulele Chords

Three chords. That's the entire song. If you've been working through the four core beginner chords, you already know two of them. The third — E — is slightly less common but very manageable.

The chord sequence is: A — E — D — A. It repeats throughout the whole song with minimal variation. Learn those four changes and you've learned Hey Soul Sister.

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How to Play Hey Soul Sister on Ukulele

Step 1 — Get E major clean

E major is the unfamiliar chord here, and the one that needs the most solo practice. Place all three fingers, strum slowly, and check every string rings cleanly. The stretch from fret 2 to fret 4 will feel awkward for a day or two. It won't after that. Ten clean repetitions from a cold start before moving on.

Step 2 — Practice A to E

This is the central transition of the song. A uses one finger (a small barre), E uses three on specific frets. They're quite different shapes. Practice this single switch — A to E, E to A — slowly and cleanly before adding the full sequence.

Step 3 — Run the full sequence

A — E — D — A. One strum per chord, slow tempo, every chord landing cleanly. The D chord is a relief after E — three fingers all on the second fret, much less spread. Once the full sequence feels manageable, start to increase the tempo gradually.

Step 4 — Add the strum

Hey Soul Sister uses the Island strum — the same D-DU-UDU pattern as Riptide. It's what gives the song its bounce. Wait until the chord changes are solid before adding it. The full explanation of how the Island strum works is in my strumming patterns guide.

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The Strumming Pattern

The Island strum: D — DU — UDU. Seven strokes per bar, with your strumming hand moving constantly in a down-up motion — the pattern comes from which strokes make contact and which miss the strings.

D — DU — UDU

What makes Hey Soul Sister feel the way it does is the tempo. It moves faster than Riptide, which means the Island strum needs to be more automatic before it sounds clean. Practice on a single A chord at the song's actual tempo before adding chord changes. Once the strumming hand is on autopilot, reintroduce the changes.

The intro riff — the iconic four-strum hook — is just A chord, four downstrokes in quick succession. Simple, but the timing is everything. Hit those four strums evenly and in time, and the song is already announced before you've sung a word.

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Why Hey Soul Sister Sounds the Way It Does

Three major chords — A, E, D — with no minor chords at all. That's unusual. Most songs that aim for emotional depth mix major and minor. Hey Soul Sister is relentlessly major, relentlessly bright. There's no shadow in this chord sequence. It's the musical equivalent of someone who is unreservedly, embarrassingly happy and has completely stopped caring what that looks like.

That quality — unguarded joy, borderline absurd in its enthusiasm — is exactly what Monahan was going for. The song is about a woman who is so completely herself that she's almost overwhelming. The chord choices reflect that. You can't play A-E-D with any irony. It just bounces.

The ukulele is what seals it. Those three major chords on a guitar would sound perfectly fine. On a soprano ukulele, they sound like pure, distilled happiness. The brightness of the instrument amplifies the brightness of the chord choices until there's nothing left but that bounce.

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When to Try This Song

Week two — once C, Am, F, and G are solid and you've had a day or two with E major. The A and D chords here are slightly different from your standard four, but they're not harder. E major is the only real new challenge. Give it two dedicated practice sessions and it'll be in your hands.

If you want a clear path of songs from your very first week to this one, my list of 20 easy ukulele songs organised by difficulty gives you the full sequence.

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Full Hey Soul Sister Ukulele Tabs on Ultimate Guitar

The chords above give you everything you need to play the song. For the intro riff in tab notation, fingerpicking arrangements, or chord diagrams, Ultimate Guitar has multiple community-rated versions.