In this lesson we’ll teach you how to play “Let It Be” on ukulele. Learn the chords, the strumming pattern, and sing along to this absolute classic hit from The Beatles!
Written by John Allnutt / Published December 18, 2023
Last updated: March 2, 2025
Hello ukulele enthusiasts! Today we’ll cover how to play the song ‘Let It Be’ by the Beatles. Now, this is a comprehensive tutorial and I’ll show you multiple options on how to play the chords based on your current level on the ukulele. So let’s get into it!
‘Let It Be’ Strumming Patterns
The strumming pattern we’ll be using is pretty simple, but switching chords with your chord hand is going to be the more difficult part. You can just play down strums the entire time throughout the song and it’ll sound just fine.
If you’re still working on your strumming but your chord changes are smooth and comfortable going from one to the next, then you should be totally fine.
‘Let It Be’ Ukulele Chords
We’ll now walk through the chords of ‘Let it Be’. I’ve chosen to do this tutorial in the song’s original key.
C Chord
The first chord that we have in the song is a C chord. From the ceiling to the floor it uses frets 0, 0, 0, 3. You can do that with your ring finger or you can even choose to play it with your pinky finger on your fretting hand, and you’ll see a little bit later why that might be a good idea.
You can hear how it sounds at 1:00.
G Chord
The next chord is going to be a G chord. You can play that with your fingers 1, 3, and 2 if you’d like. From the ceiling to the floor and that’s frets 0, 2, 3, 2.
You can hear how it sounds at 1:28.
You may also see me play it like a bar chord. I’m covering strings 1, 2, and 3 with my pointer finger on fret 2 and I’m adding my middle finger to the third fret, so you can do that also. Whatever sounds best when you play it.
A Minor Chord
The next chord we have is an A minor chord. You can use either your pointer finger, or your middle finger to play it, whichever is easier.
You can hear how it sounds at 1:51.
F Major 7 Chord vs. F Chord
Now, the next chord is one of my absolute favorite chords on the ukulele. It is an F major 7 chord. On fret 5, from ceiling to floor, it’s going to go 5, 5, 0, 0.
To play this, I would use your second (middle) and third (ring) fingers. It sounds like this. It has a little bit of dissonance but it’s also really beautiful at the same time.
Compare that to a normal F major chord which would be 2, 0, 1, 0. The F major sounds a little bit vanilla, or a little bit plain, right? Hence why I like to substitute it for the F major 7.
F6/Dm Chord
The next chord on our list is F6. Now, there are many ways to play F6, but probably the easiest way to play it is if you take the fingers you had on the F major 7, slide them down to fret 2 and then add your pointer finger to the first fret of string 2. That’s D Minor.
You can hear how it sounds at 3:03.
Okay, now you could also say this is F6. I’m not going to get into the theory of it today, but just trust me that it can also be called an F6.
If you’re somebody that’s very technical and you know how to build a chord, you may say that usually in an F chord there’s a C – and if you must have the C, you would add your pinkie finger on the first string. (But I’m just telling you, you don’t really need it!) It’s the least important degree of the chord because it’s the fifth. We’ll cover what that means in another lesson…
F Chord
We now only have two more chords to learn. We have a normal F chord and this is going to be at the end of your verses and choruses. So; 2, 0, 1, 0.
You can hear how it sounds at 3:47.
E Minor 7 (Em7) Chord
We have one more chord left. Disclosure: I did not see this chord appear anywhere on any of the versions of the song I’ve played, but to me, it sounds right, so I’m going to add it in.
Before each chorus, “let it be…”, there’s an E minor there. You may know E minor as fret 0, 4, 3, 2. That works but I prefer more colorful chords and to me Em7 is an easier way to play the E minor chord. Click here to hear how that sounds.
That covers all of the chords that you’re going to need to play ‘Let It Be’.
Chord Transitions and Tips
The only other thing I’m going to say before playing through the song is that at the end of the verse and the chorus, there’s kind of a quick change between F and C. Click here to see what I mean.
An easy way to play these transitions is to use the pinky C we spoke about earlier. So, what’s happening is we’re going from F, to pinkie C, back to F, then pinkie C. It’s quite easy to rock back and forth using these fingerings. If you’re struggling with that, just practice the transition over and over again until it becomes muscle memory, then you can add the correct rhythm.
Learning the Verse
Watch me play the intro in the lesson here.
Basically, we just played through the verse right there. Feel free to play that back as many times as you need in order to understand the timing and get the chords down pat.
Walking Through the Chorus
So if you’ve been following along in the video tutorial, we’ve just stopped before the chorus. E minor 7 is going to lead us into “let it be…”. It’s functioning as a dominant chord in this instance.
Click here to watch me walk you through the entire chorus in the video above. The good news is, once you’ve learned to play that, you can play every chorus as it appears in the song.
‘Let It Be’ Song Structure
So, now we’ve done the intro, we’ve done a verse, and we’ve done a chorus. The next part of the song is verse 2. It just has different lyrics than the last verse but it’s played using exactly the same chords.
Following this second verse will be another chorus, which is the same as the first, followed by a pre-solo section, and then a solo.
Full Ukulele Playthrough – Start to Finish
Once you’ve mastered the chords, strumming pattern and song structure, it’s time to put it all together and run through the entire song from start to finish. Follow along with me in the video here.
Wrapping Up
All right! I hope you enjoyed today’s content. If you did, please let us know in the comment below. If you want us to cover any other songs, please feel free to share as well. Learning ‘Let it Be’ on the ukulele is so much fun so I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.
Happy strumming!
John Allnutt
Writer & Ukulele TeacherJohn has been teaching music since 2008 and resides in Richmond, Kentucky with his wife Laura and dog Sam. In his spare time he enjoys growing and cooking food, roasting coffee, playing board games, and spreading joy through playing and teaching music.
