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Home ❯ Songs ❯ Jimmy Buffett ❯

Margaritaville

by Jimmy Buffett • Lesson #19 • May 25, 2016

About this lesson

Here’s an ukulele lesson teaching you how to play Margaritaville by Jimmy Buffett. I’m a huge Buffett fan, and when learning the uke I fell in love with playing this song. I think ukulele tuning actually works quite well for capturing the vibe of the intro riff, which I’ve included tabs for. Enjoy!

Want a guitar lesson? Let me know!

If you would like me to create a guitar version of this tutorial, let me know! I would love to do it at some point. The more people who speak up, the faster it gets done :) The video above was one of my first videos ever, and admittedly I had a lot to learn about production quality. It would certainly be great to update this at some point.

Chords used

This song needs only three chords. They are:

----0----   ----2----   ----0----
----2----   ----3----   ----0----
----2----   ----2----   ----1----
----2----   ----0----   ----2----
    D           G           A

While you can add variations to the above chords as you please, the most common variations you’ll want to practice are these:

----0----   ----3----
----2----   ----2----
----0----   ----2----
----2----   ----2----
    D7          D7

Strumming Pattern

At the very least, you’ll want to emphasize the 2nd and 4th beat:

    _       _
    D       D
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &

Taking it a step further, use the common D-DU-UDU pattern, while continuing to emphasize the 2nd and 4th beat.

    _       _
D   D U   U D U
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &

Finally, you can add a chunky muted strum to the 2nd and 4th beat. These continue to be down-strums, but are further emphasized via the chunky & muted strum.

    _       _
D   x U   U x U
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &

Intro tab

Here’s the tab of the intro melody. Note, I’m also showing the implied chords to be played with each measure. I recommend you move your hands into these chord positions first, and figure out how to play the melodic notes second.

---0--0--0-----0-----0--0--0-----0------2--2--2--0------------
---2--------3--------3--------3---------0-----------3-----2---
---2-----------------2------------------1-----------------2---
---2-----------------0------------------2-----------------2---
   D                 G                  A                 D

                                  ...then, stay on D for a bit

Other strumming fills

Base “D” verse strum / “Nibblin’ on sponge cake…”

---0-------------0----0-------------0----0---
---2-------------0----2-------------3----2---
---2-------------2----2-------------2----2---
---2-------------2----2-------------2----2---
   D           Dsus2  D           Dsus4  D

Base “A” strum / “…Strummin’ my six string…”

---0----------0--------0-----
---0----------3--2-----0-----
---1----------1-----0--0h1---
---2----------2--------2-----
   A          A7       A

Transition into chorus / “D” strum within chorus

---0-------------0----0-------------0----0---
---2-------------3----2-------------3----2---
---2-------------2----2-------------2----0---
---2-------------2----2-------------2----2---
   D           Dsus4  D           Dsus4  D7

Chorus ending / “But I know, it’s my own damn fault”

---0---2--0-----------0--0----------
---0---------3--------2-----3--2----
---1------------------2-------------
---2------------------2-------------
   A                  D

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