Tablature (or 'tab' for short) is one of the most popular ways of writing music. It's like a map, showing you which strings and frets to play.
Strings
Reading tab is like looking down at the strings on your ukulele. G string is nearest to you and A furthest away.
Frets
Each note has a number that tells you which fret to play: 1, 2, 3, and so on. '0' means to play a string open, without holding any frets down. In the example below, you are asked to play the E string on fret 3, C string on fret 2, E string open and E string on fret 3.
The note colors recommend which finger to use for playing the single note, e.g. yellow suggests to use the pointer finger.
Chords
In Yousician, we write chords as blocks that show you when to strum. Chord blocks have different colors to make it easier to visually separate them from each other. The arrows in a chord block show you the strum direction: up ▲ or down ▼.
The chord diagrams at the top of the screen, show you the chord shape. The colors in a diagram show the recommended finger(s) to use to form the chord, and which strings to strum to play the chord.