C4 on the keyboard
C4 is one key on a keyboard.
C4 is one key on the keyboard, and no other key sounds that pitch. The colored keys are the other Cs, each in a different octave.
C4 on the neck
C4 lies at string 4 fret 5 and string 3 fret 0 on ukulele — low g (gcea).
The same pitch can be played in two places: string 4 fret 5 and string 3 fret 0. Each one sounds identical, but each feels different under your hand. The faint notes are the other Cs, in higher or lower octaves.
On a piano, middle C is one key and there is nowhere else to look. On a ukulele, most notes in the middle of the range can be played in two or three places, and a few in four. Each place gives the same pitch and the same name, but feels completely different under your hand.
This is what makes a fretboard feel hard to learn at first, and it is also what makes it worth learning. A guitar often offers four or five places for the same note. Four strings offer fewer, which makes the choice easier, although it is still a real choice.
The diagram marks one pitch on the keyboard and lights every place it can be played on the neck. The places are not interchangeable, because only one of them may leave your other fingers within reach of the next notes.
This lesson was drafted with the help of AI and checked by a person, and it may still contain a mistake. Its diagrams are drawn by Everyfret’s own software. How Everyfret is made