Harry Potter – Hedwig’s Theme (Tab)

Harry Potter – Hedwigs Theme (Tab)

I’ve done a whole load of tabs of John Williams tunes (Star Wars, Cantina Band, Olympic Fanfare, Indiana Jones). Yet I wouldn’t be able to pick him out of a line up and I regularly get him mixed up with the guitarist of the same name.

This arrangement does miss out a lot of the original. If you can recreate all the swirling strings, you’re a way better player than me. But I have included the two main sections of the piece. The first is a slow waltz and the second a rapid 4/4. The other arrangements I’ve seen miss out the second part – not sure why since it’s much more fun to play. And it’s fairly straight forward – mostly just moving the minor chord shape up and down. The tricky part is the speed so start slowly until you’ve got it under your fingers then build up speed. To give it a bit of variation, I play the first half of this section strumming with my thumb and the second half with my fingers (all down strums in both cases).

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36 Comments

  1. vatsal November 18th, 2009 11:00 pm

    wow, yet another awesome tab… Like a lot of them, it’s an intimidating one. But seriously, keep it up.

  2. Mcnilly November 20th, 2009 7:36 pm

    Awesome Tab :) seriously nice arrangement, especially the second part sounds lovely on the Uke

  3. Woodshed November 21st, 2009 11:35 am

    vatsal: Thanks very much.

    Mcnilly: And the second part is very fun to play.

  4. villa February 1st, 2010 4:37 am

    wow this is not as hard as it sounds. really great tab. thank you so much

  5. anonynomnom March 17th, 2010 12:45 am

    Wow, I was wondering about what you were talking about when you said the second part is fun, but now I know!

    Lovely tab by the way woodshed!

  6. Woodshed March 18th, 2010 9:48 pm

    anonynomnom: Thanks very much.

  7. Sam April 4th, 2010 9:44 pm

    im new to the uke but i keept it up and i love it.

  8. Woodshed April 5th, 2010 1:05 pm

    Sam: Glad to hear it!

  9. Ripu April 9th, 2010 5:51 am

    What program to you have to have to download these tabs

  10. Woodshed April 9th, 2010 7:26 am

    Ripu: Adobe Reader.

  11. danny April 11th, 2010 9:43 pm

    nice tab… fun to play to all my loser freinds that also know the harry potter theme song lol

  12. mary June 30th, 2010 11:27 pm

    were you closing your eyes?

  13. Zoe August 23rd, 2010 8:16 am

    this is the best thing in the world

  14. crazysteph12 October 15th, 2010 9:35 pm

    love harry potter, love this tab. thanks lots!

  15. Woodshed October 17th, 2010 9:37 am

    danny: Glad I could help you entertain losers.

    mary: No, just concentrating hard.

    Zoe: Thanks

    crazysteph12: You’re very welcome.

  16. chloe February 25th, 2011 10:53 pm

    .. This tab just made my day.

  17. Woodshed February 26th, 2011 5:24 pm

    chloe: Very glad to hear it.

  18. Kayla May 10th, 2011 3:14 am

    I seriously might cry..! I’m going to be able to play Harry Potter on my ukulele! You’re the best Woodshed!

  19. Woodshed May 15th, 2011 12:14 pm

    Kayla: Thanks very much.

  20. Lauren July 10th, 2011 11:33 pm

    I’m new to the ukulele, could you explain how to read your tab?

  21. Woodshed July 11th, 2011 12:26 am

    Lauren: There’s a guide to reading tab here. Although this tune isn’t really suitable for a beginner.

  22. abc December 20th, 2011 12:04 pm

    tmy friend gave me an easier tab foor this. for people who may find it hard

  23. Ellen January 9th, 2012 6:15 pm

    So cool! Got so excited when I saw this tab and learned it immediately :)

  24. Woodshed January 9th, 2012 10:21 pm

    Ellen: Thanks!

  25. Mel Stodd May 7th, 2012 2:15 am

    Thank you so much! I can’t wait to learn it! You are a ukulele god!

  26. Woodshed May 16th, 2012 11:06 am

    Mel: Thanks very much!

  27. Apet1013 January 5th, 2013 4:05 pm

    I love the movies
    I have to learn this
    I got my ukulele yesterday but I know a lot. This will be great to play for friends

  28. Woodshed January 5th, 2013 10:13 pm

    Apet1013: Good luck with it. I hope your friends are suitably impressed.

  29. kiley January 19th, 2013 3:01 am

    I have absolutely no idea how to play finger plucking songs..

  30. Woodshed January 20th, 2013 8:42 am

    kiley: There’s a guide to reading tab here.

  31. Maksym January 21st, 2013 7:46 pm

    Great tabs!
    Can you tell please how to play those fast 3-4-5 at the begining of the second part? I’m doing fast strums with my thumb, but it sounds dirty

  32. Woodshed January 21st, 2013 8:40 pm

    Maksym: I did use my thumb for the first half of that section and then normal strumming for the rest. You can do normal strumming for the whole thing if that feels better though.

  33. Adriatic November 2nd, 2015 9:53 am

    i know its an ancient tab, but here are some improvements:

    1. you are missing a sound G before the F chord shape (0088). it could be done like this:

    1) a|—|-3–6-5-|-3–10-|-8–|-5–|
    E|—|-3——|-3—–|-8–|-3–|
    C|—|-0——|-0—–|-0–|-0–|
    G|-0-|——–|-0—–|-0–|-0–|

    afterwards, the weird 4222 chord just sounds out of key and the melody sounds much nicer if you replace it with a x031 and follow it with a D note like this:

    2) a|-3–6-5-|-1–5-|—-|
    E|-3——|-3—-|-3–|
    C|-0——|-0—-|-0–|
    G|——–|——|-0–|

  34. Woodshed November 2nd, 2015 10:20 am

    Adriatic: Thanks! I’ll try those out.

  35. morecowbell October 13th, 2016 2:45 pm

    This tab is fantastic! thanks for all you do!

  36. Woodshed October 13th, 2016 5:41 pm

    morecowbell: Thanks! You’re very welcome.

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