Songs · Guitar · Intermediate
Greensleeves
Traditional English tune · English song known since the 1580s; also the tune of the carol “What Child Is This?”
Guitar · folkfingerpickingE minor6/8 time16 barsstandard tuningstarts with a pickup
Arranged: Teddy Rook Book: the melody of our piano version, an octave lower as guitars play it, over open bass notes that follow its harmony.
Loading the music…
About this piece
The old English tune, played the way a lutenist or a folk guitarist would: the melody on the middle and top strings, with a bass note from the thumb on each big beat. Count two groups of three in every bar. Learn the tune alone first, slowly, then add the bass notes; most of them are open strings, so the left hand can stay with the tune.
What it practices
- tune and bass together
- 6/8 time
- dotted rhythms
- D-sharp and C-sharp in E minor
Chords in this song
Each link opens the chord finder with more ways to play that chord.
Where the notes come from
Melody as in our piano version of Greensleeves, which was checked note by note against the Mutopia Project’s “Greensleeves” hymn setting (public domain); here it sounds an octave lower. The bass notes are ours, chosen from that setting’s bass line. Our checking script compares the two melodies beat by beat.
How to practice with it
- Listen first. Press Play and follow along. The note being played lights up in the tab, in the notation and on the fretboard, and the chord being played lights up in the row of chord diagrams.
- Learn the chords. Press each diagram to hear it, then practice changing between them slowly.
- Slow it down. Use − and + to set the tempo. 60% is a good place to start; the notes keep their pitch.
- Loop the hard part. Under More…, turn on Loop, pick the bars, and play them a few times in a row. Count-in gives you a bar of clicks before it starts.
Click a bar in the music to start from there. Space plays and pauses. Left-handed? Turn on the left-handed view: the chord diagrams and the fretboard are mirrored to match your instrument. Tab reads the same either way: the top line is always the first (highest) string.