Sail Away Ladies — open G

Traditionnel (Tennessee) · Level 3 (Late beginner) · traditional · Guitar, sheet music and tablature

A traditional Tennessee fiddle tune, popularised by fiddler Uncle Bunt Stephens (1926). Jack Rose recorded it in a medley with the spiritual “I Shall Not Be Moved” on the album Jack Rose & The Black Twig Pickers (2009). Arranged in open G, alternating thumb on every beat.

▶ Play this piece with the interactive score

How to practise it

• Listen first: the site plays it while the score scrolls.
• Wait mode: the score waits for you at every note, at your own pace.
• Tempo challenge: play in time, with a score and a map of the bars you got right.
• Part A (4 bars, repeated) is low, part B (8 bars, repeated) climbs the 1st string up to the 5th fret. When a melody note lasts more than one beat, the thumb plays alone: let the tune ring. It is a dance tune: start slowly; the thumb must stay perfectly steady.