Bobby Shafto’s Gone to Sea

Traditionnel (Angleterre) · Level 2 (Beginner) · traditional · Guitar, sheet music and tablature

A song from North-East England (18th century): Bobby Shafto’s gone to sea, silver buckles at his knee, he’ll come back and marry me. Arranged in G major: the tune in first position, with a thumb bass on the first beat of each bar and at each chord change.

▶ 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.
• Play the basses (strings 6, 5 and 4) with the thumb and the tune with i and m. When a bass and a melody note fall together, pluck them at the same time and let the bass ring. Practise the tune alone first.

More pieces by Traditionnel (Angleterre)

• God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen
• The Holly and the Ivy
• I Saw Three Ships
• Pop! Goes the Weasel
• London Bridge Is Falling Down
• Lavender’s Blue
• Hickory Dickory Dock
• Humpty Dumpty

Source : Arrangement Note after Note d’après l’air traditionnel anglais · Public Domain