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How To Play Greensleeves On The Guitar

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Greensleeves is a melody that is recognized by practically everybody and is very easy to play. This makes it ideal for a beginner or intermediate guitarist to learn so they can add a classical guitar style piece to their repertoire. If you do not want to learn to play fingerstyle you can still play the piece as guitar solo by strumming the chords and picking out bass notes and melody as you see fit.

Apparently the story that Greensleeves was composed by Henry VIII is no more than a myth but that does not take away from the beauty of the tune. The song has been recorded by Elvis Presley, Odetta, John Coltrane, Mason Williams, Jeff Beck and Leonard Cohen to name a few. If you want to learn the words, here they are:

Alas my love you do me wrong
To cast me off discourteously;
And I have loved you oh so long
Delighting in your company.

CHORUS:
Greensleeves was my delight,
Greensleeves my heart of gold
Greensleeves was my heart of joy
And who but my Lady Greensleeves.

I have been ready at your hand
To grant whatever thou would’st crave;
I have waged both life and land
Your love and goodwill for to have.

CHORUS

Thy petticoat of sendle white
With gold embroidered gorgeously;
Thy petticoat of silk and white
And these I bought thee gladly.

CHORUS

Here is a link to guitar tab for Greensleeves.

This video shows how Greensleeves sounds and you can get the tablature for this arrangement of Greensleeves here.


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One Response to “How To Play Greensleeves On The Guitar”

  1. Classical Guitar - Greensleeves :: Greensleeves - A Simple Classical Guitar Piece :: September :: 2009
    September 22nd, 2009 @ 9:13 pm

    [...] Of all classical guitar pieces, Greensleeves is the most recognizable to the most number of people. This earns it a place as a terrific piece for newbie guitarists to find out how to play as, to the average audience, the amount of your improvement as a guitar player is how accomplished a job you do on a favorite piece of music. The other plus to Greensleeves is that it is exceedingly undemanding to play. As with a lot of classical guitar pieces, Greensleeves is a regular arrangement of four chords with a recurring bass line. For a seasoned guitar player the grace of this piece avails itself to limitless opportunities for modifications to the initial theme. For the beginner it means your faults can be disregarded as attempts at improvisation. Greensleeves is an attractive song which has words telling of the depression and defeat felt by a man who comes to grief in his aspirations to attract a lady. If you ask somebody about Greensleeves they will tell you that it was composed by King Henry VIII of England when he was aspiring to appeal to Anne Boleyn. Anne Plainly did not take nicely to Henry’s overtures, so he wrote the number telling of his complete sadness. Some experts allege that Henry just concocted more verses for an old song. Others allege he did not compose the song in any way, shape or form, and the whole Greensleeves phenomenon is a fiction. If you choose to go the whole hog and learn the words to Greensleeves here are a small number of verses. Of course, there are diverse verses and other words set to the same melody. If the sentiments in Greensleeves do not appeal to you, you can learn the words to What Child Is This? Alas my love you do me wrong To cast me off discourteously; And I have loved you oh so long Delighting in your company. CHORUS: Greensleeves was my delight, Greensleeves my heart of gold Greensleeves was my heart of joy And who but my Lady Greensleeves. I have been ready at your hand To grant whatever thou wouldst crave; I have waged both life and land Your love and goodwill for to have. CHORUS Thy petticoat of sendle white With gold embroidered gorgeously; Thy petticoat of silk and white And these I bought thee gladly. CHORUS So if you are looking around to learn some classical guitar pieces, Greensleeves may be a painless start. The chords you use to play Greensleeves are A minor, C, G and E. Even if you don’t enjoy some classical guitar aptitude you may as well at least try strumming the full or partial open chords. For more details on Greensleeves go to How To Play Greensleeves On The Guitar [...]

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