Scarborough Fair
Arr: Chasmac/ Fretsource
Learners' Notes
This solo fingerstyle guitar version of Scarborough Fair is around lower-intermediate level of difficulty. It's simple enough as far as your fretting hand is concerned as you're mostly holding familiar chord shapes. Keeping the fingerstyle accompaniment going while playing the melody above it is a bit more challenging, though. There's also a degree of syncopation involved. That is, some melody notes are anticipated before the beat to give the song a more flowing and lilting feel. You can always leave out the syncopation and play the notes on the beat, but try to get the lilting feel by anticipating the tied melody notes. It's worth the effort.
Fretboard Position and Fingering
Most of the song is played in the first position of the fretboard apart from the half barre A minor chords in bars 7 and 11, which are played at the 5th fret. Normally this chord is played at the 5th fret with a half barre (index finger across the first three strings), but as the following notes are played near the nut, you can also play those three strings with your 2nd, 3rd fingers and 4th fingers. The last note in bar 6 is G, played with finger 4, so it's easy to slide that finger up to fret 5 in bar 7 and let your 2nd and 3rd fingers drop into place on strings 3 and 2. Then, after playing the chord, slide your 4th finger back down to fret 3. Bar 11 is a very similar situation. You need your 4th finger for the last note of bar 10, so that finger is already in place for the same chord in bar 11.
Ornaments
There are two ornaments shown in the score at bars 13 and 17 (and played in the recording). These are called mordents, and as you can hear in the audio track, they consist of a very brief main note immediately followed by an equally brief upper note and then back to the first note. The upper note in bar 13 is F and the upper note in bar 17 is D. There are also some slurs in the score that are played as hammer-ons.
Improvisation
Folk fingerstyle arrangements (unlike classical pieces) should always have an improvised feel, so feel free to ignore all ornaments and slurs in the score and make your own wherever your musical taste tells you.
Listen to Scarborough Fair
Click the video PLAY button to hear an audio track of the score played along with each line of the tab and notation staffs displayed on the screen.
This solo fingerstyle guitar version of Scarborough Fair is around lower-intermediate level of difficulty. It's simple enough as far as your fretting hand is concerned as you're mostly holding familiar chord shapes. Keeping the fingerstyle accompaniment going while playing the melody above it is a bit more challenging, though. There's also a degree of syncopation involved. That is, some melody notes are anticipated before the beat to give the song a more flowing and lilting feel. You can always leave out the syncopation and play the notes on the beat, but try to get the lilting feel by anticipating the tied melody notes. It's worth the effort.
Fretboard Position and Fingering
Most of the song is played in the first position of the fretboard apart from the half barre A minor chords in bars 7 and 11, which are played at the 5th fret. Normally this chord is played at the 5th fret with a half barre (index finger across the first three strings), but as the following notes are played near the nut, you can also play those three strings with your 2nd, 3rd fingers and 4th fingers. The last note in bar 6 is G, played with finger 4, so it's easy to slide that finger up to fret 5 in bar 7 and let your 2nd and 3rd fingers drop into place on strings 3 and 2. Then, after playing the chord, slide your 4th finger back down to fret 3. Bar 11 is a very similar situation. You need your 4th finger for the last note of bar 10, so that finger is already in place for the same chord in bar 11.
Ornaments
There are two ornaments shown in the score at bars 13 and 17 (and played in the recording). These are called mordents, and as you can hear in the audio track, they consist of a very brief main note immediately followed by an equally brief upper note and then back to the first note. The upper note in bar 13 is F and the upper note in bar 17 is D. There are also some slurs in the score that are played as hammer-ons.
Improvisation
Folk fingerstyle arrangements (unlike classical pieces) should always have an improvised feel, so feel free to ignore all ornaments and slurs in the score and make your own wherever your musical taste tells you.
Listen to Scarborough Fair
Click the video PLAY button to hear an audio track of the score played along with each line of the tab and notation staffs displayed on the screen.
Download Scarborough Fair as a PDF file for offline viewing or printing.
scarborough_fair.pdf |