Scarborough Fair is a beloved old song from England which sounds beautiful on guitar.
Download my free easy guitar tabs, and finger-style guitar tabs. (If you want an easy music download for lead sheets in different keys and also for beginning piano, go here... and if you want a nice arrangement for voice, visit this page.)
Many of my students have sung, played, and loved Scarborough Fair.
Because it uses basic guitar chords, beginning guitarists will find it within their reach, and not-so-new guitarists may be able to apply some new techniques to it.
Please scroll down the page for the download links.
It offers opportunities for integrating a walking bass line into the ongoing picking pattern, on the transition from Am to C.
After that is mastered, there are two more special effects I show my guitar students -- one at a time! -- that make the song feel and sound fancy -- "like a real guitar player."
The first guitar tab sheet shows just melody and chords.
In the second guitar tab sheet, the tablature shows one way -- my favorite way -- of picking the chords. While reading chords as tablature can be confusing for beginners, it is really helpful for them to see the walking bass.
Essentially, the chords are played from the bottom to the top, turning around after beat 4 and coming back down for beats 5 and 6.
"Beats 5 & 6?" what am I talking about? -- there are only 3 beats in this guitar song!
Well, sometimes when the chord accompaniment is subdivided to make 6 or 8 strokes total each measure, I tell my student that we will just say "1-2-3-4-5-6" instead of "1 & 2& 3 &".
It really makes more sense that way, unless they have already been playing piano for some time and can count very well.
When the same chord is played two measures in a row, it's a good idea to alternate the thumb onto a different string to relieve the sameness of the repeated chord. (I have NOT notated that here in the tablature.)
After students have mastered the walking bass between Am and C, the next thing we try is lifting fingers off the strings in measure 8 with the word "thyme," on beats 5 and 6 only.
See where the guitar tablature has the words "lift fingers"? This is VERY COOL. In fact, it will seem a bit magical to your student.
This same effect can be duplicated at the end of the piece in the penultimate measure. ("Penultimate": a fancy word for "second-to-the-last"!)
Lastly, try the descending bass line with alternating G string in measure 12 where it says "one who lives". It is the same basic technique as the walking bass in Down in the Valley, but with extra notes (open G) in between.
Being able to play Scarborough Fair will give your student a feeling of power and control...each note matters.
It may even motivate them to clean up the buzz on their G chord, and to make those strings really sing.
The links to the guitar tabs for Scarborough Fair:
Download Scarborough Fair guitar tabs
Download free guitar tab music with walking bass
Basic piano chords in the keys of C & G, showing root position chords and all inversions from the root chord - plus a diatonic scale - all with lettered notes!
Free Christmas sheet music "We Three Kings" - Now 6 Arrangements! From VERY EASY to intermediate, there is an arrangement suitable for your student here!
Wassail, Wassail All Over the Town, now with an EASY & FUN duet arrangement for early beginners! This is a rousing, irresistible song for the Yuletide!
Free Christmas Songs: Deck the Halls, with a new easy-to-read lead sheet! For piano, guitar, & lead instruments. Kids enjoy this energetic Christmas carol!
Thanksgiving song lyrics & sheet music for Over the River & Through the Woods, an old-fashioned song kids will love to play & sing! EASY solos & duets.
Piano Party! I decided it was time for my students to get together for some low-stress performances, some cookies, punch & company! Kids need FUN!
Thanksgiving song for school, church, or your own pleasure! Now with a new EASY version for piano, 2 NEW piano arrangements, plus voice & other instruments.
Hark the Herald Angels Sing - an easy Middle C piano arrangement, pretty elementary & intermediate versions, & a guitar tab arrangement too!
Classical piano sheet music - Fun, one-page intros! Check out the newest addition - Burgmuller's "Arabesque", with its easy scale-wise melody!
Toreador: Piano sheet music of this famous opera music! These energetic arrangements are EASIER than they sound.
All the first-year material I give my beginner students.
Piano keyboard sheets, scales, chords, note-reading exercises, and over 256 pages of music!
This beautiful song book for piano & voice "Esther, For Such a Time as This", available as a digital download, tells the riveting story of the time when Jews in ancient Persia faced a foe named Haman, and how a brave young queen risked her life to save her people.
A good choice for a singing story-teller, an operatic group, a short theater production, or a class of children!
This book is also available from Amazon as a paperback.
This book is available as a digital download from this site. Visit this page to see some free examples from the book.
It is also available from Amazon as a paperback!
This is the perfect easy start for little pianists.
And when they start reading white-key notes on the staff, this is a fun easy resource to say each week, "Choose a new black-key song at home this week and figure it out to show me next lesson!" They will be spending more time at the piano.
A perfect read aloud storybook
for little boys or girls.
The Adventures of Tonsta highlight the travels of a very young boy with a good heart, who goes about helping folk in trouble.
With a red cap on his head and a sack of tools slung over his shoulder, Tonsta seems to meet people in distress wherever he goes.
Lots of trolls in this book - including one who gives him a Christmas gift!
Christine:
Thank you so much for this site! I have just started teaching some really keen Y6 boys who want to play Scarborough Fair, and your version is perfect. I will now go and look at what other goodies you have!
Debbie, Nashville, TN:
I have been looking for a very, very long time for a website like this! WOW! I have been teaching for over 20 years and it's nice to have a resource such as this!
Do you have a story or a question about teaching guitar? Do you think it is a hard instrument for beginners, or easy? What have been your challenges?
Please note that all comments are moderated, and will not appear until I have approved them. Also, IF YOU ARE ASKING FOR MUSIC THAT IS NOT IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN, YOUR REQUEST WILL BE IGNORED. That's pretty much any music written in the last 75 years...
Hi, I'm Dana! (Say that like "Anna".) I'm the owner of Music-for-Music-Teachers.com, and a newer site, SingTheBibleStory.com.
Like some of you, I've been playing the piano since early childhood, and have added a few other instruments along the way, plus an interest in arranging and composing music.
You can find out more about me and the reason for this website at my About Me page.