The Wellerman Sheet Music
The Wellerman: sheet music, guitar tabs & lyrics for guitar, piano solos and duets, and lead sheets for other instruments, plus an "AlphaNotes" arrangement for piano students still struggling with the bass clef notes.
What will you find on this page?
- A audio playback of the piano solo (the video below)
- Images of the different arrangements
- Fun YouTube videos of groups singing The Wellerman sea shanty
- Links to the free digital sheet music, farther down the page
- And lots of teaching tips for approaching this piece as a piano solo or duet!
Please scroll on down to find the links to the music scores for this folk music.
An arrangement for early intermediate piano
Please scroll down the page for the download links.
This is such a fun, high-energy song to sing & play!
Please scroll down the page for the download links.
For the bass line, before you have elementary students try to figure out the left hand, have them just play single bass notes whenever they see a chord symbol. That is a good way to warm up to a 2-handed arrangement.
An arrangement with lettered notes - another piano solo
Please scroll down the page for the download links.
This song went viral
This is SOOO fabulous! Your students, once they've heard it, are going to be singing it and wanting to play it.
A version with guitar tabs
Please scroll down the page for the download links.
An easy melody for guitar, and only one "hard" chord! A good opportunity to practice the F chord.
Lead sheets in 2 keys, Am & Dm
Please scroll down the page for the download links.
A goofy video with a cat
This rendition of The Wellerman is not as polished as the one above, but it's so fun - perhaps my favorite!
Hidden chord shapes in the melody
Keep your eye on the chord outlines that make up this melody, and point them out to your students - or say to them, "Look at me play this part... what did I just play?"
A A A C E E E.... F D D F A... There are several places like that, and only one real scale, the descending passage at the ends of the verses and chorus. Knowing these, and seeing these, may help your student more easily conquer this melody with its thirds and fourths and fifths.
Where this sea shanty really shines
This song is MOST FUN when it is played with two pianists as a duet. As a teacher, you can supply those powerful open chords to make this song full of energy!
Then show your student how to approach making the chords, similar to the way we play Star of the County Down in my studio... left, right, left, right with open fifths in the bass.
Start with the melody for beginners
How nice - this melody beautifully fits the Middle C area for a beginner, with the right hand thumb on Middle D instead of C. (Good practice! Kids can get so reliant upon Middle C always being played by the thumb.)
You can find the Middle C version of The Wellerman with note names in all the note heads on the page Note-Naming Worksheets.
Ask your students to sing along
It helps VERY MUCH to sing or even speak the words as you are playing the melody; even little boys in a hurry will notice if they have missed a note or two when they are trying to match the lyrics, and may slow down to fix that! (True story.)
The links for the piano solos:
The Wellerman sheet music for piano and voice in Am
The piano arrangement with letters inside all the notes
The New Zealand folksong in the key of Dm for piano
Middle C arrangement, shared-hands melody
The link for the guitar tabs arrangement:
Download the guitar tablature version, in Am
The links for the lead sheets:
Wellerman lead in the key of Dm
Dianna:
Your website is a light in the darkness. THANK YOU for all you do in helping to spread the love of music. It matters!
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Interested in songs from the Bible for your students or church? Check out my other website, SingTheBibleStory.com!
All the first-year material I give my beginner students.
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A good choice for a singing story-teller, an operatic group, a short theater production, or a class of children!
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Lots of trolls in this book - including one who gives him a Christmas gift!
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About the Author
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 so many 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.
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