A Look at Greensleeves
Aug 10th, 2007 by Guitar MX Admin
| Greensleeves is an old English folk song from the 1500’s. It remains a popular guitar song today, and many guitarists claim this as the first song they learned to play, as it’s commonly taught at the beginning of the guitar journey. Perhaps you’re thinking that you’ve never heard this song? It is almost certain that you’ve heard this tune many times over; you’ll definatley recognize it when you hear it. So why has this folk song survived nearly 500 years, and why is it still popular among guitar players today? Guitar MX takes a look: |  |
- In this video lesson by Guitar Chords Magic, you can hear and see the song played. The tablature for this lesson can be found here. It’s fairly easy to play.
- This video shows a version of the song for the electric guitar. You can find the tablature for this version here.
- Many contemporary guitarists have played or recorded versions of this song, including Jeff Beck, Al di Meola, Yngwie Malmsteen, Timo Tolkki, Gary Hoey, Neil Young, Derek Trucks and Ritchie Blackmore.
- Perhaps you know this song as the Christmas carol ‘What Child is This‘. This carol was written in 1865 by William C. Dix to the tune of Greensleeves.
- Some songbooks attribute this song to King Henry VIII, and legend is that he wrote the song while courting his future wife and queen, Anne Boleyn. This is now considered bogus, as the style of the song suggests that it was written after that time period. The true author is unknown.
- According to Wikipedia, “It is widely acknowledged that Lady Green Sleeves was at the very least a promiscuous young woman and perhaps a prostitute. The reference to the colour of her sleeves suggests grass stains from a recent rendezvous with a suitor. Additionally, in England the colour green was associated with prostitution.“
[...] guitar lesson, new JamPlay instructor Danny Voris teaches how to play Greensleeves, a classic song previously discussed here. This tune is also a Christmas carol known as “What Child is [...]