{"id":141057,"date":"2023-09-01T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-01T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/?p=141057"},"modified":"2023-08-30T09:00:14","modified_gmt":"2023-08-30T16:00:14","slug":"play-sea-shanty-drunken-sailor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/play-sea-shanty-drunken-sailor\/","title":{"rendered":"Play the Classic Sea Shanty \u201cDrunken Sailor\u201d with 3 Simple Chords"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"1290\" height=\"726\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mUhynknokLk?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Generally speaking, sea shanties are 19th-century shipboard work songs that are descendants of two primary sources: either the 18th-century work chants and sing-outs used by English and French sailors to coordinate certain tasks that required unanimous team effort, or the traditional work songs sung by African and African American laborers. The era of sea shanties as we know them appeared shortly after the War of 1812, reached its peak as work songs on sailing ships in the 1870s, and died with the eventual switch to engine power, which required far less coordinated manual labor on deck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3EnK9Vq\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cDrunken Sailor,\u201d aka \u201cUp She Rises,\u201d<\/a> is one of the best-known sea shanties still in circulation. There\u2019s not a lot to learn with this classic tune. With a light amount of digging, you can find some more ornate arrangements, but our campfire version uses a traditional, simple four-bar pattern using just three chords: <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/learn-8-ways-to-play-an-a-minor-chord-by-chord\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/learn-8-ways-to-play-an-a-minor-chord-by-chord\/\" target=\"_blank\">Am<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/learn-8-ways-to-play-g-major-chord-by-chord\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/learn-8-ways-to-play-g-major-chord-by-chord\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">G<\/a>, and <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/learn-7-ways-to-play-c-major-lesson-1-in-the-chord-by-chord-series\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/learn-7-ways-to-play-c-major-lesson-1-in-the-chord-by-chord-series\/\" target=\"_blank\">C<\/a>. The heart of this song is in the joy of group singing and the colorful, early morning treatments the singers are suggesting for their compromised colleague.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My arrangement includes a few of the more familiar verses, but this is a song that has had centuries to develop variations and alternate lyrics. Vary as they may, they generally stick to a theme of making crew members think carefully about returning from shore with any number of their sheets to the wind. So, what shall we do with a drunken sailor? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"639\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/AG342-DRUNKEN-SAILOR-NOTATION-1.png?resize=1024%2C639&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"&quot;Drunken Sailor&quot; guitar music notation sheet 1\" class=\"wp-image-141060\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/AG342-DRUNKEN-SAILOR-NOTATION-1.png?resize=1024%2C639&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/AG342-DRUNKEN-SAILOR-NOTATION-1.png?resize=500%2C312&amp;ssl=1 500w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/AG342-DRUNKEN-SAILOR-NOTATION-1.png?resize=768%2C479&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/AG342-DRUNKEN-SAILOR-NOTATION-1.png?resize=300%2C187&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/AG342-DRUNKEN-SAILOR-NOTATION-1.png?w=1079&amp;ssl=1 1079w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"756\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/AG342-DRUNKEN-SAILOR-NOTATION-2.png?resize=756%2C1024&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"&quot;Drunken Sailor&quot; guitar music notation sheet 2\" class=\"wp-image-141061\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/AG342-DRUNKEN-SAILOR-NOTATION-2.png?resize=756%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 756w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/AG342-DRUNKEN-SAILOR-NOTATION-2.png?resize=369%2C500&amp;ssl=1 369w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/AG342-DRUNKEN-SAILOR-NOTATION-2.png?resize=768%2C1040&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/AG342-DRUNKEN-SAILOR-NOTATION-2.png?resize=222%2C300&amp;ssl=1 222w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/AG342-DRUNKEN-SAILOR-NOTATION-2.png?w=1079&amp;ssl=1 1079w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 756px) 100vw, 756px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/store.acousticguitar.com\/products\/copy-of-no-342-september-october-2023\" name=\"magazine\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"width: 150px; height: 198px; margin: 0px 20px 10px 0px;\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/001_342_Cover-150px.jpg?w=1290&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Acoustic Guitar magazine cover for issue 342\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\"><\/a>\n<p style=\"font-family: sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 15px 0px;\">This article originally appeared in the <a href=\"https:\/\/store.acousticguitar.com\/products\/no-342-september-october-2023\">September\/October 2023<\/a> issue of <em>Acoustic Guitar<\/em> magazine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This easy campfire arrangement follows a traditional four-bar pattern using just the chords Am, G, and C.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":141382,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"This easy campfire arrangement follows a traditional four-bar pattern using just the chords Am, G, and C.","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1653],"tags":[1088,1922],"ppma_author":[1592],"blocksy_meta":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/drunken-sailor-campfire-song-guitar-lesson.png?fit=900%2C498&ssl=1","authors":[{"term_id":1592,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"maurice-tani","display_name":"Maurice Tani","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Maurice-Tani-holding-guitar.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Maurice-Tani-holding-guitar.jpg"},"user_url":"http:\/\/www.mauricetani.com\/","last_name":"Tani","first_name":"Maurice","description":"Maurice Tani is a veteran singer-songwriter and alt-country band leader based in California. 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