Music library › Folk songs and rounds
Greensleeves
traditional English, by 1580. Excerpt, written out for reading practice.
- Music
- traditional English
- Date
- by 1580
- Key
- A minor
- Time
- 3/4
- Clef
- Treble
- Level
- Easy
- Length
- Excerpt
About the music
A ballad called “A Newe Northen Dittye of the Ladye Greene Sleves” was registered in London in 1580. A popular legend says Henry VIII wrote it, but the tune’s style points to the later 1500s. Shakespeare mentions it twice in The Merry Wives of Windsor, and the melody was later used for the carol “What Child Is This?”
This is the first half of the tune, in A minor and a lilting 3/4. It uses G♯ and F♯ as accidentals, typical of minor-key melodies, and the long-short dotted rhythm that gives it its swing.
Reading tips
- The tune starts on beat 3, after a half rest.
- Look for the long-short pattern (dotted quarter, eighth) on beat 1 of most bars.
- G♯ raises the seventh note of A minor so it leads back to A. It needs a new sharp in each bar.
How to practice it
Read the piece through once without playing, naming the starting note and looking for patterns and repeats. Then press Play and follow the notes as they light up. When you are ready, choose Practice this piece: it opens in the practice tool, where you can slow it down, play along on the on-screen piano, a MIDI keyboard or your voice, and have every note checked.