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> The Mermaid
Free Guitar Ensemble Music
4 Guitars - Sea Shanty - The Mermaid
Download and print this easy ensemble piece with my compliments. Help on printing
PDF - Click here
GIF - Click for Page 1 and Page 2
Brief Study Notes
Sea Shanties - working songs - invariably have a well-defined melody and a well-defined rhythm. And that makes them ideal for a novice Ensemble group. My Ensemble Workshop has three Hornpipes and a number of Shanties in our 110-piece Play List. This is one in four parts.
The piece is called "The Mermaid" - a nonsense song about a ship going down - and like so much traditional music, there are as many variations to the melody and the words as there are people who know the song!
Try to clip the quavers (the eighth notes) a little short, and leave the longer notes fully sustained. This will give a lighter and better articulated sound.
If your group has the skill necessary, take the top part up an octave and the piece will take on a whole new light.
If you have only three players, keep the tune and bass, and dispense with one of the two inner parts.
If you have more than four players, add extra people to the top part, because this is one of the few arrangements I do in which the tune is not the highest line, and therefore can be lost behind the accompaniment. Why? Because there is little room with 4 Guitars to have each part in the first position and keep the three "accompaniment" parts below the tune.
