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As popular as sea shanties were there for a minute a couple years ago, I never really heard “What Do We Do With a Drunken Sailor?” Which is a shame, because it really is a classic. And it’s possibly the easiest of the still-popular sea shanties to imagine being sung by the crew of a ship as they went about their daily tasks, mainly because it’s funny.
There are many popular additional verses to the song still sung today that answer the question, “What do we do with a drunken sailor?”:
“Shave his belly with a rusty razor.”
“Put him in the longboat ’til he’s sober.”
“Stick him in bed with the captain’s daughter.”
But I like to image the song being a game, with sailors making up responses to the question on the spot, amusing themselves with vulgar jokes as they went about their work.
“What Do We Do With a Drunken Sailor?” Playing Tips
“Drunken Sailor” has a repeated two-measure pattern that makes up the majority of the song:
Getting the rhythm of the eighth and sixteenth notes right is what the whole song is about. Since there aren’t any quarter notes to worry about in the first half of the song, I find it easier to think of this rhythm using the quarter note and eighth note rhythm syllables:
TA titi TA titi | Ta Ta Ta Ta
But if you’re a purist, you can use the syllables for eighth and sixteenth note pairs instead:
TI ti ri TI ti ri | Ti Ti Ti Ti
In the second half of the song, the “Way hey”s keep the same basic melody line from the first half, but they switch up the rhythm a bit by dropping a few notes. You’re left with this rhythm syllable pattern:
TA Tim Ri | Ti Ti Ti Ti
I’ve included both a low G and a high G version of this one. If you’re going to sing, I find the low G version much more comfortable, but it will depend on your range, so try both!
Click the link or the ‘Download’ button below to see the sheet music if your browser doesn’t display the embedded PDF.
“What Do We Do With a Drunken Sailor?” Low G Sheet Music Download
“What Do We Do With a Drunken Sailor?” High G Sheet Music Download
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