Click here to jump straight to the TAB.
“Camptown Races” is another catchy 19th century song that still lives on today, despite its unsavory origins. The tune was first published in 1850 by Stephen Foster, who wrote it specifically for performance in minstrel shows. The lyrics were originally written in an exaggerated African American dialect, though they have been converted to plain English in modern versions.
I don’t want to get up on a soapbox about this, but I also don’t want to make it seem like I take this topic lightly. I see two main options:
- I can decline to post this tune because of its history, meaning that the only places to learn this song are those that don’t acknowledge that history.
- I can post this song while acknowledging the history behind it, with the hope that learning about the past can help us move forward together.
Given those two options, I’m going to choose the latter. Learning about the past is different from celebrating it.
“Camptown Races” Playing Tips
The melody of “Camptown Races” is straightforward. It’s in 4/4, and it has a good amount of variation in rhythm and note type to keep beginners on their toes. It’s not often that you have a short tune like that that has whole, half, quarter, dotted quarter, and eighth notes all crammed into 16 measures.
The only thing that might give you pause is that D7 chord, which is just a regular D chord but with the C string open instead of played at the second fret. Seventh chords (more correctly called dominant seventh chords) use the flatted seventh note of the scale to add tension.
The D chord is the 5th of the root (G), so it already wants to resolve back to G. Adding the flat 7th just accentuates that tension and makes the resolution even more satisfying to the ear.
Click the link or the ‘Download’ button below to see the sheet music if your browser doesn’t display the embedded PDF.
Don’t have a low G uke? Not a problem. I’ve included a standard (high G) TAB for this song as well. Find the link at the bottom on the post. Happy picking!
“Camptown Races” Low G Sheet Music Download
“Camptown Races” High G Sheet Music Download
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