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You may know this tune by a couple of different names. The melody is of uncertain origin and bears some resemblance to several older tunes, but the most well-known version was popularized during the American Civil War as “When Johnny Comes Marching Home.”
It lives on today mostly as the children’s song “The Ants Go Marching” and its many variations (the lyrics are under copyright, so people tend to make up their own to avoid issues). The ending of the melody to the children’s version is a bit different and extended, but the main ideas are the same.
My preferred version, “Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye,” first appeared in London in 1867, lyrics by Joseph B. Geoghegan. It was apparently meant to be a comedic song originally, but it lives on as a powerful anti-war song. The most common modern lyrics tell the tale of a woman meeting her love on the road as he journeys home from war. She no longer recognizes him because of his injuries and because war has changed so much about him.
I’m not publishing any lyrics with the tune. You may prefer the British version or the American Civil War version (which in all fairness is the celebration of soldiers returning from war, not a pro-war anthem). Either is fine, but since this site is more about playing melodies on uke rather than on singing, I figured I’d just leave the words out entirely.
“Johnny I Hardly Knew Ya” Playing Tips
The melody line isn’t very challenging here, which is pretty common when a song is written to be sung. It’s in 6/8 time, and I always imagine an army on the march, stepping in time to the first beat of each triplet.
This tune works best when you have someone accompanying you, especially if you can hit that walk down the scale with the parallel chords in measures 13 and 14.
Because this is such a simple melody, I was able to make an equally playable version of it for high G ukulele. The chords are a bit trickier in high G version, with the the two hardest (G minor and B flat) taking up more than half of the song. It’s a good chance to practice changing between difficult chords, especially since you’ll usually play this one at a slower tempo.
Click the link or the ‘Download’ button below to see the sheet music if your browser doesn’t display the embedded PDF.
You’ll find a download link for the high G version of the tune below as well. Happy picking!
“Johnny I Hardly Knew Ya” Low G Sheet Music Download
“Johnny I Hardly Knew Ya” High G Sheet Music Download
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