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I’ll date myself a bit and recall fond memories of my younger days, watching episodes of Popyeye and hearing “Sailor’s Hornpipe” without knowing anything about the song’s deep history. This was in the 90’s when Popeye aired on Nickelodeon, mind you, not when it was being produced in the 30’s through the 50’s.
The tune was originally published as “The College Hornpipe” in the late 1700s in London, but it is more often known as “Sailor’s” because of its use by the British Navy. There are records of captains, including Captain Cook, ordering sailors to play and dance the hornpipe during voyages to keep active. The traditional dance that goes with the tune works well on a ship because it can be performed alone and you stay mostly in one place. It also requires a good bit of athletic high-stepping and kicking.
“Sailor’s Hornpipe” Playing Tips
“Sailor’s Hornpipe” is a challenging tune. It starts with a large-interval jump that requires skipping a string. When you’re new to playing ukulele (or any fretted instrument), string skipping feels especially unnatural. Even if you’ve gotten decent at playing without looking at your hands, jumping from the A string down to the C string will likely require a peek.
There’s no real trick to it. It’s something you just have to practice over and over until it becomes natural. If you struggle at first, don’t worry. Everyone does. Eventually your fingers will remember how to find each of the strings automatically. Luckily, the jump in the first measure is to an open string, so you only have to worry about your right hand. The jump in the third measure is a little more difficult as it jumps strings with both hands. Again, no special tricks. Just keep practicing.
Mini Finger Exercise
I’m not a fan of practicing mindless finger exercises. Unless you want to learn to shred on lead guitar, you’re far better off learning challenging songs that have what amounts to finger exercises in a melodic context.
“Sailor’s” has a great example of this in measures 4-7 (and then again in the B section). You start with descending and overlapping runs of four notes and then follow it up with a series of ascending two-note interval jumps on adjacent strings (fret these like mini-chords and play the strings individually). Both passages amount to fancy ways of playing with the major scale, and if you like them, you can use them as a basis for coming up with your own exercises that aren’t terrible.
Click the link or the ‘Download’ button below to see the sheet music if your browser doesn’t display the embedded PDF. Happy picking!
“Sailor’s Hornpipe” Low G Sheet Music Download
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