Click here to jump straight to the TAB for “The Merry Blacksmith.”
Sometimes the lineage of a popular tune is easy to trace. An inspired fiddler from the 18th /19th/early 20th century wrote a melody, and it was so popular we still play it today and even still call it by that original fiddler’s name. Other times, tunes just seem to come from nowhere – or everywhere, as is the case with “The Merry Blacksmith.”
According to the Traditional Tune Archive, “Blacksmith” was written down several different times over the years by collectors and historians, but it almost always had a different name attached to it: “Boys of the Lake,” “Boy in the Gap,” “The Peeler’s Cap,” “North Wall,” “The Railroad,” “The Police Jacket” – all of these titles refer to the same tune.
Even more confusing, there’s another tune that combines two of these varied titles (“The Peeler’s Jacket”) that sounds nothing like “Blacksmith.” I’m not sure who the Peeler is, but he apparently had some pretty interesting clothing.
No matter what you call it, “The Merry Blacksmith” is a lot of fun to play. It’s easy to see why the tune floated around for centuries, picking up different names in each local music tradition.
“The Merry Blacksmith” Playing Tips
There’s a lot of notes to think about with this one, so take it slow and break it down one phrase at a time. There really isn’t that much to learn in the A section as there is a lot of repetition and very little movement away from the core melodic ideas.
You might find it useful to think of the A section as variations around a G chord. It can be useful to keep your hand in more-or-less a G shape for much of the first eight measures, thinking of it as essentially a home base that you’ll stray from only slightly.
The B section kicks up the difficulty by moving away from the G chord shape and heading up the neck a bit. If you have big hands, you’ll probably be able to grab the 5th fret in measure nine with your pinky without shifting up the neck, but even those of us with a big reach will probably need to change position to grab the 7th fret in measure 13.
Plan out your moves and pencil in some notation on the music to remind yourself when you need to shift and what fingers to target for what notes.
Click the Download button below if the embedded PDF doesn’t display correctly. Happy picking!
The-Merry-Blacksmith-Low-G-Ukulele-Level-1“The Merry Blacksmith” Low G Sheet Music Download
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