“This Old Man” for Ukulele – FREE TAB

The melody of “This Old Man” haunted the dreams of many parents of young children in the 90’s when it appeared in every episode of Barney and Friends as the song “I Love You.” I was a cultured 7-year-old in ’92 when Barney took over preschooler TV, so I never had much use for the purple dinosaur, but my little sister loved him.

We don’t know much about where the original “This Old Man” comes from. It seems to have emerged in the 19th century in Ireland, and depending where you look online you might find that it refers to travelling salesmen, drunkards, or old men who played percussion with animal bones left over from dinner.

“This Old Man” Playing Tips

This tune is great step-up song for kids. It slowly ramps up the rhythmic complexity, starting with quarter notes and half notes, progressing to even quarter notes, and then throwing in some eighth notes to spice things up.

I’ve taken this “step-up” idea a bit further in my arrangement. The second time through the verse, I switched out all of the quarter notes for eighth notes. Every. Single. One. Your left hand will do exactly the same thing as you play through the tune, but your right hand will be getting a work out.

Putting this change into rhythm syllables, measures one and two look like this on the first play-through:

TA TA TA-A | TA TA TA-A

And switch to this for the second:

ti ti ti ti TA-A | ti ti ti ti TA-A

Doubling your notes like this is a simple way to embellish a tune that anyone can do with a bit of practice. You can add a lot of interest to an otherwise easy tune by varying when and where you do it. Practice playing the tune from memory, inserting the doubles notes when/where you feel like it to make you own fun version.

Click the Download button below if the embedded PDF doesn’t display properly on your device. Don’t have a low G uke? No problem! I’ve included a version of this tune from ukes in standard tuning as well. The high G sheet music is the bottom download button.

“This Old Man” Low G Sheet Music Download

“This Old Man” High G Sheet Music Download