"Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies" is a beautiful ballad that's great for helping us build up our strumming endurance. For this tutorial, I share six of my favorite verses and a strum that pairs very nicely with ballads like this one. If the key of G isn’t a great fit for your vocal range, use my chord chart to easily change the key to one that is. And just for fun, here's a bonus verse that I will often sing in place of verses four and five.
Bonus Verse
I wish I (G) was on some tall mountain
Where the ivy rocks are black as (D) ink
I'd write a (Am) letter to my lost true (G) lover
Whose cheeks are (Am) like the morning (D) pink
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Want to hear what the more Irish version sounds like? Check out this beautiful rendition by Lumiere.
One more thing: folk songs are not precious or sacred. If there’s something you don’t like about this song (or any other folk song), change it! To modify and re-mix elements of folk songs is to participate in a grand tradition of music-makers that dates back centuries. Listen to different artists singing this song and see if there are any other verses you'd like to include! Or, of course, you could contribute your own verses or use this song as inspiration for your own melody. Dolly Parton’s “Little Sparrow” is a great example of how to use a traditional folk song to create something new.
