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Greensleeves - Piano Sheet Music (Easy Version)

Traditional 1580 A minor 6/8 Easy 0:32 Both hands

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Greensleeves is one of the oldest tunes still played everywhere, and it sounds lovely on the piano even with very few notes. The melody is in A minor and lilts in 6/8, two beats per bar each divided in three, with a dotted figure in almost every bar. This easy version keeps the whole tune - the verse and the refrain - in the right hand and gives the left hand one long bass note per bar following the chords. Two sharps appear on the way, G# and F#: they give the tune its old, slightly modal colour. Learn the verse first, then the refrain, which starts on a high G.

How to play it

How to play Greensleeves on the piano

Right hand

Most of the tune lies between the E above middle C and the G at the top of the treble staff. Keep the hand around A-to-E for the verse and reach up to G for the refrain.

Left hand

One bass note per bar, held: A, G, E and C. In bars 7 and 15 the left hand plays A then E, half a bar each, under the cadence.

Tricky passages

The dotted figures (E. F E, A. G# A): the first note is three times as long as the second. Keep the lilt by feeling two beats per bar, not six, and watch for the G# and F# in bars 3, 4, 7 and 15.

Fingering

The pickup and first bar, A C D E F E, fit 1-2-3-4-5-4 without moving the hand. In bar 2, D B G A B is 3-2-1-2-3 after a small shift down.

Notes

Greensleeves piano notes

The right-hand melody of this version, bar by bar, in letter names and in Do Ré Mi. Sharps are written #, flats b; a note held across a bar line is written once.

Melody: A C D E F E D B G A B C A A G# A B G# E A C D E F …

BarNotesDo Ré Mi
Pickup A La
1 C D E F E Do Ré Mi Fa Mi
2 D B G A B Ré Si Sol La Si
3 C A A G# A Do La La Sol# La
4 B G# E A Si Sol# Mi La
5 C D E F E Do Ré Mi Fa Mi
6 D B G A B Ré Si Sol La Si
7 C B A G# F# G# Do Si La Sol# Fa# Sol#
8 A La
9 G G F E Sol Sol Fa Mi
10 D B G A B Ré Si Sol La Si
11 C A A G# A Do La La Sol# La
12 B G# E Si Sol# Mi
13 G G F E Sol Sol Fa Mi
14 D B G A B Ré Si Sol La Si
15 C B A G# F# G# Do Si La Sol# Fa# Sol#
16 A La
Chords

Chords in Greensleeves

The chords this arrangement holds for at least two bars, read from the score with the root in the bass. Each one opens its page: the notes, every inversion and the fingering, playable on a piano.

The piece is in A minor: all the chords of the key

About the piece

About Greensleeves

A ballad called A Newe Northen Dittye of ye Ladye Greene Sleves was registered with the Stationers' Company in London in September 1580, and the tune was soon everywhere: Shakespeare mentions it twice in The Merry Wives of Windsor. Legend says Henry VIII wrote it for Anne Boleyn, but that is almost certainly untrue - the tune follows an Italian chord pattern that reached England only after his death.

The melody has been reused ever since. The Christmas carol What Child Is This?, written by William Chatterton Dix in 1865, is sung to it, and it is the heart of the Fantasia on Greensleeves (1934), drawn from Ralph Vaughan Williams's opera Sir John in Love.

This transcription: Traditional English tune, first recorded in 1580: the melody in A minor; left hand by GOONS Studio. Transcribed by GOONS Studio from the original work, which is in the public domain.

On guitar: Greensleeves guitar chords and lyrics, with a guitar that strums along.

Tudor manor hall with a grand piano draped in green velvet and holly, fireplace glowing
Greensleeves, as imagined by GOONS Studio (AI illustration)
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In the studio

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Questions

Greensleeves on piano: frequently asked

What are the notes of Greensleeves on piano?

In A minor: A, C D E F E, D B G A B, C A A G# A, B G# E A, then the same line ending C B A G# F# G# A. The refrain starts G G F E D B. All the bars are in the Notes section, in letters and in Do Ré Mi.

Did Henry VIII write Greensleeves?

Almost certainly not. The tune is first recorded in 1580, after his death, and it uses an Italian chord pattern that was not yet known in England in his lifetime. The story only appears centuries later.

Is Greensleeves a Christmas song?

The tune is a 16th-century love song, but the carol What Child Is This? (1865) is sung to it, so it is heard a lot at Christmas.