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1 more song needs notes this instrument does not have. Changing the guitar brings some of them into reach.

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  1. 3,
  2. 5,
  3. 5,
  4. 5,
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  31. ·
  32. 3,
  33. 5,
  34. 5,
  35. 5,
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  51. 3,
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  56. 2,
  57. 1,
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  59. 7,,
  60. 1,
  61. 2,
  62. 3,
  63. 2,
  64. 1,

Jamaican traditional; as printed by Walter Jekyll in “Jamaican Song and Story”, 1907, No. 121. Public domain.

6 strings · E2–E5 · A steel-string acoustic, played with a pick — the guitar most people are handed first.

Tap a string, or tap a chord and drag across them to strum. On a keyboard the letters on the strings are the ones to press — Q to Y are the six strings, high E first; 1 to 7 hold the chords of the key, Space strums, and 0 lets go.

Linstead Market — Guitar Tab

Linstead Market, written out for the guitar as easy melody tab with the string and fret for every note and set up above on the Acoustic. Press Play to hear it, Practice to learn it one note at a time — the guitar waits for you — or Play along to keep time with it.

  • Notes58, 7 pitches
  • RangeF♯3–E4
  • Key hereG major
  • Tempo190 bpm · about 30 s
  • LevelIntermediate

Can a guitar play Linstead Market?

Yes — every one on this page plays it. The check is made note by note against what each one can actually sound. Where the tune does not fit as the library writes it, another key or octave is tried, and the table says which; where nothing fits, it names the notes that are missing.

  • Acoustic✓ Plays as writtenIn G major, F♯3–E4 · loaded above
  • Classical✓ Plays as writtenIn G major, F♯3–E4 · load it

Linstead Market: guitar tab

The large line is the fret — 0 is the open string; the small line under it is the string it is on. A dash holds the note another beat, an underline is half a beat, and a dot beside a note makes it half as long again. Each line is one phrase.

▶ Play it above

Linstead Market — guitar tab (Acoustic) · tonalics.com

Linstead Market guitar tab as text

The same notes as tablature: one line per string, the thin high E on top, and each number the fret to press on that line — 0 is the open string. Read it left to right, one note at a time.

e|---------------0--0--------------------------|
B|-0-3-3-3-0-1-3------3-3-1--0---0-1-3---0---1-|
G|-----------------------------2---------------|
D|---------------------------------------------|
A|---------------------------------------------|
E|---------------------------------------------|

e|----------------------------------------0--0-|
B|-0----------------0-------0-3-3-3-0-1-3------|
G|---2---0------0-2---2-0----------------------|
D|-----------4---------------------------------|
A|---------------------------------------------|
E|---------------------------------------------|

e|---------------------------------------------|
B|-3-3-1--0---0-1-3---0---1-0---0------------0-|
G|----------2-----------------2---2-0----0-2---|
D|------------------------------------4--------|
A|---------------------------------------------|
E|---------------------------------------------|

e|-------|
B|-------|
G|-2-0---|
D|-------|
A|-------|
E|-------|

Are there chords for it?

Not on this page. The chords here are chosen by rule — the three chords of the key — and they are only offered where that rule can be checked against a published harmonisation and agrees with it on most bars. This melody has no barred score in its sources to hang chords on. The tab above is the whole tune.

The 7 notes it uses

Lowest to highest, with how many times each is played. Learn these 7 and you can play the whole tune.

  • 4D×2
  • 0G×6
  • 2G×9
  • 0B×15
  • 1B×8
  • 3B×14
  • 0High E×4

What to expect on a guitar

  • It runs from F♯3 to E4, a minor seventh, using 7 different notes. That leaves 14 semitones unused below and 12 above.
  • 88% of its moves are a step or a repeated note. The widest is a major third, G3 to B3, at note 29.
  • The whole tune sits in first position: nothing above the 4th fret, one finger per fret.
  • It is played on 4 strings (D, G, B and High E), and 25 notes are an open string.
  • The picking hand changes string 21 times.

About the tune

A Jamaican folk song about a market woman who carries her ackee to Linstead on a Saturday night and sells none of it. The tab follows the earliest printed version, No. 121 in Walter Jekyll’s Jamaican Song and Story of 1907.

Jamaican traditional; as printed by Walter Jekyll in “Jamaican Song and Story”, 1907, No. 121. Public domain. More about Linstead Market →

Linstead Market on other instruments

The same melody, in each instrument’s own notation. It is not offered for the guzheng or handpan, which do not have the notes.

More songs for the guitar

All 36 guitar songs · Christmas songs for guitar · The online guitar on its own

Playing it on a real guitar?

If it sounds wrong, check the instrument before the notes. The guitar tuner listens through your microphone and names what each note is actually sounding.

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