What Child Is This? - Greensleeves - Guitar Lesson

About Greensleeves

Few melodies sit as naturally under the fingers as Greensleeves, yet playing it well on guitar takes more care than it first appears. The tune moves in a lilting 3/4 feel, and at 90 BPM in A minor on standard tuning, the challenge is keeping that gentle waltz pulse steady while voice-leading the melody cleanly over the underlying chord changes. The classic fingerpicking approach asks your thumb to hold down a bass note while your fingers carry the melody, and coordinating those two layers is where most players stumble. Pay close attention to the descending chromatic bass line that gives the piece its characteristic sadness: the hand position shifts there can easily interrupt your rhythm. Use the Practice Toolbar to loop that section slowed down until the position changes feel automatic. What Child Is This? is itself built on this same melody, so learning Greensleeves opens the door to that carol arrangement too. Fans of Folk Rock will find this tune a rewarding entry point into fingerstyle playing.

• Played in A minor on standard tuning, the melody sits mostly in the first five frets, making it accessible for intermediate fingerstyle players.
• The key challenge is coordinating an independent thumb bass line with the melody on the upper strings, a core fingerpicking technique worth isolating in practice.
• The descending chromatic bass movement in the A section requires careful left-hand shifts, so loop it slowed down in the Practice Toolbar to build clean transitions.