Shenandoah
Sea Shanty · 1800s · Traditional (American river shanty, early 1800s)
Sing Shenandoah with pitch feedback
“Shenandoah” is transcribed here with its tonic on C4 at 66 bpm in 4 beats to the bar. The 9 notes span C4 to A4 — 9 semitones — which rates Medium to sing, and a full 4-pass session runs about 0:44.
9 semitones as transcribed. The practice room transposes it to sit in your own range.
- One time through
- 0:11 at 66 bpm
- A full session
- 0:44 — 4 passes
- Leaps of a third or more
- 1
Shenandoah lyrics, as transcribed here
- Oh Shenandoah, I long to hear you
The songbook transcribes the opening phrase rather than the whole song, because 4 tight repetitions of a phrase you can hear yourself improve on beats one distracted run at the full thing.
Origin and copyright status
Traditional American river shanty, collected and printed through the 19th century.
- Attribution
- Traditional (American river shanty, early 1800s)
- Language
- English
Every melody in the songbook is public domain, which is why the whole thing can be sung in a browser without a licence. A specific recording or arrangement of the same tune can still be under copyright — this is our own transcription of the melody.
Genre, era and what it drills
Tags describe what the melody asks of a voice, not what it sounds like — “ballad” is the reason to pick it on a given day.