PLAYING IN THE KEY OF SEA

Six Music Lessons Of The Sea Shanty

Ahoy there! In this feature, we’re exploring the centuries-old musical style that has enjoyed an unlikely resurgence in 2021: the sea shanty. Both Bristol folk group The Longest Johns and Scottish postie Nathan Evans recently experienced viral success on Tiktok with their performances of 19th-century whaling song Wellerman, sparking the ‘Shantytok’ craze and a number one single for Evans.

The sea shanty itself is a traditional but broad and controversially-defined folk genre. Pentatonic scales, call and responses structures and work-song principles of Caribbean and Afro-american styles can be heard alongside the melodies, seven-note scales and song structures of English, American and European folk songs.

A vocal-led style it may be, but we’ll show you the key musical characteristics and hopefully inspire you to write and play your own shanties on guitar. Read on and we’ll tell you what you need to know.

The Shantyman took the role of soloist, setting up the shanty, singing unaccompanied parts and signalling the ‘chorus’ where others would join in – an arrangement generally known as ‘call and response’. Though most shanties in their original forms are separated into ‘solo’ and ‘chorus’ sections, there’s not exactly a rulebook and song structures vary greatly. Here are three:

1

Flexible structure

Many shanties have indefinite lengths (as did sailors’ tasks), and might include indefinite repetition and improvised sections. Restrict your shanty to two, or maybe three short sections with simple chord structures.

2

Verse/chorus model

Some shanties include verses (‘refrains’) and ‘grand choruses’, rousing boisterous sections where everyone sings. Use longer held notes and pauses to regain energy for a restart.

3

Call and response

Usually, but not always, ‘calls’ come from soloists and ‘responses’ from the ensemble. Think of the musical phrases as ‘questions’ (call) and ‘answers’ (response) and you’ll get a feel for the melodic phrasing.