Arkansas Traveler
Also called Arkansas Traveller
- Type
- Reel (4/4)
- Key
- D
- Tuning
- GDAE (standard)
- Difficulty
- Genre
- Old-time, Bluegrass
This is a new transcription that hasn’t been checked against the printed source yet. If a note looks wrong, let me know.
Reading the tab
Each note shows its string and finger: A0 is the open A string, 2 is your second finger. The letter only appears when you change string. L means low (finger back, a half step down) and H means high. A plain 2 is the usual high 2 in keys like D and A.
| String | 0 | L1 | 1 | L2 | 2 | 3 | H3 | 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| E | E | F | F♯ | G | G♯ | A | A♯ | B |
| A | A | B♭ | B | C | C♯ | D | D♯ | E |
| D | D | E♭ | E | F | F♯ | G | G♯ | A |
| G | G | A♭ | A | B♭ | B | C | C♯ | D |
About the tune
A 19th-century American tune tied to a comic dialogue between a traveller and a backwoods fiddler, popular on stage from the mid-1800s. The low part sits on the G and D strings; the high part climbs to the 3rd finger on the E string.