Aura Lee - guitar tab, notes, chords and lyrics
“Aura Lee” is an American Civil War song from the 1860s. The melody may be more known as a song recorded by Elvis Presley with the title “Love Me Tender”. “Aura Lee” is written by W. W. Fosdick and the music by George R. Poulton.
The music transcriptions of the song with tabs and notes are available for download as PDFs. It's free for personal use only.
Melody & full accompaniment
Free tabs and notes plus sound.
Download
Aura Lee guitar tab and notes (pdf)
Listen
Aura Lee instrumental guitar (mp3)
Aura Lee (full accompaniment)
"Aura Lee" for guitar with full accompaniment. Free download in pdf-file and audio.
Aura Lee guitar accompaniment
Aura Lee for ukulele
"Aura Lee" for ukulele in the C tuning. Free download in pdf-file and audio.
Aura Lee ukulele
Aura Lee (only melody)
"Aura Lee" tablature notation for guitar.
Tips on how to learn this song
The presented arrangement of the melody is played in open position (open strings and the first four frets). As you can see, the highest and the two lowest strings aren't involved, which makes the song easier to memorize. Notice the 16-bar structure with the identical parts of bars 1-4 and 5-8. The last part of the song, bars 13-16, is also almost identical with the first two parts, which makes it a AABA structure.
Lyrics and chords
Aura Lee chords in the key of G
Verse 1:
(G)As the blackbird (A7)in the spring
(D7)'neath the willow (G)tree
(G)Sat and piped I (A7)heard him sing
(D7)sing of (G)Aura Lee.
Chorus:
(G)Aura Lee! (Em)Aura Lee! (C)Maid of golden (G)hair
(G)Sunshine came along (A7)with thee, and (D7)swallows in the (G)air.
Download this song in pdf with chord charts, included in 60 Traditional songs e-book.
The lyrics above presents a shortened version of the song. Notice the chord progression in the verse and second part of the chorus. It starts with the I chord and when the fifth intervals in the changes (A7 - D7), before returning to the home chord.
There are possibilities to change to key by using a capo. These are the keys that the song would transpose in depending on which fret the capo is put:
- Capo 1: G# / Ab major
- Capo 2: A major
- Capo 3: A# / Bb major
- Capo 4: B major
- Capo 5: C major
Aura Lee (A major)
"Aura Lee" in the A major key. Free download in pdf-file.
Aura Lee (A major)
Key, time, tuning and tempo
Information about "Aura Lee" considering musical key, time signature, tuning and bpm.
Key
Aura Lee is played in the key of G.
Time signature
The song is played in 4/4 tempo (counted one, two, three for each measure).
Tuning
The song is normally played in standard tuning (EADGBE).
Tempo (BPM)
The tempo in beats per minute is 100 for the presented version.