Learn the Classic Fiddle Tune “Fisher’s Hornpipe” and Build Your Flatpicking Skills

“Fisher’s Hornpipe” is a widely popular tune—often to the chagrin of flatpickers. No matter how you slice it, this melody is challenging on guitar. Yet it’s a catchy song; mandolin and fiddle players love it, and if you attend a jam or two, you are sure to encounter it. In this column, I’ll share the way it’s most commonly played on guitar, along with a few ideas on how to modify the arrangement to increase speed while retaining the tune’s energy and character.

The arrangement here is by no means unique. I originally learned it from Steve Carr’s wonderful (and now defunct) bluegrassguitar.com website. Similar versions have appeared in Russ Barenberg’s book Sixteen Fiddle Tunes for Guitar and in Flatpicking Guitar Magazine, where it was arranged by Mickey Abraham. All these versions are in open position in the key of D and rely on deft cross picking through arpeggiated lines, especially in the B section. This is a tough tune, but it is a great skill builder for right-hand picking and left-hand accuracy.

Play through the full tune (the first four systems) slowly, focusing on accurate pick directions in the right hand.

While I love the traditional way to play “Fisher’s Hornpipe,” it can be really difficult at a typical jam-speed tempo. Fiddle and mandolin players can play much of the melody over two strings, but because of the guitar’s unique tuning, we have to do it over three. This makes it much harder to play cleanly when things get fast. After years of struggling to keep up at faster speeds, I learned it’s sometimes more effective to modify an arrangement instead of simply trying to play faster. In many cases, dropping an upstroke or two per measure is enough to gain a substantial increase in tempo.

Example 1 presents an alternative way to play the first line of the A part, shifting the first half of each measure to quarter notes. This gives the right hand a break over the most complicated string-crossing section, yet it still retains the overall shape and drive of the melody line. The same concept can be applied to the remainder of the A section. Note that I don’t always just drop the notes that land on upstrokes—for example, I prefer to use the open D on beat 2 instead of the fretted F# that is used on beat 2 of the full version. This is a personal choice, and you can experiment with what works best for you.

Example 2 applies the same approach to the B section. Dropping the upstrokes here creates a bit of a drone effect as the chords change over the measures. I like this sound and think it adds some color that is hidden in the complexity of the full version. Notice how I choose not to drop any upstrokes in the last measure, keeping that part as a full scalar line. Again, this is a personal choice—one that I made to maintain the flow of that melody line.

Take some time to master the arrangement, then experiment with the concepts from Exs. 1 and 2. With some practice, hopefully, you’ll learn to love this tune as much as the fiddle and mandolin players do.