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The Skye Boat Song: bass part

The bass part of The Skye Boat Song in G, from G2 to E3. Hear it on its own or with the others, then sing it and watch each note light up.

Sings the bass line of Lawson's harmony, most often on a low G, the first and last note of every chorus line, and in the verses climbs B, D-sharp, E into the end of every line, reaching that top E also on "Loud the winds howl," and "Though the waves leap,".

Range
G2 to E3
Key
G
Guide voice
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How to learn the bass part

  1. 01 · Your part

    Hear your part on its own until the tune of it is in your ear.

  2. 02 · With the others

    Hear it with the others, so you know where it sits in the chord.

  3. 03 · Sing it

    Sing it with the others under you and watch each note light up as you land it. The mic listens only while it plays, and nothing is recorded.

About The Skye Boat Song

Words: Harold Boulton (Songs of the North, printed by 1888)

Tune: Hebridean boatmen's air, four bars added by Anne Campbell Macleod (Songs of the North)

The Skye Boat Song sets Harold Boulton's words to an air that, as Songs of the North tells it, is half collected and half composed: "Four bars taken down from Hebridean boatmen, four bars added by A. C. Macleod." The book's footnote places it among Prince Charlie's wanderings "in the winter of 1745-6", escaping "with Flora Macdonald and a few devoted Highland boatmen in a rising storm"; the crossing was in June 1746. The earliest dated printings with the tune that we have seen, in Laura Alexandrine Smith's The Music of the Waters (1888) and J. S. Blackie's Scottish Song (1889), sing "Thunder-clouds rend the air"; we sing "Thunderclaps", as our undated copy of Songs of the North and Boulton's Our National Songs of 1923 do. Our arrangement is read from Songs of the North, in G, on Malcolm Lawson's harmony from the book. This is the chorus and the first two verses, the chorus after each as the book directs, for 2 to 4 singers.

All about The Skye Boat Song More folk songs, part by part

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Stackapella recording the alto part of Amazing Grace: each note is a bar with its name, and the one being sung says A little low, go up. Stackapella recording the alto part of Amazing Grace: each note is a bar with its name, and the one being sung says A little low, go up. Stackapella recording the alto part of Amazing Grace: each note is a bar with its name, and the one being sung says A little low, go up. Stackapella recording the alto part of Amazing Grace: each note is a bar with its name, and the one being sung says A little low, go up.
  • A guide sings your partHear your line over the others, slow it down, then take your turn.
  • Your notes light upEach note shows where you landed, and a hint when to go up or down.
  • Record every part yourselfStack your takes in time until you're the whole choir.
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